doc are saying the cable "released" which isnt necessarily breaking, whatever mechanism was holding the cable under tension has probably failed releasing the cable. often
the end of the cables loops through a steel bolt and then get tightened with nuts and bolts to clamp the cable in place, if those loosened then the cable could have slipped, sometimes they cover those with resign to avoid people cutting their hands on them and you cant see them to inspect them, or theres the bolt hat goes into the ground to anchor the cable, it goes in several feet and i believe gets cemented in place. or there can be more elaborate underground foundations holding it in place
example of a suspension bridge in the routeburn and a photo of the underground cable anchor anchor
http://www.doc.govt.nz/pagefiles/98769/routeburn-bridge-2.jpg
This post has been edited by the author on 6 September 2015 at 07:15.
@wayno
Well that is interesting. From memory there are usually at least 4 - 6 of these clamping bolts, and anyone of them is capable of doing the job.
this photo of a bridge cable is on the routeburn, looks like four sets of clamps each with two bolts an nuts.j
http://tramper.nz/15812/
Hopefully this story wakes up in the next day or two. It received much attention when it first hit the media, but only through interviews with officials.
The only info that's actually been reported at all seems to have been filtered through either DOC or the Te Urewera Board, both of which have an incentive to filter what they say and have stated the people involved "are being looked after". It's as if nobody's even tried to drive to the end of the road and actually look at the bridge, or track down some of the people. If they've tried, nobody's reported having tried. Surely something like a bridge collapsing with people on it deserves some more independent attention.
DOC put out another media statement yesterday morning, which really only repeated information that was already out there. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK1509/S00125/hopuruahine-bridge-media-statemen.htm
its so far from main populatoin centres, the various news agencies have all made decisions that they can't spare the resources to go and look for themselves. the weekend is here, need to report on important stories like team sports events...
Now it's turned into "a cable parted". That's nicely ambiguous.
Until demonstrated otherwise, I'll assume that someone's nailed the asset number tag through the cable.
@izogi
That would be a fairly impressive instance of Hanlon's Razor in action :-)
i see the herald never updated their story this morning about the stranded trampers in nelson lakes. another case of media lack of interest... wasnt a serious enough event for them in amongst the sport?
its a multi stranded cable, could the whole thing really just snap, i'd have thought individual strands might give way without the whole cable snapping and you'd notice that with some advance warning and you would notice the damage...
