Daire McCormack
Natasha Brady
Peadar Barrett

Constructed in 1928 and spanned the Ohio River
between Point Pleasant, West Virginia and Kanauga,
Ohio.

Known as silver bridge due to aluminium paint.

The bridge spanned 608m and had a width of 8.2m.

Renovations in 1951 after it was purchased by the State
of West Virginia.

•
Rocker Towers
Allowed movement of the bridge due to live
loads, vibrations to temperature changes
•
Curved fitting next to a flat one at the bottom of
the piers
•
Dowel rods to keep the structure from shifting
horizontally

Reinforced concrete trough 60.96m long and
10.36m wide filled with soil and reinforced
concrete.

Supported on 406 0.4m octagonal reinforced
concrete piles in which the cable pull is resisted
by the weight of the anchorage and by sharing
the halves of the piles

The bridge's eye-bars were linked together in pairs
like a chain while a large pin passed through the eye
and linked each piece to the next.

Each chain link consisted of a pair of 2" x 12" bars and
was connected by an 11" pin.

December 15th 1967 @ 5pm, 39 years in service

46 people died, 9 injured

Major transportation route destroyed

Single Link
 Eyebar 330 @ joint C13N

Cleavage fracture
 Heat treated Carbon steel prone to cracking
 Reached Critical depth of 1/8th “
 Ductile overload
Stress Corrosion
-Tensile stress
-Corrosive Environment
-unexpected failure in normally ductile material
Corrosion Fatigue
-Cyclic Loading
-Corrosive Environment
-Fatigue damages protective film on steel

Two concepts unknown in 1928

Inspection impossible without disassembly

Engineers did not anticipate design loads x3
 Based on Model-T traffic
 1928 average car weighed 680kg
Stress Corrosion
+ Corrosion Fatigue
+Minute Crack
+Increased Loads
= Complete Structural Failure

Similar bridges were closed
 1 Destroyed
 1 still standing

NBIS
 Regular inspections

Inspection Procedures

Design bridge material standards

Expand knowledge of bridge behaviour
Thank you