Group 19
Stephen Cunningham
Jake Kinsella
Lisa O’Reilly
Tristan Kovero
Anne Lise Taine
Point Pleasant Bridge Collapse

Designed by Society of Civil Engineers

Constructed in 1928 by General Corporation and
American Bridge Company

Important transport link between Point Pleasant, West
Virginia and Kanauga, Ohio

Know as “The Silver Bridge” due to aluminium paint

Span: 682m

Width: 6.7m
Point Pleasant Bridge Collapse

Revolutionary “Eye-Bar” design similar to
links in a chain:
Point Pleasant Bridge Collapse




New high strength, heat treated carbon steel
increased load capacity
Cost effective design
Very redundant design, but stronger steel
“balanced out” these redundancies
Reliant on manufacturing standards
Point Pleasant Bridge Collapse

“Rocker” Towers

Not rigidly fixed to base

Adapt to live loads and temperature variations


Unique anchorage system-cheaper than
traditional anchorage to bed rock
Reinforced concrete trough filled with soil and
reinforced concrete
Point Pleasant Bridge Collapse

15th December 1967 at 5pm

39 years in service

46 killed, 9 injured

Major transport route
destroyed
Point Pleasant Bridge Collapse




Single eyebar on lower support failed
Failure due to corrosion and
increased loading
Load transferred to surrounding
links and caused massive failure
Weight of standard car tripled
during service life
Point Pleasant Bridge Collapse



Technology at the time could not detect
minute cracks
Loads could not have been predicted
Modern technology couldn’t detect cracks
without dismantling and inspecting bridge
Point Pleasant Bridge Collapse

National Bridge Inspection Standards-“NBIS”
founded

New protocols and inspection techniques

Many bridges deemed unsafe replaced
Point Pleasant Bridge Collapse
THANK YOU!
Point Pleasant Bridge Collapse