Sixth Avenue bridge on the verge of collapse

Taken from HWZ:

explains the massive 1 hr traffic jam I was caught in. Had to turn into namly to escape.

A Msian masseuse was on the bridge when it happened. Like this also can kena an FTrash?

Crane knocks into pedestrian bridge at Bukit Timah Road
Posted: 03 July 2010 1850 hrs
<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=260 align=right><TBODY><TR><TD width=20 align=right> </TD><TD width=240 align=right> </TD></TR><TR><TD height=60 vAlign=top> </TD><TD class=update height=80 vAlign=top><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD bgColor=#f6f6f6 width=138>Photos </TD><TD bgColor=#f6f6f6 width=47>2 of 4</TD><TD bgColor=#f6f6f6 width=18><INPUT id=btnPrev disabled onclick=Prev(); value="<< Previous" src="http://www.channelnewsasia.com/images/butt_previous.gif" width=18 height=15 type=image></TD><TD bgColor=#f6f6f6 width=19><INPUT id=bntPlay onclick=Play() value="Play - Stop" src="http://www.channelnewsasia.com/images/butt_stop.gif" width=19 height=15 type=image></TD><TD bgColor=#f6f6f6 width=18><INPUT id=btnNext disabled onclick=Next(); value=" Next >> " src="http://www.channelnewsasia.com/images/butt_next.gif" width=18 height=15 type=image></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
</TD></TR><TR><TD> </TD><TD class=update> </TD></TR><TR><TD> </TD><TD></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>


SINGAPORE : A crane on Saturday knocked into a pedestrian bridge at Bukit Timah Road, just before the turn into Sixth Avenue.

As a result, there were traffic jams.

Engineers from the Land Transport Authority (LTA) have evaluated the situation and recommended that a portion of the affected bridge be removed for safety reasons.

LTA's Chief Transportation Engineer, Dr Chin Kian Keong, said that to ensure the safety of road users, the entire stretch of Bukit Timah Road, from Fourth to Sixth Avenue has been closed to facilitate rectification works.

The stretch of road will reopen to motorists once the works are completed.

The 40-year-old driver of the crane is now helping police with their investigations.

No one was injured in the accident. - CNA/ms

leave the crane driver alone....just earning peanuts to make a living.....

he was caught off guard lah

poore said:

leave the crane driver alone....just earning peanuts to make a living.....

he was caught off guard lah

Click to expand...

Malaysian FT? can't be, they know SINgapore road well. PRC FT maybe, didn't know, we have pedestrian bridges & they are 4.5m limit. maybe Indian or Bangladeshi...

What happen to the safety course they take?...I know, they just tick on the multiple choices...a dull person can pass the course easily, just PAY.

The point is, what happen to training, that we enforces? all hogwash....

The embedded video can be viewed at the URL just below please click to view. It is hard to get blogger's embedded video here on sammyboy.com :(

http://uncleyap-news.blogspot.com/2010/07/6-hours-of-bukit-timah-traffic-jam-poor.html


<!-- Begin .post -->





6 Hours of Bukit Timah Traffic Jam & Poor Traffic Police Deployment









Related Sammyboy.Com Thread

My own photos & videos from the scene:














A crane accidentally hit this pedestrian bridge this afternoon Saturday 3.July.2010 around 1430Hr. Causing the structure to become unsafe and had to be demolished immediately. Since that accident there was about 6 whole hours of traffic jam along Bukit Timah and Ferrer Road area.

I was caught in the traffic for 1 and half hour in SMRT bus service number 67, beginning around Newton MRT area, and at about 6PM after suffering 1 and half hours within the crazy jam, passengers were suddenly being told by bus driver that there was road diversion ahead and passengers are to alight at Adams road junction, as we were not able to get to the Bukit Timah areas ahead.

I started to walk from Adams Road towards North West seeing this miles of crazy traffic jam. I checked on Ferrer Road as well, it was jammed like mad too. Due to the diverted traffic from Bukit Timah Road.

What was the most amazing thing was I saw TOTALLY NO TRAFFIC POLICE nor any POLICE MEN deploy along the jammed roads to help divert or control or direct the traffic! Not a single one! There were SMRT & SBS staffs deploy to divert their own company buses only.

Where are the matas? I will tell you only later.

But apparently motorists on the roads were all confused and frustrated. They got impatiences and honked and each other. I tried to find out what was going on by listening and scanning the FM radio stations, there were no information available for entire 30 mins.

I tried to check with the most informed drivers on the road - the taxi uncles, I asked 4 taxi drivers, because their FIRST WORLD COMPUTERIZED & SATELLITE GUIDED system were supposed to keep them informed of road conditions and traffic diversions. They also usually kept listening to radio about traffic news. They taxi drivers could only tell me that Bukit Timah; Eng Neo; Ave 6; etc were closed, for unknown reasons starting from this afternoon.

Then I walked into the Bukit Timah NPP, there was the 1st instance where I saw mata from our World Class Home Team. There were 2 of them sitting in the Aircon NPP behind the desk! I asked and was told that a bridge was hit by accident and thus road was closed. The mata asked where I was heading, but was unable to help me with useful information how to get there without being jammed.

I reached the trouble spot located just between 4th & 6th Avenues by around 2006Hr, saw that the broken bridge had been demolished, but the traffic police was still blocking the road entirely, for the lifting crane to be cleared.

That was where I first found the traffic police, there were about a dozen of them - but ALL DEPLOYED ONLY AT THAT SPOT (between 4th & 6th Ave plus a few in the other traffic direction)! Good Greif! From Stevens Road; Adams Road; Ferrer Road etc junctions there was all the way NONE of them! They were all at the spot near 6th Ave! Excellent Deployment Strategy SPF! World Class Number One!

The bridge section that was cut down sits in a truck 100m away from the damaged bridge.

About 10 mins later the Traffic Police began to open Bukit Timah Road (North West direction) I checked the time, it was about 2015Hr. Roughly 6 hours after the bridge was accidentally hit by crane.

Well done Home Team! Hooray Ah Seng! Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka!












posted by uncleyap at 10:28 PM






<!-- End .post -->

this is the crooked bridge mahatir wanted?

Except for Orchard Road, the world class cops were also nowhere to be found during the recent floods.

Also, as with the floods, the Presstapo has once again failed to convey the full magnitude of what happened in this incident.

At the scene and may be still visible from my video that there is a height limit sign just 10-20m ahead of the bridge that got hit. I read the sign stating the usual 4.5m limit, it was not really damaged and looked largely intact except a tiny dent located above the left lane of traffic.

I suspect that the crane hit it a only little, and then the vibration caused the lifting beam to jump up and down (exceeding the 4.5m further) as it reached the bridge just ahead - BANG! Hit big time already.

Because the height limit warning sign itself was not so damaged as the bridge itself, aren't they all at 4.5m?

Just near to the accident site and along the entire Bukit Timah Rd there were the LTA's Down Town line MRT project. I wonder if the crane had just came out from that MRT work-site just next to the bridge hit. If so, it could had entered Bukit Timah Road just BETWEEN the warning sign and the bridge. If so then it just missed the warning sign & went directly to the bridge.

I saw the dent on the height warning sign, but the dent could be caused before today independently and unrelated to today's impact.

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_549447.html

Jul 4, 2010

Crane hits Bt Timah bridge

<!-- by line --> By Amanda Tan
<!-- end by line -->
<!-- end left side bar --> The Land Transport Authority (LTA) decided to remove a portion of the bridge that was struck by a crane earlier in the morning, causing the road to be closed for six hours. -- ST PHOTO: JOSEPH NAIR

<!-- story content : start -->
A SECTION of Bukit Timah Road had to be closed off for six hours on Saturday after authorities decided to saw off a portion of an overhead bridge which was struck by a crane earlier in the morning.
A lorry with a crane on it had crashed into the 4.5m-high bridge at about 10.30am, punching a gaping hole into a part of its base.
A woman in her 50s was crossing the bridge on her way to work when the crane stuck it. She fell and injured her elbow. She was later sent to hospital but was discharged by noon.
The Land Transport Authority (LTA) decided to remove a portion of the bridge due to safety concerns. It said that the other parts of the bridge were unaffected and would not fall down. The bridge will be repaired after assessment.
To facilitate removing the damaged piece, a stretch of road from Fourth Avenue to Sixth Avenue was closed to traffic from about 2pm onwards causing massive jams stretching back to Newton Circus.
The section was eventually brought down just before 7pm and the road was reopen to traffic about an hour later. The driver of the vehicle who is in his 40s was not injured and is assisting police with investigations.

wahlaneh...
"london bridge is falling down...falling down...falling down..."
ops i mean singapore bridge lah.

Lest we forget
most of the elites stay in Bukit Timah.

wahlaneh said:

wahlaneh...
"london bridge is falling down...falling down...falling down..."
ops i mean singapore bridge lah.

Click to expand...

There is double-edge-sword in this matter to hold LTA accountable.

Firstly is this any real emergency? If so then why when it was hit at 10am the road wasn't closed to ensure public safety?

Secondly if it isn't real emergency posing public danger, such that can be delayed until 2pm to start removing bridge & closing road, then why not delay until late night to start removing the bridge instead. Why have to choose to close the road for 6hrs during a very busy and rainy Saturday Afternoon then?



If it that bridge was at risk of collapse posing danger to public, then either police or LTA or both or just famiLEE LEEgime had to IMMEDIATELY CLOSE the road for public safety. However this was not the case. They delayed for 4 hours before they began to close the road.

Thus it is suggesting that the bridge wasn't in immediate danger of collapsing down to the road below. Then in that case isn't it better for the interest of public and road users to hold off the removal until say after 9pm when road users are less affected?

It is therefore obviously unreasonable and crazy, to have the road remained opened for 4 hours immediately after the accidental collision, and then entirely close it for the 6 hours citing safety reason to cause massive traffic jam and real waste of time and frustrations to all road users, with this kind of management strategy. LTA & TP & famiLEE LEEgime better all wake up!

uncleyap said:

That was where I first found the traffic police, there were about a dozen of them - but ALL DEPLOYED ONLY AT THAT SPOT (between 4th & 6th Ave plus a few in the other traffic direction)! Good Greif! From Stevens Road; Adams Road; Ferrer Road etc junctions there was all the way NONE of them! They were all at the spot near 6th Ave! Excellent Deployment Strategy SPF! World Class Number One!

Click to expand...

The Traffic Police were there to kaypoh to watch show only lah. None of them were there to work. All act blur, got no initiative, only waiting for instruction from above. Hence all gathered at that spot.

To cut it short, the Bukit Timah Road was either closed too late (4hrs after impact) for public safety, or too early for removal, or both!

Dunearn Road (other side of Yaacob's LongKang) is a 3 lane road:

<iframe marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Sixth+Avenue+Bukit+Timah+Singapore&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=88.061362,51.328125&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Sixth+Ave,+Bukit+Timah,+Singapore&t=h&ll=1.331272,103.797058&spn=0.007025,0.003133&z=14&output=embed" frameborder="0" height="350" scrolling="no" width="425"></iframe>
<small>View Larger Map</small>

For the 6 hours of Bukit Timah Rd closure, famiLEE LEEgime could had divided a section (between the LongKang crossing bridges of 6th & 4th Ave) of Dunearn Road lanes to 2 directions, & divert the Bukit Timah Rd traffic to make a little detour across the LongKang at 4th Ave & then back Bk Timah Rd via 6th Ave LongKang crossing. In the past they did similar things elsewhere, by just placing police orange cones along the lane dividing lines.

But THEY DID NOT!

I was there, and I did not see this done.

The TP got a dozen of matas deployed but they just make all the traffic of Bk Timah Rd turn right across the LongKang at 4th Ave, and forbid the traffic from proceeding beyond. In my video you can however see at least one car turn out from 4th ave, not stopped by mata, to turn left into Bk Timah & proceeded and pass through where they had the emergency demolition works.

According to this eye witness account, the crane driver did hit-n-ran alike Ionescu the Romanian envoy.

If that crane was sticking straight up then it must have entered the road from the adjacent MRT Downtown Line worksite which is the only reason why the 4.5m Max Height Limit warning signboard did not get hit 1st. These are supposed to be the safety measures placed before the bridges to protect them.

I observed that the MRT worksite is the only way a crane can come out to Bukit Timah Rd without 1st passing that 4.5m Max Height Limit warning signboard. Worksite is just adjacent to Bk Timah Rd, there is no other road to enter Bukit Timah Rd between the warning signboard & the bridge.

MRT worksite is all over the Bukit Timah Rd now, and there are lots of heavy equipments moving from one part of the site to another daily. Remember LTA's Nicoll Highway cave-in for Circle Line? That crossed my mind when I first heard that Bk Timah Rd was blocked by a significant accident related to construction.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1067543/1/.html
LTA weighing options on crane-hit pedestrian bridge
By Liang Kaixin | Posted: 04 July 2010 2113 hrs



SINGAPORE: Authorities have not yet decided what to do with a pedestrian bridge that was damaged by a crane on Saturday.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) told MediaCorp that it will assess the extent of damage and weigh its options before making its decision.

For now, the bridge near Sixth Avenue along Bukit Timah Road remains closed for repairs.

Eye-witness Wasinah Kasidin said that she saw the lorry approach the bridge with its crane sticking "straight up" on 3 July.

The massage therapist, who was on the bridge when the incident occurred, was slightly injured.

She said that after the crane had hit the bridge, the driver stepped out of the vehicle and lowered the crane before driving off.

Her employer plans to seek compensation from the lorry company for medical fees and loss of earnings.

The lorry driver has been arrested.