Well, not trying to be flippant but when the past few years the only news has been Brexit, Trump, Corbyn and mad mullahs in some middle eastern hell hole. This event is actually is news so the media clamouring all over it is no surprise.

Its quite a big deal really. Not that the journalists really understand this. Big structures failing is a thing reserved for the third world/China and earthquake zones. This is a wake up call to the first world countries that old steel reinforced concrete structures have a finite life and we, like Italy, are sleepwalking into the next major structure collapse. Hong Kong knew this long before we did, as concrete building lifespan expectancy over there is typically just 25years....so why 'should' ours have infinite lifespans?

Spaghetti Junction, Aston Expressway and the M5 flyovers are all pushing way past the limits of life expectancy for such structures all are in decaying conditions, and being forced to take more and more loads (more vehicles of which are far heavier than their '60s counterparts) yet we persue attempts to 'restore' them rather than building new roads. As I post this contractors are busy jet-washing away decaying concrete supports on the M5 West Brom to reveal corroded steel work, in order to repair and recast. It's only a matter of time before a failing section is missed or overlooked or the repairs turn out to be ineffective.

Or or am I just being cynical?

I was looking a bit closer at this bridge (armchair expert ), and a crucial thing to note is that the tendons (what is usually steel rope on suspension bridges), are concrete. Generally speaking we know concrete tends to perform better under compression rather than tension, so there is a issue here.

What confirms the issue is if you look at the remaining sections, at least two sets of tendons have had a steel 'exoskeleton' retrofitted around them along their entire length. Presumably due to issues with the original (remaining) tendons. This was not done on the collapsed section, and one remaining pier only shows minor repair/strengthening steelwork at the top where the tendons connect.

Retrofitting steel to repair/strengthen is all well and good, but it is a bodge...it has to connect into existing concrete, drilling into that can weaken it further. Also encasing existing structure with steelwork makes it difficult to inspect and repair areas that it covers, so these repairs should not be used as a long term solution, because ongoing inspection cannot be accurate be performed.

Of course, there are alternate means of monitoring; electronic strain guages. These can show loading and imbalances, if combined with good software and histroric measurements could show issues well before they can be visually detected. There appears to be no information regarding any monitoring systems. I believe elevated sections of the M6 had these many many decades ago due to subsidence problems. Subsidence was a issue building UK motorways, I recall we sketched over it at uni (engineering), but the internet appears to fail to find which parts had issues, I do know the M6 has issues, as does the Avonmouth bridge (which started cracking and was only found out after unrelated works).

Its most certainly prestressed concrete. The method allows LESS steel than what would have been used just using steel to support the deck. Concrete is cheaper than steel. So it's not all vanity.

What is vanity, possibly, is only have 4 sets of tendons (comprising of 4 individual concrete 'ropes') from each pier going to common anchor points on the deck. Where more traditional designs would have more tendons going to different anchor points on the deck. Almost certainly a failure of one tendon at the anchor point will propogate to the the other three in that set, when all four fail on that one corner the whole structure supported by that single pier becomes unbalanced so the whole sections either side of the pier will collapse, pulling the pier down with it.

The steel inside these tendons would have been tensioned during construction, so that concrete would actually be compressed. It 'can' be very strong. The crux of this is the load calculations and aging. Also how do you replace them? You can't really do it, not safely anyway, hence the exoskeletons on the remaining sections, a method of 'post stressing' the concrete to keep it strong.

There are a few similar bridges like this: The Wadi el Kuf Bridge in Libya, also the Laon suspension bridge in France the latter looks in pretty bad shape. The press pointed out the the General Rafael UrdanetaBridge that passes over the entrance to lake Maracaibo in Venezuela is at risk, which in my opinion is bollocks...because its not the same design....The deck is supported by steel suspension ropes, not prestressed concrete.

You need to re-read as you’ve clearly missed my point. Yes report the news but to then elaborate on the victims with stories to try and make it seem even worse is needlessly looking to stir up even more emotion when the base story is bad enough on its own. For example Sky News seemed to really go on about the family on their way to holiday being a Dad, Mum and young Son and saying how the car was full of his toys etc. That isn’t news to that level of detail that needs reporting in my opinion. The loss of life is horrific, trying to make it seem worse because of where they were going is wrong in my opinion. Would it be any less sad if they were going to the supermarket to do the weekly shop? No. It comes across to me the media look to pull on heart strings as much as they can which has nothing to do with reporting the actual news.

I guess its the age we live in.

I recall having to give a 'victim impact statement' to the police to be read out in court as a means to aid the prosecution. I'd rather they'd dealt with hard facts rather than feelings, but in this modern touchy-feely world of snowflakes it's seen as the 'right' thing to show the human impact of an event.

For the press its all about garnering the sympathy of the mainstream public, virtue signalling and whipping up grief hysteria. To them its about getting attention, selling papers and gaining click revenue, but decades on generations brought up on it now think this is the way they should behave.

The problem is not the builder or designer per-se. It's pre-stressed concrete. It cannot be maintained or repaired like that of conventional steel reinforced concrete. It is also not failure tolerant...if a steel tension rod/rope fails, the whole lot fails.

The Florida bridge collapse is another example...brand new prestressed concrete bridge...Collapsed, seemingly because one tensioning rod failed (it was being re-tensioned at the time - evident by the tensioning ram still being attached after it collapsed).