University Report: Analysis of the Tay Bridge Disaster's Causes

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Tay Bridge Disaster, which occurred on December 28, 1879, and involved the collapse of the Tay Bridge in Scotland, resulting in the loss of 75 lives. The report details the events of the disaster, including the train involved and the location of the collapse. It explores several theories regarding the cause, including fatigue, train derailment, and wind pressure, with the court of inquiry ultimately attributing the failure to design flaws, cost-cutting measures, and inadequate maintenance. The report identifies Thomas Bouch, the bridge's designer, as primarily responsible. It highlights the significant loss of life and financial costs associated with the disaster and emphasizes the importance of proper design, construction, and regulatory oversight in engineering projects. The report references several sources, including academic papers and historical accounts, to support its analysis and conclusions. The report concludes with a call for increased safety measures in bridge construction and maintenance to prevent similar tragedies in the future.

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Introduction
When did the event occur?
The Tay bridge accident is believed to have taken place at around 7.15pm on December
28th 1879 and was viewed as one of the worst engineering disasters to have happened and which
sent a great deal of shockwaves through the entire engineering profession and also to the larger
general public (Abbott, and Tyler, 2017).
Who did it involve?
The disaster involved a locomotive 224 that was travelling from Edinburgh to Dundee
and was being driven by one David Mathew and had about 75 people on board.
Where did it happen?
The event took place on the on the Firth of Tay at Dundee on the British Isles where the
train was swept away into the estuary (Choudhury, and Hasnat, 2015).
What happened?
It is believed that the navigation spans that were centrally placed to support the bridge
collapsed and in the process 75 people lost their lives and a train and 6 carriages destroyed.

The high girders as they were commonly referred to, and which were above the highest mark of
water are the ones that collapsed during the event. The rest of the girders placed below the track
level were not affected and were in fact used in construction of the present day Tay Bridge
(Dekker, 2017).
Why or how did it happen? What was the cause?
There have been several theories which have been advanced trying to explain the cause of
the accident which include,
The Theory of fatigue
The theory was fronted by Peter Lewis who claimed that for the iron cat lugs to fail they
must have been tired. He tried to state that the effect of frequent rail movement and also the lugs
tiredness might have been the major cause of the failure
The Train Derailment Theory
In this theory it is believed that the train derailment brought about by carriages thrown
out might have produced an impact that could have led to the fracturing of the lugs which
connected the braces and thus brought the pier structure to break down. (Charles Mckean, Battle
for the North).The impact of the carriage derailment is what is believed to have collapsed the
bridge
The Wind Blow Theory

This was advanced by Tom martin and IA Mcleod using modern computer analysis
techniques. They studied the bridge when it had a train and when it did not in order to ascertain
its strength when subjected to strong wind and concluded that it was not able to hold the pressure
of the wind on during the event. The marginally increased the overturning effect.( Tom Martin
IA Mcleod wind-theory)
Court Of Inquiry
This was by far the most conclusive of the theories advanced. It was found out that the
bridge was only designated for 10 pound wind load and the minimum value given to Bouch who
was the designer. It is believed that for the bridge to be design for higher wind load of more than
10, it would have brought huge changes which in turn will have escalated the amount used in
building the bridge (Islam, et al, 2017).
It was further established that there were several adjustments made during the preparation
of the design. These changes were on the safety cost which entailed a change of the piers design
from the initial masonry to 8 columns of iron cast. This was to be further reduced to 6 to cut on
the cost of the project which brought a lot of risk (Lewis, 2016).
Bridge construction
It was discovered that some of the piers that were used had already fallen down and got
bent and thus were not suitable for use .However this were later repaired and used in the
construction

Bridge maintenance.
Investigation on the maintenance of the bridge revealed that this was poorly done. Several bolts
were not tightened properly and also there was improper repairs done on the structure without
the knowledge of the relevant authority (Martin, 2017).
In its ruling the court believed that if the materials used in building the structure were properly
designed and constructed the bridge would have withstood the force of the wind at the time
(Miller, 2016). .
Who was responsible?
This bridge was constructed and finished in February 1878 by one Thomas Bouch. He
was the one in charge of designing, constructing and maintaining of the bridge. It was after the
construction of the Tay Bridge that made him be honored. However after the court findings,
Thomas Bouch was found solely responsible for the tragic event due to the various shortcomings
that were overlooked during the construction of the bridge as highlighted above.
What was the cost-lives and money?
The disaster brought to a tragic end the lives of 75 people who were on their way to
various places to either carry out business or to their homes. It also occasioned the loss of great
amount f money that was used in construction of the bridge and also in the purchase of the train
notwithstanding the carriages.
Anything else of interest

From the analysis done on this tragic event, it is evident that it could have maybe been avoided if
certain precautions, measures were put in place at the time of construction.
The issue of cost cutting is a grave issue that needs to be addressed promptly. Most of the
constructors try to cut their budgets which in turn compromise the safety of the general public
and bring about huge losses (Schultz, and Gastineau, 2016). There is also the issue of regulatory
provision.in most cases there is only one regulator who can pass the structure for safety as
evidenced by the Tay bridge which was done by the board of trade. We should be able to involve
more than one organization in order to minimize the chances of an error occurring (Swinfen,
2016).
Also repairs and make shift arrangements should be looked into.as highlighted above
during the court findings, it was found out that the piers that fell down during the construction
were later repaired and used. This was an enormous mistake as it completely compromised the
stability and safety of the bridge together with its users which led to the tragic loss of life
(Thorne, 2017) .In future the constructors should only use new materials to prevent such an
occurrence

References
Abbott, H. and Tyler, M., 2017. Safer by design: a guide to the management and law of
designing for product safety. Routledge.
Choudhury, J.R. and Hasnat, A., 2015. Bridge collapses around the world: Causes and
mechanisms. In Proceedings of IABSE–JSCE International Conference on Advances in Bridge
Engineering-III, Dhaka, Bangladesh (pp. 26-34).
Dekker, S., 2017. The end of heaven: Disaster and suffering in a scientific age. Routledge.
Islam, R., Mohamed, S.F., Bjørberg, S., Misnan, M.S. and Yusof, Z.M., 2017. Towards a
Framework to Integrate Facilities Management Cost Effective Parameters in Design
Process. International Journal of Engineering and Technology, 9(6), pp.4515-4526.
Lewis, P.R., 2016. Forensic polymer engineering: why polymer products fail in service.
Woodhead Publishing.
Martin, T.J., 2017. Tom Martin’s Tay Bridge disaster web pages. The Tay Bridge Disaster.
Sitellite Enterprise PHP CMS, nd Web.< http://taybridgedisaster. co. uk.
Miller, G. (2016). Screening the Novel: Rediscovered American Fiction in Film. Bloomsbury
Publishing.
Schultz, A.E. and Gastineau, A.J., 2016. Bridge collapse. In Innovative Bridge Design
Handbook (pp. 795-815). Butterworth-Heinemann.
Swinfen, D., 2016. The fall of the Tay Bridge. Birlinn Ltd.

Thorne, R., 2017. Tay Rail Bridge centenary: some notes on its construction, 1882–87.
In Structural Iron and Steel, 1850–1900 (pp. 227-248). Routledge.