Bridge collapse on M20

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Trevatanus

Original Poster:

11,109 posts

149 months

Saturday 27th August 2016
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valiant

10,064 posts

159 months

Saturday 27th August 2016
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According to BBC it got whacked by a lorry.


Jasandjules

69,825 posts

228 months

Saturday 27th August 2016
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I can't believe there aren't loads of injuries following that.

Mr_B

10,480 posts

242 months

Saturday 27th August 2016
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valiant said:
According to BBC it got whacked by a lorry.
Doesn't make a lot of sense unless it was an abnormal load. It should have a huge amount of clearance for a regular artic, especially as this is a box trailer and not a flat bed which I would have thought it more normal for abnormal loads.

MonkeyHanger

9,198 posts

241 months

Saturday 27th August 2016
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Looking at the footage on Sky News there are company signs and what looks like temporary fencing & netting on the bridge. Was it being worked on?

hairyben

8,516 posts

182 months

Saturday 27th August 2016
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That excavator on thee hard shoulder looks ominously placed. Hope the drivers got a big tub of margerine.

glazbagun

14,257 posts

196 months

Saturday 27th August 2016
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Impressed at how strong the remaining half is. Not that I'd want to walk on it but I'd have expected the whole lot to fail at once.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BJnGBzdDsDh/

Beeb has a picture of the lorry that hit it and is reporting a single injury. I wonder how tall the trailer was- the top of the cab appears to be damaged too, which I wouldn't expect.


Amused2death

2,491 posts

195 months

Saturday 27th August 2016
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All that jazz

7,632 posts

145 months

Saturday 27th August 2016
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Can't see it being a truck that's done it. The one pictured is foreign so won't be more than 4 metres tall. Motorway bridges in the UK all have at least 5 metres clearance.

The partly raised arm on the digger in this video looks rather suspicious to me, especially given the proximity to the bridge. Is that sat on the back of trailer as it looks rather high off the deck to me? scratchchin :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwmU6dF68mU

Edited by All that jazz on Saturday 27th August 13:24

italianjob1275

567 posts

145 months

Saturday 27th August 2016
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Yeah seems a bit odd. The news seems to suggest that the bridge was hit by the lorry, but looking at the damage looks like it's taken the top off the trailer.

It looks like a euro spec lorry (probably heading for the ports) which would be 4m high.

U.K. Motorway bridges are at least 16ft 6inches.

Unless he hit the pillar i can't see it having anything to do with the lorry tbh.

///ajd

8,964 posts

205 months

Saturday 27th August 2016
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I wonder if the lorry on the hard shoulder is involved. Maybe that weakened the side support somehow? Can't see good pics, but it must have been there at the time of the drop as the bridge is in the middle of that one too? The clearance on the hard shoulder might be smaller.

I'd agree the white truck doesn't look high enough - it looks like the bridge had already dropped a metre or so, and skimmed off the top of the truck, then fell completely - guillotining the truck. The bridge is concrete and way too heavy to be supported by a truck or its cab.

Are these bridges also joined at the middle with an overlapping L shaped join? Might explain why half is still there as its like a cantilever and each half self supporting - or at least one half is.


don'tbesilly

13,900 posts

162 months

Saturday 27th August 2016
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Looks like the bridge was having work carried out on it,netting and scaffolding can be seen in the Video and pictures.
Perhaps that had something to do with the collapse?

All that jazz

7,632 posts

145 months

Saturday 27th August 2016
quotequote all
I reckon it's the truck on the hard shoulder with the red digger on the back. The arch of the bridge is rather low over the h/s and if the arm wasn't folded away properly it will have struck the bridge. Is there roadworks going on there at the moment? Maybe he'd just collected it or was delivering it and the works access is along the h/s but I don't see any cones to support this theory.

dudleybloke

19,717 posts

185 months

Saturday 27th August 2016
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Could have been a lot worse.

Munter

31,319 posts

240 months

Saturday 27th August 2016
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All that jazz said:
I reckon it's the truck on the hard shoulder with the red digger on the back. The arch of the bridge is rather low over the h/s and if the arm wasn't folded away properly it will have struck the bridge. Is there roadworks going on there at the moment? Maybe he'd just collected it or was delivering it and the works access is along the h/s but I don't see any cones to support this theory.
The Daily Mail is reporting it was the digger on the trailer.

All that jazz

7,632 posts

145 months

Saturday 27th August 2016
quotequote all
Munter said:
The Daily Mail is reporting it was the digger on the trailer.
That's only a "duck" as they're known in the industry. Won't have been that. There's a ~ 20 tonne red digger at 20 seconds in the video in my post above which shows the arm partly raised - it's likely to have been that imho.

Trevatanus

Original Poster:

11,109 posts

149 months

Saturday 27th August 2016
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I found about this from a friends Facebook post.
I assumed as he lives locally that he had seen a news report.
Turns out, be went under the bridge 10 seconds before it happened.


don'tbesilly

13,900 posts

162 months

Saturday 27th August 2016
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Munter said:
All that jazz said:
I reckon it's the truck on the hard shoulder with the red digger on the back. The arch of the bridge is rather low over the h/s and if the arm wasn't folded away properly it will have struck the bridge. Is there roadworks going on there at the moment? Maybe he'd just collected it or was delivering it and the works access is along the h/s but I don't see any cones to support this theory.
The Daily Mail is reporting it was the digger on the trailer.
I don't think that's the digger in question, if that had hit the bridge there would be some evidence of a collision.

I think it's the one in this pic, you can see it in the background:



scenario8

6,554 posts

178 months

Saturday 27th August 2016
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All that jazz said:
Munter said:
The Daily Mail is reporting it was the digger on the trailer.
That's only a "duck" as they're known in the industry. Won't have been that. There's a ~ 20 tonne red digger at 20 seconds in the video in my post above which shows the arm partly raised - it's likely to have been that imho.
That duck is hard as nails to have smacked that bridge down and suffered no damage or movement. Don't mess with that duck.

The disruption must be causing all manner of pain in the area.

truck71

2,328 posts

171 months

Saturday 27th August 2016
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I'd hazard a guess that neither of those trucks have caused the bridge to collapse. The plant carrier has a digger on the back but the arm is still in situ and appears undamaged. The foreign reefer looks to have been struck by the falling bridge rather than having struck it in its original position - the trailer has been guillotined at the rear and as others have said it's overall height won't have troubled a motorway bridge.