Engineering Question/Problem to solve:
 

Conditions:

A backhoe weighing 22 tons is on top of a lowboy trailer and heading
east on Interstate 70 near Hays, Kansas .

The extended shovel arm is made of hardened refined steel and the
approaching overpass is made of commercial-grade concrete, reinforced
with 1 inch steel rebar spaced at 6 inch intervals in a criss-cross
pattern layered at 1 foot vertical spacing.

Solve:

When the shovel arm hits the overpass, how fast do you have to be
going to slice the bridge in half ? (Assume no effect for headwind
and no braking by the driver.)


Extra Credit: Solve for the time and distance Required for the entire
rig to come to a complete stop after hitting the overpass at the
speed calculated above. Yes, you can neglect friction

Just a WAG, but about 90?

Who cares; the pictures are great!



P.S. The driver was on his cell phone................http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1296888876.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1296888891.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1296888904.jpg

Show your work! :)

That ain't no backhoe! Thats a trackhoe!

And that looks like a cheap OOOPs!


Did he loose his job over that?

Trust me, you really don't want to see inside my mind.... :D


Oh and I've been around truckers all my life, I don't gotta show my work, if the tow rig would run 90, thats what it was doing....

We had a similar incident on I-90 between B1&B2 on the NY State Thruway in the mid 90's. That overpass was missing a section for a good year. I felt bad for the people who had to get across the Interstate, they would have been diverted.

The operator bears some responsibility here also. I have to load these things quite frequently and unless they have an extended boom they can be loaded with the boom level at or slightly below the cab. Although, lots of time, an operator will not be handy and truck drivers will self load and they are usually not experienced operators. Probably what happened here. Hate to see the bill!

Nope, this one is on the driver. I don't care who loaded it, the driver should have known how tall his load was and that he was overheight....

72. Speed limit on I-70 at Hays is 70.

I agree. My point being, had an experienced operator loaded it correctly, this would have never happened. That is not a large hoe, somebody should have noticed the boom up too high. I have a buddy at Hays who is an experienced operator. I'll try and catch up to him and see if he has any details.

Old pix but always interesting to see.

I remember getting off an exit ramp and seeing a Cat 356 on it's side. The loader slid off the lowboy and fell off coming to rest on the middle of the overpass.

Funny thing was, I knew him and he was headed to my worksite. They showed up a little later and said they just tipped it back over (some how), loaded it back on the lowboy and came on over to my place.

42

Is the rig pulled by an African swallow or a European swallow?

I think only Europeans swallow...could be wrong, best to ask Sniper.

Ha! I could answer that one.

any info on the resulting tickets, arrests, law suits, etc.?

Is it just me or does the track hoe look like it could be working next week? Seems like very little damage?