Bridge Collapse: Analysis of West Gate Bridge and Tasman Bridge Disasters

Running head: BRIDGE COLLAPSE
BRIDGE COLLAPSE
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1BRIDGE COLLAPSE
Executive Summary
Construction of bridges is in someway a part of social work, which imposes responsibilities
on the officials involved in the projects, pertaining to the stakes involved in the same. The
purpose of this report is to identify two cases of bridge collapses in Australia, and attempt at
identifying the legal code conduct in the field, to further be able to analyze the main causes
of the disasters, pertaining to breaching of the code. For that purpose, the report takes the
cases of the West Gate Bridge Collapse and the Tasman Bridge Disaster. The report takes
references from The WHS Act, to compare the cases with the code of conduct, to further
analyze the cases. While the West Gate venture needed correspondence and data sharing
between a scope of talented laborers around a surprising plan which prompted the scaffold's
breakdown, the Tasman Bridge project needed critical thought of learning of practices on the
geological area. Be that as it may, in the Tasman Bridge breakdown, the whole of the
accusation cannot be put on the planners, as the fundamental factor of the catastrophe was
an outer one, as carelessness from the commander of the ship rammed into the scaffold.
The report further outlines that in both the occasions, expanded government intercession
was important to alleviate the dangers related with the tasks. Set of principles is of basic
significance in any endeavor, abusing which can prompt genuine consequences. The
administration must take stern activities to uphold these legitimate set of accepted rules, to
alleviate further dangers later on. It is from the administration's initiative that officials will
completely audit these codes before attempted an undertaking, considering that the
legislature is the most absolute vital part in this regard.

2BRIDGE COLLAPSE
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
The West Gate Bridge collapse............................................................................................3
WHS code of conduct in civil engineering and work..........................................................5
Analysis.................................................................................................................................6
The Tasman Bridge disaster..................................................................................................7
Analysis.................................................................................................................................8
Comparison analysis.............................................................................................................10
Conclusion..............................................................................................................................11
References................................................................................................................................12

3BRIDGE COLLAPSE
Introduction
Civil engineering is an aspect of social work, with one of the highest responsibilities relying
on the developers, architects and engineers, and are crucial for the development of the
society in economical terms, through facilitated transportation (Miloradova and Ishkov 2015).
It must be noted that just like in any other social work, this social work too, requires a
significant abidance by some code of ethics. This is further validated by the fact that it is one
of the social works that offers a significant level of pay, which indirectly is obtained from the
money of the society itself, in the form of taxes (Evans and Tran-Nam 2010). To be more
clear, the projects which are undertaken for the development of the society in these
instances, are funded from the taxes which the society pays to the government. This is the
reason why the main thing to consider is that the main people who are associated with the
project are responsible to secure the safety of the people. Certain codes of ethics also apply
to their work, which they must abide by. However, in some instances, disasters do occur,
and while some could be blamed on the government or engineers involved in the project,
others can simply be attributed to misfortune like one of the cases which is to be discussed
in this report.
This report takes a look at two distinct bridge collapses in Australia: The West Gate Bridge
collapse, and the Tasman Bridge disaster. The purpose of this report is to analyze and
compare both of the cases, through distinct review of the cases, and also comparing them
with code of ethics. The discussion in the report shall commence with analysis of West Gate
Bridge collapse, followed by the other, with a final analysis and comparison to code of ethics
towards the end of the report, followed by a comprehensive conclusion of the entirety of the
report, at the last.
The West Gate Bridge collapse
This bridge is located over the Yarra River, and was officially inaugurated in 1978. It is 336
meters long, designed under cable stayed box girder (Brady 2016). It is located in
Melbourne, Australia.
Just two years though the development phase, the bridge collapsed on one fine day on
October, 1979, falling 50 meters into the waters beneath. Thirty-five development specialists
were slaughtered and 18 severely injured, thereby making the disaster qualify as Australia's
most exceedingly awful modern accident (Åkesson 2014). A significant number of the victims
who died were labours on mid-day break under the extension in laborers' cabins, which were
squashed by the falling debris. Others were inside the support when the incident took place.
The 2,000-ton bridge plunged into the Yarra River mud with a blast of gas, dust and metal