Engineering Technical Summary - The Collapse of the Quebec Bridge Essay

Engineering Technical Summary - The Collapse of the Quebec Bridge - Essay Example Because of the site peculiarities and the multi tasks intended for the bridge, the constructors forced to forget some of the basics of cantilever bridge design and technology which finally resulted in one of the greatest bridge collapses in all time. The Quebec City Bridge project was one of the largest cantilever bridge projects in the world. â€Å"It was the brainchild of Quebec Bridge Company (QBC), a group of local business people.  It was proposed to build over the St. Lawrence River, six miles above Quebec City. In 1903 the QBC gave the job of designing of the bridge to the Pheonix The construction and design of the bridge was extremely difficult because of so many reasons. â€Å"Because of the transportation of ocean vehicles though the river, the bridge was forced to build well above the water level, approximately 150 feet above the water level. More over the requirement forces the designers to widen the width of the bridge to about 67 feet in order to accommodate 2 railway tracks, 2 street car tracks and 2 roadways. In late 1903, P.L. Szlapaka of the Pheonix Bridge Company had laid out the initial drawings of the bridge.  His design was approved with very few changes by Cooper.  Cooper has estimated the weight of the span based on the initial drawing. Before the final drawing reaches Cooper the construction has been started. Lot of money has been spent on the construction before Cooper realizes some drawbacks in the design and the construction of the bridge. When he analyzed the project based on the final project he found that the estimated weight of o ff on the low side. Cooper had only limited options in his front either to continue with the project by taking risk or to stop the construction which may result in about 8 million pounds which is already spent on the project. So Cooper decided to take the risk of continuing the project in order to save the money which is already