M1 Bridge Collapse - Grayston Drive

14:39 ShareIcon
The highway has just been opened

14:22 ShareIcon
The mayor has now arrived at Grayston Drive.

13:46 ShareIcon
The hold-up is apparently because the mayor wants to open up the road officially. So its expected to be opened around 14:30. But the mayor's people haven't confirmed this to us yet.
 
Sinbad said:
14:39 ShareIcon
The highway has just been opened

14:22 ShareIcon
The mayor has now arrived at Grayston Drive.

13:46 ShareIcon
The hold-up is apparently because the mayor wants to open up the road officially. So its expected to be opened around 14:30. But the mayor's people haven't confirmed this to us yet.
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I think this is utter bs - why wait for the Mayor to open the road
 
zamedic said:
I think this is utter bs - why wait for the Mayor to open the road
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Because he's an arrogant piece of revolting **** who saw an opportunity for facetime on the back of this tragedy.

But it's ok, cos there's free wifi in braamfontein.
 
I'm actually surprised that the highway was reopened so quickly...
 
Andrew Perkin ‏@Perks_ZA 7m7 minutes ago Johannesburg, South Africa
@TrafficSA There is no truth in the rumour that the first road users were the JMPD, rushing to set up a camera at Marlboro...
 
Sinbad said:
Andrew Perkin ‏@Perks_ZA 7m7 minutes ago Johannesburg, South Africa
@TrafficSA There is no truth in the rumour that the first road users were the JMPD, rushing to set up a camera at Marlboro...
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LOL! So totally something they would do!
 
Necropolis said:
I'm actually surprised that the highway was reopened so quickly...
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Why?

Sympathy? A taxi accident kills more usually and the road is open much quicker.
Safety? It's not going to fall down again and whatever damage it did to the roadway isn't likely to be worse than the rest of the potholes.
Clearing up the mess? It's scaffolding it's designed to come apart easily.
Investigation? They wouldn't have started pulling it apart if they hadn't found the cause.
 
ScottulusMaximus said:
Why?

Sympathy? A taxi accident kills more usually and the road is open much quicker.
Safety? It's not going to fall down again.
Clearing up the mess? It's scaffolding it's designed to come apart easily.
Investigation? They wouldn't have started pulling it apart if they hadn't found the cause.
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Well I thought that there'd be all manner of investigations going on before they started pulling the crumpled heap of metal off the road.
 
The Voice said:
They worked through the night. Kudo's to everyone involved - I expected it to stay closed much longer to be honest.
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It took them a long while to remove the body from the Fortuner that was squished under the mess.
 
Fantastic work to get the road re-opened! Well Done
 
I would like to add a few general comments, based on alot of what has been said in terms of responsibility.

The OHSA, construction regulations 2014 state that the principle contractor is responsible for safety on site and is responsible for ensuring that all sub-contractors carry out their duties safely. So if it is shown that the scaffolding sub-contractor is at fault, M and R would have to demonstrate that it conducted its duties in supervision of the sub-contractor to the requirements of the Act.

Judging by the way in which the deck fell, it seems to show some torsional or side force was imparted on the structure. An impact from the truck is a possibility.

What is also possible is lack of inadequate cross bracing. This could be due to the design or construction. Difficult to say until the drawings are looked at. The speed at which this was removed may have removed evidence of how this was fabricated, but I presume the sections taken away have been stockpiled somewhere for further analysis.

If it is shown that this was due to an impact from the concrete truck, the first question will be, as a reasonable, experienced contractor, could you have forseen the possibility of a truck striking the tower. A look at the risk assessment would confirm this. If they had not forseen this, DOL will look at what other contractors have done in similar scenarios (on a bridge I built, we forsaw this possibility and placed New Jersey barriers around the scaffold at the required containment area for an imapct of a vehicle at 80km/h ... so I would say that defence wouldnt work so well )

Lastly if they identified this risk, but did nothing ... well thats borderline criminal negligence.
 
I would think the correct thing to do is to now stop all this nonsense and wait for the official reports to be released.

There are 4 separate investigations under way; the Dept of Labour (OHSA matters), The Main Contractor investigation, The Jo'burg Council investigation, and the ECSA investigation ( dealing with whether a Registered Professional Engineer was involved and if so, this investigation will then deal with competency issues etc).

There is absolutely no point in trying to continue creating issues for anyone to comment on.

I think for once, the senior authorities have shown commitment and their direct involvement should be welcomed. Instead we have people here prepared to criticise for the sake of criticising. If I was CEO, I would also want to inspect the road myself before allowing anyone on the road. It shows a level of commitment to the city and its residences not often seen in SA. So what if that meant a slight delay in getting the road open again. Better to be sure than sorry afterwards. Imagine if something else happens at the exact same point in a few hours! Imagine the outcry then .....
 
daniellgr said:
I would think the correct thing to do is to now stop all this nonsense and wait for the official reports to be released.

There are 4 separate investigations under way; the Dept of Labour (OHSA matters), The Main Contractor investigation, The Jo'burg Council investigation, and the ECSA investigation ( dealing with the whether a Registered Professional Engineer was involved and if so, this investigation will then deal with competency issues etc).
There is absolutely no point in trying to continue creating issues for anyone to comment on.

I think for once, the senior authorities have shown commitment and their direct involvement should be welcomed. Instead we have people here prepared to criticise for the sake of criticising. If I was CEO, I would also want to inspect the road myself before allowing anyone on the road. It shows a level of commitment to the city and its residences not often seen in SA. So what if that meant a slight delay in getting the road open again. Better to be sure than sorry afterwards. Imagine if something else happens at the exact same point in a few hours! Imagine the outcry then .....
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I have a lot more respect for the engineers on site that decide when to reopen the road than the opinion of an elected official who is not qualified to make that call on their own judgement anyway.
 
daniellgr said:
If I was CEO, I would also want to inspect the road myself before allowing anyone on the road. It shows a level of commitment to the city and its residences not often seen in SA. So what if that meant a slight delay in getting the road open again. Better to be sure than sorry afterwards. Imagine if something else happens at the exact same point in a few hours! Imagine the outcry then .....
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Parks Tau is not a CEO, he's a mayor, he has about as much knowledge of roadway surfaces and bridge construction as a gnat... The people who know what they're doing cleared the road to be opened at 13.30 but because another political ****tard left their car in the freeway they were unable to, once this was cleared they were going to open it at 14.00 until Lord Almighty decided he wanted a photo shoot.

That's an hour extra wasted because arrogant pricks got in the way, do you know how many people lost how many hours because of this? And they kept it closed because they think they're special... It's arrogant and disgraceful.
 
Electron1 said:
I have a lot more respect for the engineers on site that decide when to reopen the road than the opinion of an elected official who is not qualified to make that call on their own judgement anyway.
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I think you should go and read up on management, especially the section dealing with "responsibility" and "accountability". Yes the competent persons go ahead is required, but it is also the responsibility of the CEO's to ensure they are comfortable with implementing the recommended decision as they are ultimately accountable to the residents of the city.
 
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