The safety of the nation's bridge system has been on the minds of most Americans ever since the collapse of I35W bridge in Minneapolis, which fell into the Mississippi River. The first thought on the minds of most
Americans when we heard of this tragedy revolved around whether or not it was an act of terrorism.
The Department of Homeland Security, along with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Engineer Research and Development Center are undertaking an extensive survey of the nations bridges, looking at them from the prospects of all different scenarios.
In one of them they are looking at, they want to know what would happen if a person were to set off a series of bombs in order to weaken the cables as well as the key structural connections of a bridge in any one of the country's cities. They are going to scientists and engineers to develop the security technology that we need. They would like the future to include not only guarding the bridges, but also fortifying them. For instance, what if the cables and connections on the bridges could be shielded with a protective sleeve or some other kind of cover that would make them impenetrable to any type of attack.
This is one thought that they are currently looking into in order to see the feasibility of putting it into action.
Step number one will be to determine exactly what bridges and what types of materials are the most vulnerable. One of the first things they are going to look at are the cables and the support columns, the big towers that the cables are attached to, in the cable stayed type of bridge. In this type of bridge, the cables are not attached from tower to tower, but are attached to directly at points along the bridge deck.
They have already been conducting controlled experiments in which they re created the forces that hold up these bridges and then blowing up samples of their cables using different types of explosives. They re created the cable tension just like it would be on the bridge. They want to get it as close as possible to a real terrorist attack.
The Department of Homeland Security, along with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Engineer Research and Development Center are undertaking an extensive survey of the nations bridges, looking at them from the prospects of all different scenarios.
In one of them they are looking at, they want to know what would happen if a person were to set off a series of bombs in order to weaken the cables as well as the key structural connections of a bridge in any one of the country's cities. They are going to scientists and engineers to develop the security technology that we need. They would like the future to include not only guarding the bridges, but also fortifying them. For instance, what if the cables and connections on the bridges could be shielded with a protective sleeve or some other kind of cover that would make them impenetrable to any type of attack.
This is one thought that they are currently looking into in order to see the feasibility of putting it into action.
Step number one will be to determine exactly what bridges and what types of materials are the most vulnerable. One of the first things they are going to look at are the cables and the support columns, the big towers that the cables are attached to, in the cable stayed type of bridge. In this type of bridge, the cables are not attached from tower to tower, but are attached to directly at points along the bridge deck.
They have already been conducting controlled experiments in which they re created the forces that hold up these bridges and then blowing up samples of their cables using different types of explosives. They re created the cable tension just like it would be on the bridge. They want to get it as close as possible to a real terrorist attack.
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