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Hydrodemolition Robot Crushes With Water
Roland Piquepaille writes "In 'Robot pummels roads with water', the Augusta Chronicle says that a hydrodemolition robot is going to restore seven bridges in Georgia. "It's a robot that destroys everything in its path with a crushing stream of water 15 times more powerful than a jackhammer. The robot looks like a street cleaner machine on steroids and is expected to begin use August 1 to resurface seven bridges on Gordon Highway from Walton Way to the bridge at the South Carolina state line." This kind of robot needs only two workers to operate it, instead of 15 workers for a jackhammer, is less noisy and more gentle for the foundations. You'll find more details in this summary."
Does it recycle the water? seems like alot of water to be wasting. But since its the City or State that would be using, its ok to waste water. Altho there will still be 15 people standing around to "supervise" the two people required to run this machine.
I know that the stream of water isn't going to be vibrating the road as a jackhammer would, but wouldn't 4 times as much power causes fractures of another sort? What if it is causing problems yet unseen?
And so we go, on with our lives
We know the truth, but prefer lies
Lies are simple, simple is bliss
I saw a report a few years ago about the advantages of using a high-pressure water 'gun' for cutting metal. Some of the advantages was that the cooling was already taken care of, the material was recyclable with a filter, and the edges were already smoothed.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
You'd think they would have come up with a better way to break up asphalt than hitting it really hard by now. I mean, look at all the advances in advertising, military technology, and other things that are bad for the general public, and how little improvement there has been in fixing potential safety hazards.
-Amalcon
Oh, perhaps because they might get more work done by using 8 crews and the State hiring another guy to make it a full 16?
:-)
They might have to work nights if 8 crews only have 2 machines?
They might get to work many more years in good health, including good hearing?
They are still experiencing trauma from the demise of the buggy whip, gas light and candle industries?
Just guesses of course
BTW, I think GA is a "right to work State", so Unions have less power to keep work in the dark ages.
Eve Fairbanks says I drive a hybrid!LOL
Last decade, in Washington State, hydrodemolition was used to "resurface" the Eastbound lanes of the Lake Washington Floating Bridge, a couple of miles from the Western end of Interstate 90.
Due to a chain of snafus, the "floating" bridge sunk one Thanksgiving day. Very nearly sunk the brand new Westbound floating bridge right next to it. (Part of the root cause was the storage of hydrodemolition wastewater in the flotation cells of the bridge.)
Some years later, the records of liability were sealed in a court settlement between the state and the contractor.
15 workers for a jackhammer
Fifteen guys??? How many guys does it take to go to the Krispy Kreme??
Man, I'm in the wrong line of work.
Google Search on high pressure water cutting
A simple search and you will see many different machines that use high pressure water to do their deed. Many years ago I remember watching Beyond2000 discuss a tool used to cut wood - each cut was smooth and precise.
On the subject, in the dorms there were always people who would go turn on the shower and then go take a 10 minute crap while the water was running... or leave the sink full blast while brushing their teeth.
Ahhh, you could always tell who the Easterners were. "Defrost the turkey? Yah, just leave it in the sink with the water running..."
Of course, there are still a lot of people out West who still don't get it. Watering lawns with what amounts to drinking water? And they wonder why their water bills are so high...
If they could figure out a way to use the old concrete with the waste water to immediatly make new concrete it would be like a Zamboni for the highway.
Perhaps I am one of the few Civil Engineers who find myself reading /. So +karma to the editors for bringing this article.
I still would like to know how it removes the concret and doesn't dammage the rebar. When you start getting aligator cracking in concrete roads, water has more than likely reached the rebar, rusting it.
Some newer road specs require that the rebar be coated with epoxy. This cuts down on rust, and may allow for rebar reuse in the case stated with the article.
--C. Alan, PE
Can you give me a link about the origin of "top-notch"?
Yeah, I did some serious googling for it too, and couldn't find it.
As I recall, the "top-notcher" was one of two guys on either end of a long, two handled saw. He stood at the top of a pit, and the other fellow stood in the pit, to facilitate cutting logs. Working together, they'd saw the logs.
Of course the guy down in the pit -- the top-notcher's opposite numbre -- had all the sawdust floating down on him, and inevitably he inhaled it. Over the course of about 10 years, he'd inhale enough sawdust to cause lung disease and premature death, disease and death the top-knotcher, by virtue of his position (literally, his position) avoided.
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
Take a basic class in macroeconomics -- this will explain it to you clearly.
Your argument has been going on for centuries. One common incarnation of it was "Malthusian" economics -- in the 1700s Robert Malthus predicted that we would all run out of food if the population kept growing and people would die by the masses from starvation. He never accounted for the fact that we can make more food with more technology.
How does it work, then? In a nutshell, seamstress gets replaced by a machine, machine puts her out of work, but seamstress can get a job as a machine operator. Machine makes more clothes then seamstress, thus she gets a higher wage (cutting out the Marxian labor value of theory, etc). Jobs are now availible for machine engineers, maintenence and manufacture, too. But the total number of jobs has dropped because all these people will not outnumber the number of people that were seamstresses and replaced.
How do you keep full employment, then? Well, clothes are now cheaper so more people will buy them (supply-demand) making a need for more machines and more machine operators.
Thus the answer is that you have to buy more stuff. Every machine that replaces people can sustain the current level of employment if people buy more stuff. That is why the economy has to be constantly growing at 2.5% per anum or else unemployment rises. You have to buy 2.5% more shit per year to keep unemployment low.
****Capitalism needs an exponeantially growing rate of consumption to survive****
That is why so many have predicted it will fail.
That is also why advertising is being shoved down your throat more and more year by year -- the market in some areas in saturated so companies convince you you need something so you will buy more stuff.
What if all the markets are saturated? What can a country do to keep unemployment low? They can conquer other countries and use them as markets to sell stuff to as well as have them be a source for cheap raw materials. What do you think the British Empire was all about?
What do you think us being the "world police" is all about?
Absolutely fascinating subject.