They must have updated the story, because they said at least 3 people were killed. This wouldn't have happened to a Mexcian drug cartel tunnel.

There, indeed, was no mention of any deaths when I first read this story about 6 hours ago. It was last updated 3 1/2 hours after that.

This is a bad design ! We had the same thing happen in Boston in one of the Big Dig tunnels. Why do they hang heavy ceiling panels in these tunnels ? If you look at the picture you can see that just like in Boston these ceiling tiles fell, the tunnel did not collapse. You wouldn't hang a 1000 pound ceiling in your home if it wasn't adding strength to you home so why do these tunnel engineers hang heavy objects on the ceiling if since they obviously do not add structural strength to the tunnel itself. This is why a tunnel built one or two hundred years ago still works with very little maintenance while new construction always needs repair and accidents like this happen. The Romans built arches that still stand today and have lasted through many hundreds of earthquake's big and small, but our engineers always have (what they think is) a better Idea and this is how it turns out. And this is just the beginning hundreds of tunnels a built this way these days and as they age this type of accident will happen more frequently.

sorry ! posted twice.

Confussed- More like concussed. What a moronic post.

do ya' get tunnel vision when ya' read these articles...or did i have to much sushi for breakfast...

NortheastVick,

"Didn't Japan move 16 feet or something like that during the Fukushima earthquake?"

Did Japan move 16 feet to the east or 16 feet to the west? I'd just like to know if I have to fly 16 feet further or 16 feet less next time I fly to Japan from the West Coast. :)

Eessh! What a mess. Sorry for all.

Tunnels in Japan?! Hey, Lets dig tunnels and make people drive through 'em in the most geologically active area on the planet! While we're at it, lets build highrises beside airports, put elementary schools next door to explosives plants, and open underwater shopping malls so when the acrylic dome cracks we can take out as many citizens as possible!

I am sorry for those who were caught. Bad engineering, earthquakes, poor inspections and maintenance, all probably contributed to this.

zuksam: I agree about bad engineering, but many people have very heavy "drywall" panels in their ceilings, held up by drywall nails installed with nail guns. There are several bad steps in this engineering: the old plaster was no fun if it fell down either, but at least the lathing was nailed to beams in such a way as to keep friction in the nails, and the plaster would grab around the lathing, and the sections of plaster tended to break in smaller pieces than a whole drywall panel. What is worse, old cinder blocks in basements that were laid 50 years ago or so are now almost all powder because of moisture in surrounding soil, salts that leach in, etc. Very few homes have reliable foundations or ceilings. We all have tunnel vision, and we pay top dollar for it.

Elizabeth, you are obviously clueless about construction techniques, and building codes regarding installation of "drywall" ceilings.

Alien, you obviously have no understanding of the geography of Japan. It is almost ALL MOUNTAINS. There are very few "plains" areas or even areas with hills, just loads of mountains with lots of people squished into valleys and ridges. It is impossible to build a highway outside of a major city without tunneling through mountains.

As far as the high rises alongside airports, I believe you are thinking of the former main airport of Hong Kong, which is not even near Japan. And please edify the other readers: to which explosive plant are you referring?

Sad to hear about the people killed. Condolences to all involved.

I sure hope to God that you didn't mean that in a negative way. It was an unfortunate accident that happened. May they rest in peace.

No, I did not. I was just wondering if perhaps a past earthquake created structural damage in the tunnel, such as a loosening or cracking of the tunnel that went unnoticed until now.

@ hero101

I'm sure at the very instance of the tunnel collapse the ground shook! Even a building being collapsed causes a trimmer. Why would you thing your structure is stronger than God's destruction?

Japan is outside of your "gods" jurisdiction. They invented their own, so you shouldn't impose yours on them.

page down, I am in Japan and we are all quite shocked by all this. I also believe this may have something to do with the after effect of the earthquake. we have driven through this tunnel before many times and it really looked solid but you never know. I hope everyone will be okay. Keeping my fingers crossed.

There have been a series of smaller earthquakes lately throughout the Japanese area. With the earthquake that happened a year ago, subtle pressures could have been building up overtime which allowed these later quakes to create cracks in the tunnel.With thousands of tons per square inch shifting onto cracked concrete, any weaknesses would finally give in. These tunnels are designed to be very tall, so no vehicle or trucks would ever be tall enough to strike the tops.

In addition, half circle structures are used because that is the perfect shape to maximize strength and support the tunnel. Applying equal pressure in all directions and able to distribute weight equally. The highest amount of pressure from the top center is deflected to the sides downward and around.

The "concrete" tiles are on the ceiling Page Down and any tall truck would have hit it at the beginning of the tunnel.

Japan has a lot of tunnels. They do take very good care of their infrastructure.

I am quite certain that I've been through this tunnel as I have been on that highway in that region several times.

As has been pointed out, it doesn't appear that the tunnel itself collapsed, but the "false ceiling" is what came down. The basic design is fairly common. The tunnel itself has an arched shape but they put in "false ceiling" panels to form a plenum at the top of the tunnel. That area is then used for ventilation as well as a path for utilities. There are a number of ways to do this. This tunnel isn't particularly wide and it appears the panels rest on the side wall panels. The side panels slope up and out against the outer shell and form a ledge on which the ceiling panels rest. The weight and outward pressure actually helps things hold together.

Sometimes, some type of "hanger" is used or something like an inverted truss. Hangers aren't necessarily the most desirable solution because they put some potential weight stress on the outer shell trying to pull it in. It all has to be carefully designed. I can not see any evidence of hangers in the picture which suggests the panels are of a structural design which are made to support their own weight. One way to make these is to use pre-stressed concrete that has a slight radius. Concrete has very good compressive strength but very little in tension. Looking at the picture, I don't believe these are concrete, they appear to be fairly thin panels and there appears to be no small rubble as might be expected if they were concrete. Also after dropping I would suspect that some would fail in other places along the length. The panels appear to have failed right in the center and numerous panels failed in the same way. It is hard to say what these are made of and a couple actually appear to show some twist in them, suggesting a material designed to have some flex to it. There does appear to be some center "rib" or structural member lying right in the failure point at a right angle to it, running lengthwise in the tunnel. Also looks like possibly a cable running in the same direction. I can envision a system using a tensioned cable to help support the center of the panels.

I doubt that this was earthquake related, but more likely a failure of a key structural component. Another possibility is some type of explosion or high pressure event within the plenum. A fuel spill or even some leak in a gas utility might lead to an explosive mixture in the air duct.

Regardless of the root cause, I wouldn't call this a tunnel collapse. Most likely, from all appearances, the core tunnel looks to be OK. Tunnel collapse implies a cave in or complete failure of the core tunnel.

Thanks for clearing that up Rich.

NortheastVick

Do you want to get within one arms length of me?

ironic ain't it...the rest of the world declared nuke war on them once...

Flying Tigers were a Mercenary Air Corp working for China. Supported by the U.S. in a similar fashion as we supported Britain, Russia, & others. Pilots were from Multiple different Nationalities. U.S, Canadian, British, Australian, Etc.

Japan had a Pact with Germany & their intent was to attack the U.S. jointly. Japan jumped the gun & attacked early. Germany wanted to wait Until Britain was defeated & Europe had been neutralized.

And Yes, The U.S. was preparing for War. They new it was a matter of time until the Axis Powers said, "Your Next".

Nukes were on the Table for the U.S. attack. Japan & Germany were both working on them. Bombing German Installations delayed their plan of producing one. Digging into the proper archives shows that 6 weeks After Japan Surrendered, you'll find that a small group of Japanese Scientists Detonated a Nuclear device on a deserted island. Being Isolated, they weren't aware the War Was Over. They were only Six Months away from Nuking the U.S. West Coast. Right up until Hitler was defeated, It was His Goal to Nuke New York City.

Everything presented here is easy to Research & Find, Except the Japanese Nuke Device. Many Researches have asked why this has been hushed up & minimized. The Only Logical Answer is to lay a guilt trip on the American citizens for actually having used a Nuke on another Country. I highly doubt this would have been the case had the reverse happened.

Omega Z is correct: Japan was already in a war against China, and was openly planning war on other countries. Both Germany and Japan were researching and building nukes themselves. Japanese balloons that they just let float, carrying bombs, and German submarines did kill U.S. civilians on U.S. land. My husband's father and my father, my husband's uncles and mine, all fought in World War II, and some were decorated. American soldiers were ready to go into Japan as ground forces. Japan would not surrender even after Tokyo was bombed. Nukes are not right, and obviously, placing a nuke plant next to the ocean on a fault line (as the nuke plant in New Jersey was almost turned into a disaster area after Sandy), but the surrender of Japan is part of history. There are lots of records of that history, although most of the WWII soldiers are now gone.

For heaven's sake, the concrete ceiling panels of a highway tunnel fall down, and you guys are discussing a war which ended almost 70 years ago! What on earth does one have to do with the other???

Homesick

You had to see the deleted post by vick. I agree my post no longer fits the discussion.

I'd rather drive one of those than the Obama mobile.

These things happen so often because you are able to receive info immediately and not weeks, months or never.

The weather has been ever changing for millions of years, earthquakes, hurricanes, noreasters, cyclones, typhoons, and so on.

A guy who cuts of his arm to escape death would not be worldwide news 30 years ago because newspapers only had so much space to fill.

Get it?

And your experience has made you an expert? Tell us more on how you came up with the infrastructure claim? I am in a Major city with most of the infrastructures is 20 years or less old.

I would like to know which major city in American has infrastructure which mostly is less than 20 years old!