This common practice made the fabrication of these members easier. In 1898, after years of debate, the Chaudiere site was selected from the three recommended sites to be the location of the Quebec Bridge. wide at its narrowest section. It was replaced with a 310-foot-long span steel bridge that opened to traffic on 13 October 2017. The initial design length clear span was 487.7 m (1,600 ft).However, in May 1900, this span was increased to 548.6 m (1,800 ft.) by Theodore Cooper. Due to the high level of interest in the project, the Canadian Parliament passed an act, which incorporated the committee into the Quebec Bridge Company, with a million-dollar capital and the power to issue bonds (p. 27, Middleton, 2001).The company now faced the problem of financing the great bridge. Roddis, W. M. Kim (1993). The Quebec Bridge collapse in Canada was the largest ever cantilever bridge in the world. Engineers and others in charge must be open minded to the ideas of the laborers, many of which have years of hands on experience.Another ethical concern was Cooper�s rejection to having an independent engineer check his work.

�A Disaster in the Making.�  American Heritage of Invention and Technology, Spring 1986, 10-17.ASCE Technical Council on Forensic Engineering (TCFE)9201 University City Blvd., Charlotte, NC 28223-0001 This engineer would, in a sense, be double-checking Cooper�s work and ultimately have the final authority.

He later admitted that he never actually saw the chords in question. However, Norman McLure wrote, �One thing I am reasonably sure of, and that is that the bend has occurred since the chord has been under stress, and was not present when the chords were placed.�   While this dispute of how the bend occurred in chords, 7L and 8L was going on, McLure reported to Cooper another occurrence of a similar bend in chords 8L and 9L (pp. �The difference between these two sets of concentrations indicate a fundamental error in the calculations for the bridge.

The opposite chord A9R was bent in the same direction.

78 � 79, Middleton, 2001).The erection foreman that had ordered the work to stop changed his mind, and with reassurance from Edward Hoare, the chief engineer of the Quebec Bridge Company, work began again that day. Montreal already had the Grand Trunk railway system, which passes through it from the west connecting it to Toronto.

A second attempt to bridge the St. Lawrence River was made. There was growing concern about the deflections. On June 19, 1903, a final contract was entered into between the two companies, and the name of the Quebec Bridge Company was changed to the Quebec Bridge and Railway Company (pp.

(1908). His decisions were not questioned, even when they seemed to be unusual. Thirteen workers lost their lives in this accident. Some of the other errors such as the underestimated dead loads and the failure to recheck the weight could have been discovered before the bridge collapsed. A cantilever bridge was proposed as the most feasible design to bridge the harsh, icy waters of the St. Lawrence River. Examine if you cannot find evidence of the blow, and make inquiries of the men in charge.� McLure did as he was instructed, and reported back to Cooper that there was no evidence of such an incident (p. 74, Middleton, 2001).Some of the engineers were unconcerned about the problem, believing that it was nothing serious. The second bridge was substantially heavier than the first. The Quebec Bridge was twenty years in the making, from the founding of the Quebec Bridge Company in 1887 to the bridge�s collapse in 1907.

The floor system was designed to carry a live load of well over 2.79 MN (280 tons) (ER, 1907d). It would stand 45.7 m (150 ft.) above the river. 55, January 26, pgs. 70 � 72, Middleton, 2001).Adding to the design problems, Cooper increased the original allowable stresses for the bridge. These were questioned by the bridge engineer for the Railways and Canals as being unusually high.