• ORBITER-FORUM will be temporarily closed at 2026-07-23 18:00 UTC while we complete some OF maintenance tasks. The amount of downtime is expected to take up to one hour, but probably less.

Humor Random Comments Thread

80's hard rock on Spotify and LiveATC.net of a local airport make a surprisingly beautiful combination.
 
The next disaster for Wolfsburg...

A pedestrian arc bridge over the most important road into the city has become extremely unstable on Saturday (abutment sagged) and may collapse anytime without supports, according to an architect who inspected it.

The road to the Autobahn had to be blocked completely now in both directions, which means that the alternative routes to the south will be overcrowded by the additional traffic (They are already close to a full traffic jam on a usual day, you have to calculate for 30 minutes stop and go for the final 3 km to the Autobahn A39)

The detailed reason why the bridge is close to collapse: tendons inside the prestressed concrete have been torn and failed.

(Additionally, the bridge was already in a very poor state in 2009, with water entering the structure and corroding the tendons, and was superficially repaired for 330,000 € in that year)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prestressed_concrete

And now the incident made it into national news:

http://www.welt.de/regionales/niede...e-Bruecke-blockiert-Verkehr-in-Wolfsburg.html

---------- Post added at 07:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:04 PM ----------

Damn... just needed 45 minutes for the 2.5 km back home. Sadly, I was not able to simply let my car park in the garage at work, going home would have been much faster than driving (about 20 minutes).
 
Last edited:
Why close the road? Isn't there a 5 minute fix?
bJOIYgW.jpg
 
Huh, that does not look like an important bridge.
Blow it up, swipe the rubble and open the road!

Seriously, however, this eats on my preconceptions about high quality/pedantic german engineering. On the plus side, at least yours noticed the bridge is in a bad shape before it collapsed.
 
Artlav said:
Huh, that does not look like an important bridge.
Blow it up, swipe the rubble and open the road!

Seriously, however, this eats on my preconceptions about high quality/pedantic german engineering. On the plus side, at least yours noticed the bridge is in a bad shape before it collapsed.
Click to expand...

The road below it is important. The bridge only shortens the distance for pedestrians and bikers by a few kilometers. :lol:

And yes, we really have a streak of bad luck lately. But on the other hand... it took the world almost 10 years to discover the defeat device. :lol:

Also the bridge was possibly build sometime between 1954 and 1970, the fuel stations on both sides of the "Braunschweiger Straße" had been build in 1954, the quarters of Detmerode and Westhagen, which the bridge connects, are from 1960.

EDIT: In a collection of old photographs of Wolfsburg is a similar bridge over that road, the photograph was from the middle of the 1960s. On a photograph from 1957 though, the bridge did not yet exist (And in 1937, the city did not even exist)
 
Last edited:
Just take out the bridge, put a warning on both sides to pedestrians and bicyclists saying "Beware, bridge out, proceed at your own risk", and paint two white lines across the Autobahn and put up a pedestrian crossing and a traffic signal there.
 
The bridge was build in 1965 - and not only that: Older Wolfsburg citizens have remembered that the bridge already collapsed once during construction (27th August 1965). One even took a photo of the event:

http://www.waz-online.de/Wolfsburg/Stadt-Wolfsburg/Detmerode-Als-die-neue-Bruecke-einstuerzte

Bad omen.

---------- Post added at 04:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:27 AM ----------

As expected by the damage description, the city has decided to demolish the bridge, which will start in about one hour, after preparing the road below. It simply can't be repaired. Removing the bridge should take the whole night, it is expected that the road can be reopened again tomorrow morning for traffic into the city and will be open in both directions tomorrow afternoon.

No information yet about a replacement for the bridge, the next one is a few kilometers away in each direction.
 
Last edited:
See? I told they have to just blow it up! :)

If it's a pedestrian bridge, then why not dig a tunnel?
 
Artlav said:
See? I told they have to just blow it up! :)

If it's a pedestrian bridge, then why not dig a tunnel?
Click to expand...

Depends, how close is it to the border?

N.
 
Thunder Chicken said:
Just take out the bridge, put a warning on both sides to pedestrians and bicyclists saying "Beware, bridge out, proceed at your own risk", and paint two white lines across the Autobahn and put up a pedestrian crossing and a traffic signal there.
Click to expand...

Typical American approach to crumbling infrastructure...
 
RisingFury said:
Typical American approach to crumbling infrastructure...
Click to expand...

Nah...just the typical American approach to promoting alternative transportation and fitness. The cost-effective dismantling of crumbling infrastructure is a side-effect.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

dgatsoulis
Project VideoPlayerMFD -- Test thread [CLOSED]
Replies
7
Views
4K
misha.physics
misha.physics
HarvesteR
Gaming Kitten Space Agency - Now live on Ahwoo
Replies
3
Views
6K
Jeb
Jeb
Thunder Chicken
Project The Battle for a Flag
Replies
10
Views
5K
Thunder Chicken
Thunder Chicken
DecoFox
Problem My vessel DLL crashes on launch, but only sometimes
2
Replies
34
Views
9K
Blake
B
Adrian
MFD on second Monitor (No VNC MFD)
Replies
4
Views
6K
Adrian
Adrian
Back
Top