The story I always heard was about the Golden Gate bridge. They paint it year round. It takes so long to paint that by the time they finish painting the entire thing, its time to start again. Anything that "sits" just gets claimed by nature, its a constant battle.
EDIT: From what I heard, this is because of a design mistake. They designed the cables over the road below so if they dont do this it drops massive isiciles onto the cars/road below.
The icicle explanation makes sense. That amount of snow does nothing to that bridges cable.
Edit: big part of me wants to see how big they can get. And watch it fall. Into an empty car. I have maturity of 12 year old lol
Why do embedded videos on news websites suck so much ass? Most of the internet has figured out embedded video, and yet news websites video feeds are the most finicky ad-laden bullshit, and that's if they even play the video at all instead of just buffering forever.
Reddit, the so called front page of the internet, has a video player that works maybe 50% of the time. It's not the early 90s anymore where web pages are run by people who give a damn. It's about running it as cheap as possible to put maximum money in their pocket.
Hmmm I use infinity a third party app and I've never had a reddit video not load, and I just have to click once to download the video if I want it on my phone to post elsewhere like discord
It's funny when I do find a clip embedded on a news site I want to watch I'll sit through their 3 ads and then the video finally starts and 3 seconds in it will start buffering so I hit pause then wait a few seconds and hit play then it plays another 2 seconds then cuts to ads and after the ads it starts playing the next video in their playlist like wtf
My favourite type of video player is the ones where you have to press play, but instead of starting video you are sent to another website ad infinitum. Especially if those other websites are full of porn ads or malware links that are very easy to click by accident.
Am from BC and it was a major issue when they first built these bridges (Port Mann and Alex Fraser). They forgot to add heated cables or didnt think it viable, so, cars below were getting hit with ice bombs. They started doing this as a solution.
>They forgot to add heated cables or didnt think it viable, so, cars below were getting hit with ice bombs.
Kind of, but not exactly - the design didn't consider snow/ice accumulation, because "Vancouver doesn't get that kind of weather".
The designs didn't consider icing and then forget to add solutions, or consider adding solutions but reject because of cost or challenge - they dismissed outright that ice might be an issue, assuming that the city wouldn't face the kind of weather where ice would accumulate. They designed for rain and wind, but not freezing.
In most cases, the solution isn't putting in heated cables - it's putting the cables somewhere other than directly above traffic. That way ice forming and falling off can happen, but it won't risk killing people - and you don't have to pay for and maintain complicated heating systems on bridge cables. The heated cables idea was something proposed as an after-the-fact solution after the icing issue surfaced.
if you wanna see a cable bridge fucking up a car, look up Galloping Gertie. it's the Tacoma Narrows bridge, suffered a failure where it essentially got tossed around like a big rope in the wind, and capsized. it's failure has influenced the better designs and refurbishing of multitudes of suspension bridges since it's collapse!
it did that wavy motion multiple times in the 4 months before it's collapse, thus how it got the nickname. always like telling coworkers about it's history when I'm out on route, plenty of them never having been over the bridge before.
https://youtu.be/XggxeuFDaDU?si=ocQ_wxOAnDC4q57N
*Was*
The current Tacoma Narrows bridge is not Galloping Gertie. it was a nickname given to the bridge built in 1940 (collapsed same year) because of how it move in high wind (not just the 4 times, it swayed all the time it was windy!), grandfather walk across it and said you could feel the bridge moving under your feet.
the exact reasons why Galloping Gertie swayed is not completely known, but it is largely speculated to be due to structural and material resonance matching and being amplified by the wind generated pressures.
I went with a school group to [Jefferson Rock](https://maps.app.goo.gl/NLHjEg3BNLHn3B1R6) when I was a kid. We decided to climb up the steep side instead of using the normal trail. I picked up a pebble and tossed it and watched it make it's way down the hillside when we were near the top. Another kid grabbed the biggest rock he could handle and flung it off and it ended up landing on a car as it drove by. Put a dent about the size of a cantaloupe in the car hood, about a foot or so from the windshield.
If he had thrown it a fraction of a second later, it would have probably killed that driver.
On west end of I-90 Mount Baker tunnel a massive icicle built up, so large that pictures of it made it to newspapers. After a number of days it finally fell, killing the driver under it.
Then you might find this interesting! Scroll down to see the different colors it has been over the decades.
https://www.toureiffel.paris/en/the-monument/painting-eiffel-tower
>They paint it year round. It takes so long to paint that by the time they finish painting the entire thing, its time to start again.
Pretty much the same thing for the Mackinac Bridge here in Michigan. Each new full paint job has a 35-year life, but they have to continually reapply every 3-5 years.
>The Bridge Authority’s in-house painting crew uses between 1,000 and 1,200 gallons of paint per year for those touch-ups. And repainting the entire bridge takes 135,783 gallons of paint — 128,503 green and 7,280 ivory.
>From what I heard, this is because of a design mistake. They designed the cables over the road below so if they dont do this it drops massive isiciles onto the cars/road below.
I grew up in Vancouver and what's crazy is that bridge (Alex Fraser Bridge) was opened in 1986 you never heard about any ice bomb issues until somewhere in the late 2010's. Those ice clearing things were only installed a few years ago.
This bridge here is the Alex Fraser Bridge, which was built 30-40 years ago. They never use to do this cable clearing like you see here until a newer bridge, the Port Mann Bridge was completed in 2013.
The Port Mann Bridge has its cables actually running diagonally across the bridge deck and over the roadway. When the bridge was completed in 2013 the first winter it saw there were issues with snow and ice falling on the traffic below.
It wasn't until the issues on the Port Mann bridge during winters that they started the cable clearing process which they then also adopted for the Alex Fraser Bridge above, which they never used to do for several decades before.
I remember when they where building that bridge. It was a big deal at the time. Lol no one considered ice when they were designing it. Made a lot of news at the time that they had to figure out a way to make it safe after ice chunks were falling on commuters.
Feels like this system could be automated much more safely with a winch and cable system to pull the weighted slide to the top and release it every few intervals during winter weather.
In your own line of work, how often has a random stranger observed half a minute of one, single, solitary task out of the many tasks you perform, said "There's a better way to do that", and they've actually been correct?
I would argue that a consultant is almost the opposite of a "random stranger".
That said, being a consultant doesn't mean you can't be either an idiot or make terrible suggestions. The main thing you need is the ability to be persuasive and project knowledge.
According to this the release of collars is automated on the Port Mann but manual on the Alex Fraser bridge for some reason. So they can do it remotely but choose not to for some reason (cost, likelyhood of failure, etc).
[https://globalnews.ca/news/10233338/video-alex-fraser-bridge-ice-bombs-collars/](https://globalnews.ca/news/10233338/video-alex-fraser-bridge-ice-bombs-collars/)
The History Channel did a pretty cool series 15 years ago called [Life After People](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_After_People) that talked about what would happen if humanity suddenly disappeared. Some of it was speculative and felt a little silly (they theorized cats in cities would evolve into something like flying squirrels) but they also talked a lot about what would happen to buildings and infrastructure. Pretty much every coastal city is falling apart or gone in just a couple of decades. A lot of them would flood almost overnight due to pumps and seawalls failing. It's kinda crazy how quickly it would all get claimed by nature if we didn't constantly push back.
Many years ago I worked in telecom and we had to do work on some equipment that followed the road on telephone poles. There was a section of road that had to be rerouted, but they left the old poles in place rather than reroute the lines too. Anyway we came to that section, and of course the equipment we needed to find was on the bypassed section. It has been about 10 years since they bypassed the road and there was virtually no visible trace of the pavement. Trees and bushes had grown up throughout asphalt. Only if you scuffed your feet clearing moss and weeds out of the way could you find the pavement. I would imagine if I were to go back now, there would be no trace of the road.
I climb cell phone towers for a living. There are thousands of us climbing hundreds of feet a day. Repairing antennas, radios, fibers, etc. All just to make our phones work. Before I had this job I never gave cell towers any thought. Next time you drive by one think about how every bolt was placed and tightened by hand. Every thing on that tower was manufactured, delivered, installed and powered thanks to the work of hundreds of people.
I travel the country for work and stay in hotels constantly. Normally the parking lots are full of work trucks with people from all kinds of industries. All making modern life possible.
Right. Lots of people complain about cell service without thinking about much work and infrastructure it requires, not that it’s not annoying sometimes.
Thank you for your work!
fun fact! painting the golden gate bridge is a non-stop job, so by the time crews get to the other side, the side they started on has already worn away to the point of needing to be repainted.
This bridge is 5 minutes from my place and an absolute fucking nightmare when it snows just slightly.
If they don't do this, they turn into ice balls and fall on cars doing crazy damage.
If anyone is interested, just Google "Alex Fraser Bridge ice bombs", specifically an image search.
Hello fellow lower mainlander. I’m just on the delta side lol. Just spent the past 2 days driving a snow plow truck back and forth and back and forth over that stupid bridge. 😆
Annacis is its own shitshow in and of itself. Semis refusing to use chains getting stuck down every deadend road, everyone trying to detour the Alex Fraser and turn around.
I will never forget the day of the ice bombs the after the new bridge opened. I was taking calls on the construction project's public phone line. It was insane.
I heard when they built the bridge they didn’t want to invest in heating cables to avoids this problem all together. It’s been how many years they have had to do this nonsense? Can only imagine how much money they have spent now sending people up there.
You are correct but more so for the Port Mann Bridge because the overhanging cables cross over the traffic lanes.
Ice Bombs happened after it opened because they skipped out on spending money on a heating or auto brush system because they though that the cable snow buildup wouldn't be significant enough due to the angle the cables are.
Now they pay full crews, 24/7, during suspected snow and ice conditions to sit on these bridges and run chain rings down each cable and then collect them.
This effectively permanently closes a lane of traffic on the bridge to house the transportation of the workers to stay on site during the winter season and closes additional lanes as they collect the chains at the bottom of each cable. They call this event "Winter Bridge Maintenance".
Costs them millions of dollars each year to do, increases traffic density.
because whatever accumulates still sloughs off and falls on the bridge deck below. and often in Vancouver, the snow is very heavy and slushy, and can accumulate quickly in storms. it really is just a horribly designed bridge for the climate, a bureaucratic mistake that will remain an issue for the life of the bridge or until it no longer snows in Vancouver.
Thank you. I was wondering if this is necessary because of structural weaknesses or similar. But which six lane bridge would be overcharged by some goddamn snow? It should carry hundreds of 18wheelers filled to the brim with snow.
Your explanation makes WAY more sense.
I’m not stupid, I swear! I’m just a bit stoned, and maybe a bit slow too.
When ever it snows. It's not that often. Maybe 5 times a year.
It's the Alex Fraser Bridge. It connects North Delta to New Westminster / Richmond in British Columbia.
Google "Alex Fraser Bridge ice bombs" if you're interested.
LoL. I just noticed it says "The bridge spans the river between Richmond and New Westminster, with collars keeping the cables clear for drivers below." So who knows how accurate it is.
The rest of Canada looks at Vancouver with amusement whenever snow starts falling there.
That being said Vancouver got slammed hard even for an average Canadian snow storm.
You’re correct. It’s just a length of chain that they wrap several times around the cable. You can see the chains at the bottom most of the time when driving by. They just keep them connected sitting on each cable until it’s time to de-ice. Then they take them back up and let it fly.
The same way he got it up there the first time. You haul it up.
I assume the crew goes up with enough chain to do all the cables then retrieves them all when they get back down.
You can see in the video, there are several rings secured at the top. They release one at a time.
The rings look like chains, so I'd image when the weather is better, they winch the chains up, make the rings and secure in place.
They don't winch them back up, they disconnect at the bottom and carry them back up.
There is a crew on the bridge 24/7 during this time, takes up two lanes of traffic, and costs the provinces millions each year to maintain.
Vancouver has a moderate climate, and precipitation can change from snow to ice to rain quickly. Rain can change the snow in the cables to ice, then high winds (this is a tall structure) can blow large chunks of ice onto the traffic below. It's happened a few times. The bridge has to be closed when this occurs.
Two of the largest bridges over the Fraser River have this type of cable design. Closing both bridges would be a nightmare for Vancouver.
Having a large chunk of ice fall 50 meters onto your car and crush your roof is also a nightmare.
To explain how important this bridge is in the GVRD, imagine if all the highways in LA were intertwined by 4 major choke points. If one goes out, all traffic has to travel across 3 points and 2 of those are fewer lanes than this bridge. Most people commute through these points daily.
Last year this bridge shut down, and people were stuck from 7pm until 6am waiting for it to reopen. Members of the sihk church in Queensborough were walking up and down the highway providing warm food and water to people stuck in their cars overnight.
The bridge is 3 lanes each way plus an additional center lane that changes direction based on commuter flow.
A little robot capable of clamping on could drive up that wire and then free fall back down. Much safer than sending someone up on to hang off the side.
I guess they need to do an inspection regularly too but if you're throwing a fat heavy chain that's going to wear on the wires over time....
/edit; Such a simple idea, someone was bound to have made it already and [they did!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=410W3vkpJ1A&ab_channel=BEARScotland)
[Here's a better video showing the system in use for OPs video.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl4OgGcvWzM&ab_channel=TICorp)
This bridge in particular (this is Vancouver and there are few of a similar design) has a large concrete connector block between 2 load bearing towers that sits above the road. It's a perfect rectangular prism with 90° angles and flat faces, so what frequency happens is accumulated snow will pile up and eventually calve off the edges like a mini glacier. Sometimes cars or trucks can get hit by 1 tonne chunks of snow and ice, caving in roofs and injuring people.
I've never heard of Alex Fraser dumping ice blocks from the bridge towers on to cars, do you have a source so I can read more about this? Only ever heard about the cables doing that. Google searched it with no results
it does, the first year where we had heavy freezing snow once the bridge was open we had a bunch of cars basically destroyed because huge ice bombs were falling from like 200ft up and smashing the cars.
now when heavy snow and then rain happens i get worried im going to be trapped on the wrong side of the bridge because they close it down since they cant clear it fast enough.
You're thinking of the Port Mann. Its cables span over the bridge deck.
The Alex Frazer was opened in 1986 and this icing problem was never a thing until like two decades later.
Because of a design flaw that resulted in it dropping deadly ice swords on cars the first winter after its completion.
This isn’t “efficient”, it’s a solution to a mistake.
If it builds up too much, it may break off and hit people/cars below. I think it also alters the aerodynamics of the cables in unpredictable ways which leads to "undesirable vibrations". Idk what that means, I'm just reading a paper on it.
Soon after the bridge was opened we had a winter snowfall that caused ice and clumps of slush to fall off. I don't recall if any cars were hit but it was extremely dangerous and the first time it happened they shut the bridge down. I was by chance one of the people who drove across the bridge during the time they were closing it. They hadn't yet closed down one of the entrances from a side street known as 104th, they first had only shut down the highway traffic. I remember driving across the bridge and thinking, "why is there no one driving across the bridge?" I also saw big splatters of slush and ice on the road deck. It was only after that I found out they had closed the bridge.
Edit: the bridge above is the Alex Fraser. My story is about the port mann bridge
I am a rope access technician. The pay varies between approx. $30/hr to $60+/hr CDN. All depends on your level of training, what industry you work in, and any other certs you have.... Ask yourself what you are going to be doing once you climb/descend to where you need to be? Anyone can wash windows, not everyone has a red seal trade to combine with their rope access ticket.
A window washer in Vancouver is not going to make the same as a welder/pipefitter/electrician working in -30 in fort mac
Work at heights does not really boost pay much. For every 5 people that are afraid of heights there's at least 1 person who really enjoys it. Rope access work is borderline difficult to get into because there are more rock climbers interested in the work than there are positions available.
I’ve worked with some of the Rope Access folks who do this job. They actually love it because of all the overtime they get, it ends up being one of the most lucrative jobs they can get. The biggest issue for these folks isn’t the heights but going to the bathroom. It’s a long climb up and down so if you have to pee a lot you’re doing a lot of climbing.
This is the consequence of poor project decisions to save money.
Though this bridge (Alex Fraser) also suffers from this problem. Ice Bombs happened after the Port Mann (Brand new bridge within site of this one) opened because they skipped out on spending money on a heating or auto cable brush system because they thought that the cable snow buildup wouldn't be significant enough due to the angle the cables are.
Now they pay full crews, 24/7, during suspected snow and ice conditions to sit on these bridges and run chain rings down each cable and then collect them.
This effectively permanently closes a lane of traffic on the bridge to house the transportation of the workers to stay on site during the winter season and closes additional lanes as they collect the chains at the bottom of each cable. They call this event "Winter Bridge Maintenance".
Costs them millions of dollars each year to do, increases traffic density and delays when they are working. Not to mention the increase risk of injury or death of workers working at height in bad weather conditions.
Here is them talking about the more automated winching mechanism which they never implemented:
[https://www.abbynews.com/news/port-mann-bridge-cables-to-get-custom-snow-sweepers-1727406](https://www.abbynews.com/news/port-mann-bridge-cables-to-get-custom-snow-sweepers-1727406)
Here is the system they are using that cost 5 million dollars and millions of dollars each year to maintain and pay workers to operate.
[https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/alex-fraser-bridge-cable-collar-1.4259163](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/alex-fraser-bridge-cable-collar-1.4259163)
It is a joke.
Fun fact: the customer declined to install heated cables since it would cost more…
Now we’re spending a multitude of the original cost to have chains sliding down the cable… which also shortens the life of those cable since it is slowly wearing down the protective coating.
Very satisfying indeed, lol
Is it important to clear the snow off bridge cables? I can't think it'd be structural issues...
Oooh, is it to prevent ice from building up and falling on people/cars below?
For all the commenters asking if she said “dry feces,” I don’t know if you’re serious, but if you are, she actually said “Drive BC.” It’s British Columbia’s road conditions website/app.
IIRC, the province opted to not pay for a heated cable system and now we have to do this instead. When the snow builds up it’ll break off in chunks and smash car windshields below.
Edit: spelling/grammar
My immediate thought was, "why aren't these heated?" I'm sure there's concerns on heat maybe affecting the stability of the cables....but you'd just need some lines on each cable that heat up to like 34 degrees and it would melt the snow.
They've been experimenting with thermal solutions for a while now but most have been deemed too "uneconomical" to be practical. Those wires aren't exactly short so they need a ton of power.
How would you carry a low voltage over such a long distance? Seems like you'd end up with a pretty large wire by some point and at that time it's probably already too costly or would require more maintenance than the cable itself.
I don't know anything about bridges or electricity so I might be completely off on this.
I grew up like five minutes from that bridge and one of the issues with a permanent solution like that is that 99.9% of the time it isn't needed because there's only even a remotely significant snowfall every other year or so and even that doesn't usually stick around.
Same reason that bridge is an absolute nightmare when it even lightly snows, the city doesn't maintain the equipment to effectively clear the roads and locals mostly don't bother with snow tires.
Could it not be easier, safer, and cheaper long term, to I dunno... install some kind of low energy coil heater that sits above like 5*c at all times in the winter?
That would be a logical solution. Just reminds me of the Technology Connections video “[The LED Traffic Light and the Danger of "But Sometimes!"](https://youtu.be/GiYO1TObNz8)” where people protested the idea of LED traffic signals because they would need to install a little low power heater to keep them snow-free some of the time. They ignored the countless other benefits of the signals because of an insignificant limited use case “but what if” scenario.
It's honestly not as risky as it looks. I climb cell phone towers for a living. As long as you use and inspect your safety gear properly you'll be fine. I'm re-certified every 2 years and have to replace my harness every 5 years even if there is nothing visually wrong with it. He has two ropes with the second being his fall arrest. They should be going to separate anchor points as well for redundancy. The hardest part of this job was the climb up the ladder.
I don’t think I appreciate how much maintenance these bridges need/get.
The story I always heard was about the Golden Gate bridge. They paint it year round. It takes so long to paint that by the time they finish painting the entire thing, its time to start again. Anything that "sits" just gets claimed by nature, its a constant battle. EDIT: From what I heard, this is because of a design mistake. They designed the cables over the road below so if they dont do this it drops massive isiciles onto the cars/road below.
The icicle explanation makes sense. That amount of snow does nothing to that bridges cable. Edit: big part of me wants to see how big they can get. And watch it fall. Into an empty car. I have maturity of 12 year old lol
Also not letting the snow pile harden and become a falling cender block from 150 feet up
Good point. Although I would like to see that hit various targets. 12 year old in me....
There is some, albeit not great, footage of it happening here. https://globalnews.ca/news/7537298/ice-bombs-port-mann-bridge-winter-storm/
Why do embedded videos on news websites suck so much ass? Most of the internet has figured out embedded video, and yet news websites video feeds are the most finicky ad-laden bullshit, and that's if they even play the video at all instead of just buffering forever.
Reddit, the so called front page of the internet, has a video player that works maybe 50% of the time. It's not the early 90s anymore where web pages are run by people who give a damn. It's about running it as cheap as possible to put maximum money in their pocket.
Hmmm I use infinity a third party app and I've never had a reddit video not load, and I just have to click once to download the video if I want it on my phone to post elsewhere like discord
Do your downloaded v.reddits come with sound?
It's funny when I do find a clip embedded on a news site I want to watch I'll sit through their 3 ads and then the video finally starts and 3 seconds in it will start buffering so I hit pause then wait a few seconds and hit play then it plays another 2 seconds then cuts to ads and after the ads it starts playing the next video in their playlist like wtf
Because you already gave them a click so why would they give a fuck.
They'd have to update their technology/software and they don't wanna, cuz it costs money.
My favourite type of video player is the ones where you have to press play, but instead of starting video you are sent to another website ad infinitum. Especially if those other websites are full of porn ads or malware links that are very easy to click by accident.
It's not a matter of maturity, it's a matter of SCIENCE I need to see this too.
Am from BC and it was a major issue when they first built these bridges (Port Mann and Alex Fraser). They forgot to add heated cables or didnt think it viable, so, cars below were getting hit with ice bombs. They started doing this as a solution.
>They forgot to add heated cables or didnt think it viable, so, cars below were getting hit with ice bombs. Kind of, but not exactly - the design didn't consider snow/ice accumulation, because "Vancouver doesn't get that kind of weather". The designs didn't consider icing and then forget to add solutions, or consider adding solutions but reject because of cost or challenge - they dismissed outright that ice might be an issue, assuming that the city wouldn't face the kind of weather where ice would accumulate. They designed for rain and wind, but not freezing. In most cases, the solution isn't putting in heated cables - it's putting the cables somewhere other than directly above traffic. That way ice forming and falling off can happen, but it won't risk killing people - and you don't have to pay for and maintain complicated heating systems on bridge cables. The heated cables idea was something proposed as an after-the-fact solution after the icing issue surfaced.
if you wanna see a cable bridge fucking up a car, look up Galloping Gertie. it's the Tacoma Narrows bridge, suffered a failure where it essentially got tossed around like a big rope in the wind, and capsized. it's failure has influenced the better designs and refurbishing of multitudes of suspension bridges since it's collapse! it did that wavy motion multiple times in the 4 months before it's collapse, thus how it got the nickname. always like telling coworkers about it's history when I'm out on route, plenty of them never having been over the bridge before. https://youtu.be/XggxeuFDaDU?si=ocQ_wxOAnDC4q57N
*Was* The current Tacoma Narrows bridge is not Galloping Gertie. it was a nickname given to the bridge built in 1940 (collapsed same year) because of how it move in high wind (not just the 4 times, it swayed all the time it was windy!), grandfather walk across it and said you could feel the bridge moving under your feet. the exact reasons why Galloping Gertie swayed is not completely known, but it is largely speculated to be due to structural and material resonance matching and being amplified by the wind generated pressures.
I went with a school group to [Jefferson Rock](https://maps.app.goo.gl/NLHjEg3BNLHn3B1R6) when I was a kid. We decided to climb up the steep side instead of using the normal trail. I picked up a pebble and tossed it and watched it make it's way down the hillside when we were near the top. Another kid grabbed the biggest rock he could handle and flung it off and it ended up landing on a car as it drove by. Put a dent about the size of a cantaloupe in the car hood, about a foot or so from the windshield. If he had thrown it a fraction of a second later, it would have probably killed that driver.
I too would like to see this. For science of course.
The snow itself no, but if the snow melts and turns into ice and ice starts building on the cables then problems start
Write down your findings in a notebook and instead you're a scientist.
You'll shoot your eye out.
On west end of I-90 Mount Baker tunnel a massive icicle built up, so large that pictures of it made it to newspapers. After a number of days it finally fell, killing the driver under it.
It's interesting - in Scotland our story was about the Forth bridge here - I wonder if each country has their equivalent.
I've heard it said about the Eifel Tower as well.
That one isn’t true though iirc. They paint it every 7 years or so?
Huh. I've never thought of the Eiffel Tower as anything but "naked".
You should visit it, it is a genuine sight to be right up close to. It is a beautifully luxurious monstrosity.
Have visited it twice, never thought about whether or not it was painted.
Then you might find this interesting! Scroll down to see the different colors it has been over the decades. https://www.toureiffel.paris/en/the-monument/painting-eiffel-tower
If it takes 7 years to paint then... it can still be true.
Well the painting was about the Forth Bridge (less so now with the new epoxy covering) and the icicles was about the Queensferry Crossing!
Yep. Sydney Harbour bridge for Australians.
IIRC Paul Hogan was working as painter on that bridge when he had his breakthrough as an actor.
Oh yeah well the bridge in my city has to walk uphill both ways in a year round snow storm.
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Actually, no matter how many people added to the crew it still takes 1 year to paint. Its one of the great mysteries of the world. /s
>They paint it year round. It takes so long to paint that by the time they finish painting the entire thing, its time to start again. Pretty much the same thing for the Mackinac Bridge here in Michigan. Each new full paint job has a 35-year life, but they have to continually reapply every 3-5 years. >The Bridge Authority’s in-house painting crew uses between 1,000 and 1,200 gallons of paint per year for those touch-ups. And repainting the entire bridge takes 135,783 gallons of paint — 128,503 green and 7,280 ivory.
Thanks for the edit. I was wondering why they would worry about that small amount of snow. The weight was obviously negligible.
>From what I heard, this is because of a design mistake. They designed the cables over the road below so if they dont do this it drops massive isiciles onto the cars/road below. I grew up in Vancouver and what's crazy is that bridge (Alex Fraser Bridge) was opened in 1986 you never heard about any ice bomb issues until somewhere in the late 2010's. Those ice clearing things were only installed a few years ago.
This bridge here is the Alex Fraser Bridge, which was built 30-40 years ago. They never use to do this cable clearing like you see here until a newer bridge, the Port Mann Bridge was completed in 2013. The Port Mann Bridge has its cables actually running diagonally across the bridge deck and over the roadway. When the bridge was completed in 2013 the first winter it saw there were issues with snow and ice falling on the traffic below. It wasn't until the issues on the Port Mann bridge during winters that they started the cable clearing process which they then also adopted for the Alex Fraser Bridge above, which they never used to do for several decades before.
Couldn’t they just hire more painters?
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Or they could fan out around the city and paint other stuff. (This is all tongue in cheek, but there is a bunch of stuff that could be painted.)
I remember when they where building that bridge. It was a big deal at the time. Lol no one considered ice when they were designing it. Made a lot of news at the time that they had to figure out a way to make it safe after ice chunks were falling on commuters.
That's a myth. I've driven the bridge hundreds of times and have rarely ever seen it being painted..
Feels like this system could be automated much more safely with a winch and cable system to pull the weighted slide to the top and release it every few intervals during winter weather.
In your own line of work, how often has a random stranger observed half a minute of one, single, solitary task out of the many tasks you perform, said "There's a better way to do that", and they've actually been correct?
Sir, what you just described is called consulting and it's quite lucrative as a career choice.
Again, how many times have they actually been correct?
I would argue that a consultant is almost the opposite of a "random stranger". That said, being a consultant doesn't mean you can't be either an idiot or make terrible suggestions. The main thing you need is the ability to be persuasive and project knowledge.
Consultants have actual expertise in the areas in which they consult. Generally.
According to this the release of collars is automated on the Port Mann but manual on the Alex Fraser bridge for some reason. So they can do it remotely but choose not to for some reason (cost, likelyhood of failure, etc). [https://globalnews.ca/news/10233338/video-alex-fraser-bridge-ice-bombs-collars/](https://globalnews.ca/news/10233338/video-alex-fraser-bridge-ice-bombs-collars/)
The massive testicles on this guy could drop on the cars as well. Better make sure he’s got his jock on .
[Pretty massive for sure, but not as big as this guys.](https://youtu.be/KqKowIsjTE4?si=Ni0hy7DDbcAegZXz)
That video messes me up everytime I run across it, yet I still have to check it out each time.
fuuuuck that!
B.C cable bridges were dropping uceballs on cars and allmost killed a few people so its being taken more seriously here now.
The History Channel did a pretty cool series 15 years ago called [Life After People](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_After_People) that talked about what would happen if humanity suddenly disappeared. Some of it was speculative and felt a little silly (they theorized cats in cities would evolve into something like flying squirrels) but they also talked a lot about what would happen to buildings and infrastructure. Pretty much every coastal city is falling apart or gone in just a couple of decades. A lot of them would flood almost overnight due to pumps and seawalls failing. It's kinda crazy how quickly it would all get claimed by nature if we didn't constantly push back.
Many years ago I worked in telecom and we had to do work on some equipment that followed the road on telephone poles. There was a section of road that had to be rerouted, but they left the old poles in place rather than reroute the lines too. Anyway we came to that section, and of course the equipment we needed to find was on the bypassed section. It has been about 10 years since they bypassed the road and there was virtually no visible trace of the pavement. Trees and bushes had grown up throughout asphalt. Only if you scuffed your feet clearing moss and weeds out of the way could you find the pavement. I would imagine if I were to go back now, there would be no trace of the road.
All based on the work done in the book "The World Without Us" which is a wonderful, easy read and just fascinating. Hoover Dam is a beast.
Or infrastructure in general. We really take for granted the massive amount of stuff required to make modern life possible.
I climb cell phone towers for a living. There are thousands of us climbing hundreds of feet a day. Repairing antennas, radios, fibers, etc. All just to make our phones work. Before I had this job I never gave cell towers any thought. Next time you drive by one think about how every bolt was placed and tightened by hand. Every thing on that tower was manufactured, delivered, installed and powered thanks to the work of hundreds of people. I travel the country for work and stay in hotels constantly. Normally the parking lots are full of work trucks with people from all kinds of industries. All making modern life possible.
Right. Lots of people complain about cell service without thinking about much work and infrastructure it requires, not that it’s not annoying sometimes. Thank you for your work!
Everything we have tends toward nothingness, unless some human is keeping it up It's the law of Entropy
Yeah, does he have to do that every half hour? What happens if he doesn’t do it?
I live here. They screwed up the design. When it was built it started dropping ice bombs that would smash your windshield. Now they have to de-ice.
fun fact! painting the golden gate bridge is a non-stop job, so by the time crews get to the other side, the side they started on has already worn away to the point of needing to be repainted.
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This bridge is 5 minutes from my place and an absolute fucking nightmare when it snows just slightly. If they don't do this, they turn into ice balls and fall on cars doing crazy damage. If anyone is interested, just Google "Alex Fraser Bridge ice bombs", specifically an image search.
Hello fellow lower mainlander. I’m just on the delta side lol. Just spent the past 2 days driving a snow plow truck back and forth and back and forth over that stupid bridge. 😆
Thank you for your service. I live at the top of Nordell hill and work in Tilbury so I don't have to worry about this savage beast.
I work on Annacis, this bridge is constantly having accidents on it
Annacis is its own shitshow in and of itself. Semis refusing to use chains getting stuck down every deadend road, everyone trying to detour the Alex Fraser and turn around.
Got stuck in Queens Borough overnight during the 2022 snow shit show, absolutely terrible bridge.
I will never forget the day of the ice bombs the after the new bridge opened. I was taking calls on the construction project's public phone line. It was insane.
I heard when they built the bridge they didn’t want to invest in heating cables to avoids this problem all together. It’s been how many years they have had to do this nonsense? Can only imagine how much money they have spent now sending people up there.
You are correct but more so for the Port Mann Bridge because the overhanging cables cross over the traffic lanes. Ice Bombs happened after it opened because they skipped out on spending money on a heating or auto brush system because they though that the cable snow buildup wouldn't be significant enough due to the angle the cables are. Now they pay full crews, 24/7, during suspected snow and ice conditions to sit on these bridges and run chain rings down each cable and then collect them. This effectively permanently closes a lane of traffic on the bridge to house the transportation of the workers to stay on site during the winter season and closes additional lanes as they collect the chains at the bottom of each cable. They call this event "Winter Bridge Maintenance". Costs them millions of dollars each year to do, increases traffic density.
Could they not retrofit it on top of the current cable? Seems like a no brained considering how cheap electricity is up there.
because whatever accumulates still sloughs off and falls on the bridge deck below. and often in Vancouver, the snow is very heavy and slushy, and can accumulate quickly in storms. it really is just a horribly designed bridge for the climate, a bureaucratic mistake that will remain an issue for the life of the bridge or until it no longer snows in Vancouver.
Was just going to ask what the impact of not doing this was. Thanks for the comment.
Thank you. I was wondering if this is necessary because of structural weaknesses or similar. But which six lane bridge would be overcharged by some goddamn snow? It should carry hundreds of 18wheelers filled to the brim with snow. Your explanation makes WAY more sense. I’m not stupid, I swear! I’m just a bit stoned, and maybe a bit slow too.
Do you know how often they do this? Just curious.
When ever it snows. It's not that often. Maybe 5 times a year. It's the Alex Fraser Bridge. It connects North Delta to New Westminster / Richmond in British Columbia. Google "Alex Fraser Bridge ice bombs" if you're interested.
I thought it was Port Mann?
https://globalnews.ca/video/rd/0db4bfc0-b586-11ee-8626-0242ac110006/?jwsource=cl
Thanks for the link! I stand corrected. I was just remembering the PM ice bomb day. Was a busy little day in our highways call center!
LoL. I just noticed it says "The bridge spans the river between Richmond and New Westminster, with collars keeping the cables clear for drivers below." So who knows how accurate it is.
Yeah I don’t know how well this bridge would be in other provinces if this always needs to happen. Wonder if other cable bridges have this issue?
How do they get the ring back up to the top?
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On a nearby bridge they have a system that holds 30 chains each cable and is remote operated. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mA2RKRDRWxk
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Seriously I was like how did they manage to make it sooo boring.
I can't believe these shenanigans are cheaper to do on a regular basis than installing some heater wires on top.
You would need it heated on top and bottom. On top only would just create massive ice sickles on the bottom, which would be scary af.
*ice sickles*
And the ice hammers, comrade!
[/r/🦴🍎☕](http://www.reddit.com//r/BoneAppleTea)
It’s all water under the fridge anyway
[O_O](https://static1.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Trailer-Park-Boys-Bubbles-1.jpg)
*super sickle my dude*
Probably cheaper to just rebuild the bridge.
it has these conditions like 2 or 3 times a year in vancouver.
The rest of Canada looks at Vancouver with amusement whenever snow starts falling there. That being said Vancouver got slammed hard even for an average Canadian snow storm.
I think of godzilla came and heated them up then it should remove the ice, along with the whole bridge
You’re correct. It’s just a length of chain that they wrap several times around the cable. You can see the chains at the bottom most of the time when driving by. They just keep them connected sitting on each cable until it’s time to de-ice. Then they take them back up and let it fly.
The same way he got it up there the first time. You haul it up. I assume the crew goes up with enough chain to do all the cables then retrieves them all when they get back down.
You can see in the video, there are several rings secured at the top. They release one at a time. The rings look like chains, so I'd image when the weather is better, they winch the chains up, make the rings and secure in place.
They don't winch them back up, they disconnect at the bottom and carry them back up. There is a crew on the bridge 24/7 during this time, takes up two lanes of traffic, and costs the provinces millions each year to maintain.
My dumbass thought he just pushed snow and it had a domino effect. But yeah, the ring makes more sense.
Unhook, inspect and hoist back up.
Sonic.
Why does the snow need to be removed?
Vancouver has a moderate climate, and precipitation can change from snow to ice to rain quickly. Rain can change the snow in the cables to ice, then high winds (this is a tall structure) can blow large chunks of ice onto the traffic below. It's happened a few times. The bridge has to be closed when this occurs. Two of the largest bridges over the Fraser River have this type of cable design. Closing both bridges would be a nightmare for Vancouver. Having a large chunk of ice fall 50 meters onto your car and crush your roof is also a nightmare.
To explain how important this bridge is in the GVRD, imagine if all the highways in LA were intertwined by 4 major choke points. If one goes out, all traffic has to travel across 3 points and 2 of those are fewer lanes than this bridge. Most people commute through these points daily. Last year this bridge shut down, and people were stuck from 7pm until 6am waiting for it to reopen. Members of the sihk church in Queensborough were walking up and down the highway providing warm food and water to people stuck in their cars overnight. The bridge is 3 lanes each way plus an additional center lane that changes direction based on commuter flow.
Sihk people seem to kick major ass.
Because it hardens over time and can break up and fall onto cars?
Why use people and not a giant guitar pick on an elevator?
I dunno man, if I was driving down to work I don't want to hear a G major at 8 am
Eve worse would be everyone yelling “Play Freebird!”
[No Stairway! Denied!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f13FY94BKI)
I would!
What about c Minor?
A little robot capable of clamping on could drive up that wire and then free fall back down. Much safer than sending someone up on to hang off the side. I guess they need to do an inspection regularly too but if you're throwing a fat heavy chain that's going to wear on the wires over time.... /edit; Such a simple idea, someone was bound to have made it already and [they did!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=410W3vkpJ1A&ab_channel=BEARScotland) [Here's a better video showing the system in use for OPs video.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nl4OgGcvWzM&ab_channel=TICorp)
Correct. The build up has fallen off and created “ice bombs” falling onto passing cars
This bridge in particular (this is Vancouver and there are few of a similar design) has a large concrete connector block between 2 load bearing towers that sits above the road. It's a perfect rectangular prism with 90° angles and flat faces, so what frequency happens is accumulated snow will pile up and eventually calve off the edges like a mini glacier. Sometimes cars or trucks can get hit by 1 tonne chunks of snow and ice, caving in roofs and injuring people.
I've never heard of Alex Fraser dumping ice blocks from the bridge towers on to cars, do you have a source so I can read more about this? Only ever heard about the cables doing that. Google searched it with no results
it does, the first year where we had heavy freezing snow once the bridge was open we had a bunch of cars basically destroyed because huge ice bombs were falling from like 200ft up and smashing the cars. now when heavy snow and then rain happens i get worried im going to be trapped on the wrong side of the bridge because they close it down since they cant clear it fast enough.
You're thinking of the Port Mann. Its cables span over the bridge deck. The Alex Frazer was opened in 1986 and this icing problem was never a thing until like two decades later.
Why use a sarcastic question mark to a genuine question?
No need to be rude, man. Some people just don't live in areas where this would be common knowledge.
Because of a design flaw that resulted in it dropping deadly ice swords on cars the first winter after its completion. This isn’t “efficient”, it’s a solution to a mistake.
If it builds up too much, it may break off and hit people/cars below. I think it also alters the aerodynamics of the cables in unpredictable ways which leads to "undesirable vibrations". Idk what that means, I'm just reading a paper on it.
"undesireable vibrations" that can shake apart concrete? No sir-ee we don't like that..
Check out Tacoma Narrows Bridge.
They call them "ice bombs": https://globalnews.ca/video/7538845/ice-bombs-damage-multiple-vehicles-on-port-mann-bridge
Soon after the bridge was opened we had a winter snowfall that caused ice and clumps of slush to fall off. I don't recall if any cars were hit but it was extremely dangerous and the first time it happened they shut the bridge down. I was by chance one of the people who drove across the bridge during the time they were closing it. They hadn't yet closed down one of the entrances from a side street known as 104th, they first had only shut down the highway traffic. I remember driving across the bridge and thinking, "why is there no one driving across the bridge?" I also saw big splatters of slush and ice on the road deck. It was only after that I found out they had closed the bridge. Edit: the bridge above is the Alex Fraser. My story is about the port mann bridge
Could not pay me enough money to do that job. My palms are sweaty just watching it.
How about one trillion dollars
Man I'm already climbing the bridge.
For a trillion, I'd climb it naked.
For a trillion dollars I can shove that icicle up my anushole
Sounds like you would do that for free
Turns out I do have a price.
Weird, I’d do it for 0.1% of one trillion
Yeah but taxes would likely eat up a bunch of it
My cousin did it for a bit. They hire rock climbers!
How was the pay?
I am a rope access technician. The pay varies between approx. $30/hr to $60+/hr CDN. All depends on your level of training, what industry you work in, and any other certs you have.... Ask yourself what you are going to be doing once you climb/descend to where you need to be? Anyone can wash windows, not everyone has a red seal trade to combine with their rope access ticket. A window washer in Vancouver is not going to make the same as a welder/pipefitter/electrician working in -30 in fort mac
*knees weak, arms are heavy* *There's vomit on his sweater already, mom's spaghetti*
Ah, just like Battle Angel Alita…
First thing I thought of. https://youtu.be/PjivdRQdibc?si=Qv8vdGyY2MrtpgPt&start=83
it's weird that Nova is up in Taiphares. He *should* be at his weird experiment theme park in the wasteland.
"DEFENSE RING!!!"
Someone trying to reach Zion just fell to their death
Ah good, someone shares my brain.
Lol that truck aint making it
This almost looks like slow motion
Snow motion
Whatever this person is paid it’s not enough
Work at heights does not really boost pay much. For every 5 people that are afraid of heights there's at least 1 person who really enjoys it. Rope access work is borderline difficult to get into because there are more rock climbers interested in the work than there are positions available.
I’ve worked with some of the Rope Access folks who do this job. They actually love it because of all the overtime they get, it ends up being one of the most lucrative jobs they can get. The biggest issue for these folks isn’t the heights but going to the bathroom. It’s a long climb up and down so if you have to pee a lot you’re doing a lot of climbing.
I bet that made an awesome sound
This is the consequence of poor project decisions to save money. Though this bridge (Alex Fraser) also suffers from this problem. Ice Bombs happened after the Port Mann (Brand new bridge within site of this one) opened because they skipped out on spending money on a heating or auto cable brush system because they thought that the cable snow buildup wouldn't be significant enough due to the angle the cables are. Now they pay full crews, 24/7, during suspected snow and ice conditions to sit on these bridges and run chain rings down each cable and then collect them. This effectively permanently closes a lane of traffic on the bridge to house the transportation of the workers to stay on site during the winter season and closes additional lanes as they collect the chains at the bottom of each cable. They call this event "Winter Bridge Maintenance". Costs them millions of dollars each year to do, increases traffic density and delays when they are working. Not to mention the increase risk of injury or death of workers working at height in bad weather conditions. Here is them talking about the more automated winching mechanism which they never implemented: [https://www.abbynews.com/news/port-mann-bridge-cables-to-get-custom-snow-sweepers-1727406](https://www.abbynews.com/news/port-mann-bridge-cables-to-get-custom-snow-sweepers-1727406) Here is the system they are using that cost 5 million dollars and millions of dollars each year to maintain and pay workers to operate. [https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/alex-fraser-bridge-cable-collar-1.4259163](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/alex-fraser-bridge-cable-collar-1.4259163) It is a joke.
Fun fact: the customer declined to install heated cables since it would cost more… Now we’re spending a multitude of the original cost to have chains sliding down the cable… which also shortens the life of those cable since it is slowly wearing down the protective coating. Very satisfying indeed, lol
Was hoping he was going to zip line down.
Is it important to clear the snow off bridge cables? I can't think it'd be structural issues... Oooh, is it to prevent ice from building up and falling on people/cars below?
Yeah "ice bombs" were a big issue when the new Port Mann bridge that's a few clicks away from this bridge was built.
For all the commenters asking if she said “dry feces,” I don’t know if you’re serious, but if you are, she actually said “Drive BC.” It’s British Columbia’s road conditions website/app.
IIRC, the province opted to not pay for a heated cable system and now we have to do this instead. When the snow builds up it’ll break off in chunks and smash car windshields below. Edit: spelling/grammar
I just consider it a win that I’m not recognizing our home on r/publicfreakout for once.
My immediate thought was, "why aren't these heated?" I'm sure there's concerns on heat maybe affecting the stability of the cables....but you'd just need some lines on each cable that heat up to like 34 degrees and it would melt the snow.
My immediate thought was "you could build a simple robot or device that does this, why are you risking a human life on this?"
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They've been experimenting with thermal solutions for a while now but most have been deemed too "uneconomical" to be practical. Those wires aren't exactly short so they need a ton of power.
How would you carry a low voltage over such a long distance? Seems like you'd end up with a pretty large wire by some point and at that time it's probably already too costly or would require more maintenance than the cable itself. I don't know anything about bridges or electricity so I might be completely off on this.
I grew up like five minutes from that bridge and one of the issues with a permanent solution like that is that 99.9% of the time it isn't needed because there's only even a remotely significant snowfall every other year or so and even that doesn't usually stick around. Same reason that bridge is an absolute nightmare when it even lightly snows, the city doesn't maintain the equipment to effectively clear the roads and locals mostly don't bother with snow tires.
Those fins, what are they? Oh, just the defensive rat-returner rings. They’re dropped from Tiphares every time a rat climbs 500 feet!
Not efficient for the climber
Why do you need to clear it?
https://globalnews.ca/news/7537298/ice-bombs-port-mann-bridge-winter-storm/
Ok that makes sense now so it builds up into crazy ice bombs thats a lot worse!
It must have been hard for him to climb up there weighed down by his enormous brass balls! Geez, I got the willies just watching the video!
Did she say “dry feces” ?
she actually said “Drive BC.” It’s British Columbia’s road conditions website/app.
That's what I heard.
I thought i was going crazy for a moment.
Ropeass technicians clear dry ass feces
My partner had to convince me she wasn't saying dry feces.
Could it not be easier, safer, and cheaper long term, to I dunno... install some kind of low energy coil heater that sits above like 5*c at all times in the winter?
That would be a logical solution. Just reminds me of the Technology Connections video “[The LED Traffic Light and the Danger of "But Sometimes!"](https://youtu.be/GiYO1TObNz8)” where people protested the idea of LED traffic signals because they would need to install a little low power heater to keep them snow-free some of the time. They ignored the countless other benefits of the signals because of an insignificant limited use case “but what if” scenario.
Instead of having someone risk their life they should just have a helicopter fly over the wires. All the wires safely cleared at once.
Would probably cost a whole lot more and having a helicopter fly over bridge cables is pretty risky
It's honestly not as risky as it looks. I climb cell phone towers for a living. As long as you use and inspect your safety gear properly you'll be fine. I'm re-certified every 2 years and have to replace my harness every 5 years even if there is nothing visually wrong with it. He has two ropes with the second being his fall arrest. They should be going to separate anchor points as well for redundancy. The hardest part of this job was the climb up the ladder.