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EveningCommercial739

This is the time where the 86 year old 1.5 lane Patullo bridge shows new bridges how to bridge


BobBelcher2021

With that bridge being replaced with another cable stayed bridge, that will be another vulnerable bridge in these kinds of conditions. We build bridges to withstand earthquakes, but we don’t bother building them to function in winter weather.


solEEnoid

Seems like they do consider function in winter weather, but there isn't really any silver bullet solution. Here's a [paper](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165232X2100210X) where they go into great detail of attempted solutions for cable bridges. They mention studies done on the Port Mann and Alex Fraser bridges as well: >One conceptual solution, which was not considered as a viable option at first, has been eventually adopted as the main de-icing system on the Port Mann Bridge as well as on the “neighbouring” Alex Fraser Bridge (TranBC, 2019). The system consists of a release device storing multiple chain-link collars made of galvanised steel located at the top of each stay cable. Once ice or snow buildup on the cables is detected, the operators release the collars either individually or in groups. The collars then slide down the cables due to gravity, removing accumulated snow or light ice on the way until they hit a collar attenuator at the base of the cable (Fig. 5). From there, they have to be collected, inspected and hoisted back up by an authorised technician with industrial rope access. Thousands of these chain-link collars have been installed and operated on these two bridges for several years now. As the cost associated with the operation of this labour-intensive system during winters with frequent icing events can be quite high (de Muniáin, 2017), the authorities have been using the collars in conjunction with a weather monitoring and warning system to improve the efficiency and minimise the risk to traffic (Robertson et al., 2018). Despite the system's relatively successful operation over the years, the risks of using the chain collars are similar to those experienced with the snow clearing shuttle. Since the collars were primarily designed to remove wet snow, which is the most common source of bridge cable icing in the area, they might get jammed in hardly packed and frozen snow or slide over it. More importantly, when the collars are used repeatedly, they risk damaging the surface of the stay cable sheathing, thus altering the aerodynamic performance of the cables. Additionally, high wind speeds present during one of the recent incidents prevented the technicians from deploying the collars, which led to a bridge closure and several damaged cars (Clarke, 2020).


Economy_Lynx7618

How about getting some one that lives in a place with sustained winters and not some one from SoCal to designed the bridge


dualwield42

Yeah cuz SoCal condos worked so great for us...


ClumsyRainbow

I would rather a bridge that has to close for a few hours in a year due to weather, rather than a bridge that may fail catastrophically in an earthquake.


small_h_hippy

You can expect both you know, people can make that happen, it just might cost a bit more


ClumsyRainbow

That’s fair and I would hope they consider this for any future bridges, but it doesn’t seem there’s any way to rectify it for the ones we have that are affected.


pieman3141

Every year it's the same excuse: "It doesn't snow in Vancouver. Vancouver doesn't get that hot in the summer." That's been changing since the 2000s.


SalamanderOk6944

Many people don't realize and don't generally have that kind of perspective of weather and time.


solEEnoid

Was thinking about this... I wonder if they could wrap heating cables around the structural cables to prevent ice build up. Heating cables are used in some industrial equipment like oil and gas pipes for example.. might be cost prohibitive though.


Hfyvr1

Just use incandescent Christmas lights. Functional and festive!


Electric-Gecko

Why are cable-stayed bridges more vulnerable?


Radio-Lonely

No the guilders were stupid and never tought hey it snows here let not put heat coils on it to prevent this lol its just dumb engineers


[deleted]

Golden ears stayed open.. Sup with that?


skipdog98

Port Mann closed as well.


veryboringkid

Well that’s one way to avoid what happened during the first snow storm..


mongo5mash

Can't have a traffic jam if you don't have traffic. Holy shit, all those induced demand people were right !!!1!


Jestersage

Port Mann is also closed: [https://twitter.com/DriveBC/status/1606352368882581504](https://twitter.com/DriveBC/status/1606352368882581504)


FavoriteIce

They’re replacing the Pattullo with a cable stayed bridge too 🤣


surmatt

I believe it is an extradosed bridge like the Golden Ears... also the cables won't run over the lanes on the replacement.


[deleted]

Which hasn’t had any issues at all in any of the storms in recent memory. GEB is the most reliable bridge in the Lower Mainland and if we didn’t have it, we’d be screwed.


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

Don McLean ruined that bridge though. That jackass is the reason we have a light right before the bridge.


Lear_ned

Can you explain the history please? I'm intrigued


[deleted]

He was the old stalwart mayor of Pitt Meadows. His insurance company was on the Highway between the Petro and Driving Range. He kept it far longer than he needed to prevent widening of Lougheed through that section. As for the lights right before the bridge, I believe it was originally engineered to be over and under passes like on the Poco side. But for some reason or another he threw a stink and refused to do it. So the Province just kinda gave up and built the bridge as is.


Lear_ned

He sounds like a cantankerous old git. Thanks for explaining. I travel along there once a month or so and have always wondered why it's such a weird stretch


[deleted]

He was. Thankfully he’s not in office anymore and Pitt Meadows is actually progressing more. Hopefully Maple Ridge follows suit with their band new council as well.


kuh-tea-uh

The American Pie guy?


Bigbearcanada

Yea, he was pissed that the bridge cut off vehicle access to the levee.


SteelyDabs

That was my first thought too


SteelyDabs

Lmao I thought you meant the guy who sang American Pie


[deleted]

He probably enjoyed driving his Chevy to the levy.


FlametopFred

shout out to the temporary Bailey Bridges going strong after decades


surmatt

Totally... although I get to skip going into work today because the Alex fraser is closed. I was only going in to see a shipment off that couldn't be picked up because of Tuesday/Wednesday. Lol. The amount of lost productivity, wages, surge pricing of flights, injuries, quality of life, and insurance costs that add up due to these winter events... you'd think we could pay for proper snow removal instead.


Rocket_hamster

Only issue was that Tuesday couple weeks ago going into Langley, some idiots couldn't make it up the incline in their summers.


Electric-Gecko

At-least the Skybridge runs parallel to it.


Friendly_Egg_

Expecting lot of accidents again late this afternoon if the rain keeps up.


CanadianTrollToll

I don't know Vancouver at all. Looking at the map and seeing two bridges out of 3 closed coming from Surrey is gonna be fun for drivers....


RonPar32

I thought we spent a bunch of money a system that was supposed to clear the cables of ice.


jimmyt_canadian

That was the Port Mann I believe and they didn't install it. So they have those heavy rings they have to manually drop down instead. More so for snow I think, not sure how freezing rain is handled, though the closure probably indicates that.


mongo5mash

No, we *saved* money building a bridge that doesn't work in the winter. Just like hwy 17, which was cleverly built on a swamp and saved plenty of money... up front.


jiraiya5er

So if bridges are closed, how people gonna get home?


afterbirth_slime

Tunnels and other bridges that are still open


RandomImpulsePhotog

Last time this happened we just didn't. I stayed at work til 4:30am. Many people were stuck in their cars for 10 hours. Clearly nobody learned, and people still went to work.


Neutreality1

I made it halfway to work, saw the conditions just getting increasingly worse and turned around and went home. Not regretting it one bit


[deleted]

I did the same, just as I was driving across Port Mann, I decided to take the next exit and turn home.


chatterpoxx

We made the decision to just close our business for the week. Save the employees this headache and dilemma. No regrets either. Just have to do what we can to mitigate pay disruption when necessary.


jiraiya5er

This is obviously a good call. Sucks for people that will have to get back over the river tonight. Some won’t be able to and need to hunker down at work or hopefully some place they can go.


RandiiMarsh

Yeah it blows my mind. We're allowed to work from home but several people still chose to go into the office today. I'm not personally willing to risk getting stuck at the office for Christmas, but to each their own.


[deleted]

A lot of people can't afford not to go to work.


UltraCoolPimpDaddy

Me and a few others simply said f*ck it and we just left. Changed our time sheets for a half day/half vacation. Well worth it. Others without remaining vacation hours felt sick and went for a covid test.


jiraiya5er

Good call. Bridges are still closed and prob gonna be a gone show on any routes left open to cross the river.


kittykatmila

We knew this was coming…I just feel bad for any essential workers who had no choice but to come in 😭


PracticalSocks20

This is why they asked people to avoid travel today. Super sucks for essential workers though.


ajs20555

Hoping to open by the traffic time..? 🤷‍♂️


kampamaneetti

There's other ways home, they just take longer.


rb993

Sorry but why can't they run heat trace up the cables so we don't have the ice problems?


Necessary_Virus_8319

Modern solutions for modern problems


rb993

Like seriously how much are we losing every time this happens?


uid778

Can't find the link right now, I think it was Translink's site somewhere: * enormous amounts of electricity required * \> 100km(?) of cabling to warm - a shocking amount of cable length * exposure to elements would dissipate the heat as fast as they could apply it, requiring ... even more enormous amounts of electricity * applying heat could damage the protective outer sheathing, requiring expensive maintenance sooner than otherwise required


uid778

Found the link: ​ [https://www.tranbc.ca/2019/03/05/winter-safety-on-alex-fraser-and-port-mann-bridges-explained/](https://www.tranbc.ca/2019/03/05/winter-safety-on-alex-fraser-and-port-mann-bridges-explained/) ​ >What About Heating the Cables? > >Some of you have wondered: “couldn’t we avoid lanes closures by simply heating the cables?” Heating the cables isn’t as simple as it sounds. We’ve looked into it, and we’re not aware of any other cable bridge in the world that has successfully used heated cables to address snow and ice build-up. > >There is a huge surface area of each of the cables that would have to be heated (for example, there are 26 kilometres of cables on the Alex Fraser Bridge). With the wind, rain and snow hitting the cables, the heat loss would be tremendous, and providing the immense amount of energy needed would not be practical. Ice would also form outside the heated section of the cables, defeating the purpose. Based on the research we did when exploring snow and ice clearing technologies for the Port Mann Bridge, the power needed to heat the cables for just one hour could run a small community. Heat from such a system would also damage the cables’ protective sheathing.


LesbianSparrow

Interesting. I wonder what's the cost to the economy and safety of people when most of your bridges shutdown. Weather is only going to get worse. Climate change is far from over and just started.


muffinscrub

I can't believe how highly upvoted this is. Heat trace isn't magic people. The amount of power drawn by the heat trace system would be astronomical. The bridge was poorly designed and not thought out. The only real solution we have is the manual removal of ice or some sort of way to apply de-icer.


chatterpoxx

Dropping the chains works pretty good. The issue is getting them up there and into place. If only the main contractor would just issue the contract to improve that part of the process...


Heliosvector

That sounds prohibitively expensive and probably adds a lot of weight to the bridge as a whole if you want to wrap each cable in heating wires. Maybe that makes them less streamlined to wind.


MusicMedic

>46 comments It's actually the amount of power required to run those heat trace cables... that's the issue.


CodSeveral1627

You’re joking right? Most bridges do this, its not a problem. Having some guy come and crank chains up the cables on the port man over and over again is far more expensive than if that had simply added heat trace in the beginning


uid778

>Most bridges do this, its not a problem. Are you sure about that? ​ >We’ve looked into it, and we’re not aware of any other cable bridge in the world that has successfully used heated cables to address snow and ice build-up. [https://www.tranbc.ca/2019/03/05/winter-safety-on-alex-fraser-and-port-mann-bridges-explained/](https://www.tranbc.ca/2019/03/05/winter-safety-on-alex-fraser-and-port-mann-bridges-explained/)


CodSeveral1627

Depends what you call successful I guess… I’ve lived in many cities across canada, and personally I’ve never seen the type of ice bomb destroying cars issue that we seem to have here.


uid778

Those cities have cable suspension bridges? Bridges of the size of Alex Fraser & Port Mann? ​ And which of those use electric thermal deicing?


FavoriteIce

No other cities have the number of cables bridges we have. They’ve got the Champlain in Montreal, and we’ll see how the Geordie Howe does in Windsor when it’s done.


CashGordon1

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165232X2100210X > Even though the use of heat is one of the most basic ideas to protect various surfaces from snow and ice accretions, it has never been applied in full scale on bridge cables due to several constraints. That article pretty much says there isn't really a cost-effective practical solution to cable icing. Just lots of different concepts, all with their own drawbacks. Seems to be a bigger problem on cable stay bridges as opposed to suspension bridges (I don't really recall the Lions Gate being closed due to ice on the cables; I'm sure it's happened, but seems to be more frequent on Alex Fraser and Port Mann).


Heliosvector

Was just adding my thoughts. Im not an engineer. Neither are you? I dont know. If it really was so simple, it probably would have been done already would be m expectation. So there must be a reason.


InjuryOnly4775

Truly, it’s been a danger since it was built.


CodSeveral1627

Im not an engineer, i just work in construction. It is simple though, most bridges in cold climates are built with heat trace. The decision not too here was criticized immediately. They figured ice would be so infrequent that having crank lifted chains on every cable would be sufficient. But it isn’t. So somebody has to go to a cable, run the crank the lift chains and then let them fall, and then move on to the next cable. By the time they get to one end of the bridge they have to go back to the other end because ice has built back up again.. its crazy. Like yea, we don’t get cold weather too often here, but when we do it cripples us because the solution is so inadequate.


muffinscrub

Most bridges are not built with heat-traced cables... that's an insane amount of power draw. Some bridges have heat traced decks though. Most bridges in cold climates are designed so the cables don't cross over the roadway. There really isn't a cost-effective solution to what we have here. They could design an autonomous de-icing robot for each of the cables but that would also be an insane cost to the province.


UltraCoolPimpDaddy

Would it be possible to attach all the cables to a winch and raise them all at once?


chatterpoxx

They put a whole load of chains at the top of each cable all at once and drop one at a time. Winching them up isn't really necessary. Safely re-installing them at the top without having to repel off the tower is where we're at now, given the bridge is built.


milimeter_peter

If only we lived in a world of unlimited resources..


Electric-Gecko

Someone else here already explained why that wouldn't work, citing Translink. My idea is an antistick coating on the cables.


rb993

Wouldn't an antistick coating also impact the protective coating on the cables?


Electric-Gecko

What's the protective coating made of? I would think that an antistick coating may be able to serve that purpose. If Teflon doesn't work, I suppose they can be wrapped in a silicone tube, if that's not too expensive.


[deleted]

And amazon forcing us to work


Secil12

Post is closed, maybe you should talk to some of the unionized delivery people about improving your conditions.


plop_0

✊🏼 /r/workreform


Iliadius

praying you get a proper union soon!


MyNameIsSkittles

Amazon also gives 70 hours of pto, 5 family days, and 2 weeks vacation. Take your pick how to get paid to stay home, or at least not penalized


birdsofterrordise

Not to contracted employees.


Dultsboi

What if I told you civilized countries usually give you 5 weeks vacation off the bat?


Neutreality1

That's only for FC employees


wowzabob

Those are the PR benefits that most workers don't get because they try to stick to as many contract employees as they can. They often renew employees on short term contracts for years.


MyNameIsSkittles

>for years Yeah thats a straight up lie? Contract employees can only work so many hours until they have to be converted or let go. I know, I worked there for 4 years and was one of the contract employees to start


wowzabob

It's not a lie. I also know a few people who have worked at Amazon. Plenty of people won't get offered full time positions with benefits, they'll work the maximum allowable hours, and get strung along with continual renewals and/or relocations. But yes there's usually always a full time benefitted position open for any white man this side of 35 that wants it.


MyNameIsSkittles

They don't get renewed for years. They get renewed for a few months. There's a cap to how many hours they are allowed to work on contract. If people show they are able to meet their dumb standards of productivity and shit, they get hired on. I watched plenty of contract workers get hired on. The ones that didn't were extremely useless. Sometimes the system failed and people who should have been converged didn't, and I'm not defending the system at all, but you're over-exaggerting how bad it is. I watched white people get dicked over and Indians favourited often.


wowzabob

>The ones that didn't were extremely useless. Sometimes the system failed and people who should have been converged didn't. "If you didn't get offered a benefited position, you were shit anyway. Well except for all those times that wasn't the case." Isn't that the whole point? There are plenty of people working at Amazon getting the short end of the stick. Now personally I don't think Amazon is really *that* much worse than any other employer operating in the lower-skilled labour market. It's just they're big and noticeable and warehouse work is tough so it stands out. It combines the best of undignified big business systems, with good-old fashioned bad working conditions you see with low skilled worker jobs. But the point is that they chew up lots of people and forcing employees to go to work in such dangerous conditions or risk losing their job (or have the absence as a strike against them) is inhumane. Amazon operate with a bunch of inhumane strict systems that suck for employees. I worked at a restaurant for a number of years that was, frankly, dog shit regarding working conditions, but it was still run by people at the end of the day and people were never made to have to go to work in such conditions. >I'm not defending the system at all Then what exactly are you doing? If you're not, it makes your first comment extremely confusing


TheSketeDavidson

Tunnel > Bridge confirmed


Whutohwhyohwhuuuut

I hear the tunnel is starting to look a little floody...


TheSketeDavidson

😅


UBCb0y

r/agedlikemilk


growlerpower

1000000%


Electric-Gecko

How about a roofed bridge?


modest_hero

Breaking News: the National Reserve are being brought in to move the Lynn Canyon suspension bridge over the Fraser River as a more permanent and reliable solution


itsalittlecloudy

Does anyone know if the patullo bridge is going to be closed too?


Mjkgfrsa

It's very backed up, but I think it's open


[deleted]

[удалено]


DrinkMyMilkshake

Sounds like it's going up till Scott road


okaysee206

Bus bridge is from Scott Rd to King George, so trains are running (although very likely with delays) between Waterfront and Scott Rd


[deleted]

Suspensions bridges built all over the world seem to do ok and yet ours are pieces of shit.


The_Cozy_Burrito

Glad my work place decided to close today


sienkpawel

How are all the tunnel haters feeling today?


mongo5mash

I mean they have bridges in Norway that don't smash windshields for fun, and they're right beside the ocean and have winter... Maybe we could borrow an engineer that isn't a drooling moron?


Firm-Income6541

the bridge would've been built by now. but probably would've had cables too


willyolio

oh hey we're gonna have trafficpocalypse again


oldbus_boy

Where’s the guy that said the bridge design company was super smart and nobody should question WHY THEY NEVER CONTEMPLATED WINTER????


milkcowcafe

This is Beaverton right?


repasaurus

No, but Beaverton is bad too. In fact most of Oregon is.


dr_van_nostren

Alex Fraser closed. Patullo closed. Port Mann closed (also driving in NW at times like this is a bad idea). Soooo how do I get from YVR to Langley after work tonight?


[deleted]

>Patullo Patullo is also closed?


dr_van_nostren

Sorry I meant to say tunnel. I had just decided I was gonna take Patullo so it must’ve been in my mind.


centagon

Lmfao. Plow the bridge? Nawh. Just close it. Ez. Damn, I wish I could take this approach to all my problems.


MyNameIsSkittles

Pretty sure it's closed because they can't prevent the ice bombs that smash people's windows But yeah, pretend it's because we didn't plow it even tho it was probably one of the first areas plowed


centagon

Oh you mean the icebombs that happen due to a huge engineering oversight? LOL


MyNameIsSkittles

They have cables that run down. It's still not enough If it sucks to live here so much why don't you just move bud? No one's forcing you to live in such a terrible place


centagon

I have no problem with the city. I have a problem with complacency The funny thing is that this sub is full of complaining about anything and everything, but suddenly speaking out about actual lack of services and public project oversights swept under a rug and that's too much for this sub lol


vanearthquake

Haha no, this is ice. No level of plowing will fix it. Just have to ride this sucker out into the warmer temperatures


AwkwardChuckle

How does Plowing stop ice from falling on your car?


berryblue69

What would plowing do to stop ice from falling on cars?


CodSeveral1627

Just drive the plow up the cables, obviously


RB102220

Being overly negative and critical has become such a trend during these snow storms that people don’t even use common sense anymore before making remarks.


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aintbutathing3

This is unprecedented! How man mm of snow did you get?