SAFETY TALK

Arun Kumar Soni, Sr. Engineer, UK ICRC Civil Bridge & Ground
06th Feb 2018
WHY SAFETY IN DESIGN?

 As a designer, to safeguard the users of the structure and to safeguard

yourself.

 Structural failure may lead to legal and judicial proceedings.

 Destruction of the organization’s rapport and image in the market.

 A big disaster may lead to closure of any organization, which may leave its
employees unemployed.

 Etc. etc.
 Kolkata flyover collapse
On 31 March 2016, a 150 m steel composite span of the under-construction
Vivekananda flyover in the Girish Park neighbourhood of Kolkata, India,
collapsed. 27 people died and more than 80 were injured in the incident.
Hundreds of the injured were uncounted.

Multiple reasons:

 Faulty design,

 Poor quality of raw material and

 Lack of supervision
Failure at a glimpse
Failure at a glimpse
Failure at a glimpse
Failure at a glimpse
Possible reasons of Failure
The bare steel girders failed due to buckling of their compression flange which led to
instability of the superstructure causing cantilever failure of pier cantilever arm and the
structure collapsed.

• Due to inadequate bracing at intermediate locations to the compression flange,

buckling of the compression flange took place and the steel girder displaced from it’s
vertical alignment.

• Concrete casting on one deck causes differential load condition on pier cantilever arm.

• Overall CG of the superstructure shifted towards end of cantilever of pier.

• Due to inadequate stiffeners & pier cantilever face deformation, caused buckling of
column head. This increased deflection of the cantilever arm which led to yielding of
the top flange of the cantilever.

• Collapse of left cantilever arm and instantaneous fracture of the right cantilever arm.
Failing Steps:
Failing steps:
Failing steps:
Most critical point of the failure?
 Inadequate bracing to the main girders?

 Inadequate bracing to the pier/pier cap cross-sections?

 Both?
Recommendations:
• Construction stage analysis is most important while designing any structure.

• Green concrete do not provide lateral restraint to the compression chord.

• Lateral bracings should be provided properly to restrain the compression

chord buckling.

• Local design checks (local yielding & buckling of the pier and pier cap webs
& flanges) must be made before global design.
Questions / Discussion ?

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