California Freeway Meltdown! - Massive Engineering Mistakes - Engineering Documentary

Thank you for the MacArthur Maze collapse coverage. I am the former 911 dispatcher and I was working the police radio channels during this incident. However, I am slightly disappointed that most of the focus was on San Francisco. As this interchange sits in entirely in Oakland, Oakland should have been primary with S.F. secondary. As a life long Bay Area resident, it saddens me to see Oakland so frequently overlooked. Yes, Oakland has many issues but there is still beauty and depth in this city if you know where to look.

The problem is that in the 1930s to the 1960s, the USA engorged itself on building capital infrastructure. If artificially kept the unemployment low and gave jobs to the unemployed after the depression and then to troops returning from war. The emphasis was in speed not quality. Now a lot of that infrastructure is decaying or collapsing. These bridges, roads and water systems were never designed to last 100 years or even 60. The problem for both state and federal US governments is that they have accumulated so much debt from decades of budget deficits, that the ability to fix or replace these assets is just not there. Nearly one dollar in five (17%) in US government budgets are used to just pay the interest bill on this debt, let alone the capital. To put it into perspective, it's about the same cost as the whole defence budget and is in the top three line items in the budget. This debt is 130% of US GDP, when most other developed nations are at 20% or less. The USA simply ran out of money in about 1975.

The California freeway repair was not an engineering mistake. It was an engineering miracle to reopen the highway in 26 days. Australian implosion was a mistake. The Chicago arena collapse was a construction mistake, not an engineering one. The Michigan M-6 mistakes might be traced back to the engineers who prescribed the concrete formula as well as the contractors who implemented it.

The arena collapse in Metro Chicago... One of the first tasks I had in a manufacturing facility involved a prefabricated cabinet. What I didn't know and wasn't said in the assembly instructions was that the screws holding the various parts together should be installed and the nuts run down to just short of hand tight. That way when you arrive at the last few steps, you can shake the loose assembly and line up the last few holes. At that point you can begin to do the final tightening of the connections. That's what the engineers on this project were trying to do. The overloading of the storage area combined with not installing the temporary connection stabilizing plates combined to destroy the fragile structure.

The San Francisco one was pretty cool, but the guy must not know about the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989. Far more damage to far more important roads happened that day.

The MacArthur Maze rebuild in California was bid at an amazing low price of $867,075 (basically the cost of the materials). There was a $200k a day bonus/fee for early/late work with a cap of 5 Million, a provision learned in the $14.8 million bonus payout for the Northridge earthquake. C.C. Myers, Inc. wrote and won the bid and delivered the rebuild in 25 days to collect the maximum bonus.

I wouldn't say a fuel truck having a crash, catching fire and destroying roadways is "entirely unexpected ". It has happened before this and has happened after this. And no doubt it will happen again.

The M6 is like I81 in PA through VA. It’s awful. All you hear and feel is the car’s suspension. I drive that once avoiding tolls in NJ to Baltimore.

Wondering if the driver of the truck in San Fran was falling asleep???

M-6: Why do they continue to pave with cement? Asphalt applies quicker per mile, is quieter to ride on, and can be replaced much quicker than cement. The problem on M-6 was the implementation of small micro sections of cement for miles of roadway. Every joint corrodes with salt during winter. The joints suffered and then the "repair" was the old useless liquid tar which left its usually bumpy ride. Lack of RESPONSIBILITY as usual with road construction. Why does Michigan seem to get all of the "new technology methods" for us to be guinea pigs who have to pay more taxes?

The last one, it was not the concrete alone, it is too regular, there is a crack perfectly perpendicular at exact intervals, there must have been a problem with the rebar.

Most roads not designed to withstand catastrophic fire, not surprised it collapsed

Here in the UK 🇬🇧 we have a motorway that is also called the M6. It's awful too.

Now U know how twin towers fell you see the steel bend

"… more that 100,000 people…." Doesn't sound like much of a crowd.

The stadium would have collapsed on a crowd under a heavy winter snow pack,so the gods took the path of lesser fatalities.

Haven't heard anyone commenting on WHY the truck crashed yet. Guessing he wasn't taking his daytime sleep seriously, and nodded off.

The extreme heat from a fuel fire can weaken the steel supporting members of any structure. It was the same type of fuel fire that caused the NYC World Trade Center towers to collapse. Once the bending point is reached in terms of heat, gravity takes over. It was not an engineering mistake. In the McArthur Maze. Merely that there was double the amount of fuel available, thereby creating a longer time for the melt period.

It's a miracle that no one was injured in "the maze" accident. There was such a potential for disaster there.

You think adding that much crack sealant would of told you something was wrong 🤔? One of the best ways to destroy a cars suspension.