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submitted 2 years ago by Ilovethebomb to c/newzealand

I've never seen an entire tower fall over like that, that's kinda terrifying.

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[-] Dave 3 points 2 years ago

I’ve never seen an entire tower fall over like that, that’s kinda terrifying.

Me neither! I wonder what caused it. Looks like maybe some bolts came off the feet? Since normally there would be huge concrete pads that they are connected to.

[-] FloofahNZ 4 points 2 years ago

There are, I guess, 4 tower feet, they are very big structures. So my guess is that the "workers" were told remove the leg bolts, sand-blast the foot, then renew the bolts.

"Now guys, I’m off for a smoko, have it done before I’m back". "OK guv".

Instead of doing it one foot at a time, the obvious method, the "workers" then rush off, "Hey Mick, you do leg one, Jim you do leg 2, Manuel you do leg 3, Franco you do leg 4". "OK let’s go".

In 10 minutes all the bolts are removed, the wind picks up, the lateral force on the cables increases and bang, down she goes.

[-] Dave 4 points 2 years ago

Haha who put the project manager in charge 😆

[-] FloofahNZ 2 points 2 years ago

Occam’s Razor strikes again.

[-] Ilovethebomb 3 points 2 years ago

Reading the updated story, it definitely sounds like poor procedures.

[-] NoRamyunForYou 3 points 2 years ago

Apparently there's some rumours going around that they were doing some maintenance work on the pole when it happened. Don't know how true it is though.

[-] Ilovethebomb 2 points 2 years ago

Rusted to hell, would be my guess.

[-] Wahots@pawb.social 2 points 2 years ago

One update said there was no corrosion damage. That was my guess, too. The mystery continues! Maybe eroding soil?

[-] Ilovethebomb 1 points 2 years ago

You'd expect to see the concrete base come out if that happened. It does sound more like poor maintenance than anything else.

[-] Dave 2 points 2 years ago

Yeah, that's a good guess. I presume they do regular inspections, so it would be interesting to know how this got missed.

[-] Ilovethebomb 2 points 2 years ago

Funnily enough, I just watched a YouTube video of yet another bridge collapse in the states, if it's anything like that case, the corrosion and decay would have been duly noted on successive inspections, and duly ignored by the powers that be.

[-] Dave 2 points 2 years ago

I wonder if we will ever know, or because they are a SOE they may fall outside the power of anyone to investigate them.

[-] Ilovethebomb 2 points 2 years ago

Kiwirail definitely didn't get out of being investigated.

[-] Dave 2 points 2 years ago

Yeah sorry, poor wording. What I meant was companies only get investigated when they are negligent or breaking a law, and only if they get charged do we get information about it.

Government departments will do internal investigations and then the results are accessible under the Official Information Act, regardless of outcome, so we tend to get more info if it's government.

But on thinking about it, Transpower are probably keen to give people an explanation if it was some freak accident to protect their reputation, so we may find out anyway.

this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2024
18 points (100.0% liked)

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