Water Protector: We still love you guys. Please come pray with us.
Narrator: Hey you guys want to come eat with us? We're going home to get some supper. It's cold out here.
Backwater Bridge
It is not a coincidence that so many terrible police actions have happened on this bridge. It seems now to be a symbol for the lies and ruthlessness of those working in behalf of the now officially illegal effort of DAPL to being working on the pipeline. The reason still being given for keeping the bridge closed is that it may be structurally unsafe for traffic because two trucks on the bridge had been set on fire. Yet, according to a major research article, sponsored by Virginia Polytechnic Institute el al, a fire event with sufficient magnitude to damage a concrete bridge structure is rare.
Most fire events will not exceed the threshold for bridge damage. Foremost is the fact that most fires involving bridges do not result in structural damage. Fires located in the center of the bridge, both longitudinally and transversely (Location A), caused the largest vertical deflection"If there is evidence that the steel temperature may have exceeded 1000 degreesC, such as evidence of flaking or surface degradation along with the presence of abnormally high temperature heating, the fitness for service of the steel requires further evaluation. Note that this is an extremely un-likely scenario in bridge fires and should only be considered for abnormal circumstances are expected"Spalling where the concrete has fallen off is easy to visually detect.
Fire will have no effect on the stress concentration effects since the weldment geometry will not change. There may actually be a beneficial effect in that fire heating may act like a stress relief treatment that reduces the residual stresses.
Even if the trucks had been loaded with jet fuel and had not been put out by water cannons (after they were used on the water protectors), the trucks were not even actually on the bridge, let alone in the center of it. I submit that continuing to allow the lies to force people including emergency services providers, to go an hour out of the way on dangerous winter roads to get to and from town is criminal. The lies that continue being spread must be challenged by authorities, perhaps the same ones who should be stopping the continuing work on the pipeline. Apparently discussions are underway between North Dakota's governor and Dave Archambouldt, Chair of the Standing Rock Tribal Council, to reopen the bridge, but instead of opening it or clearing the barriers so someone can check it for structural damage, more barriers are placed on it. Indeed, the heavy concrete barriers themselves likely weigh more than a moving truck. But even the Bismarck Times Union has followed the lead of the Gazzette in falsely describing what happened, claiming it was the protestors who assaulted the officers and blocked the road with burning vehicles. The authorities continue to say that the only reason it remains unopened is because the bridge's safety was compromised by the burning trucks. Even the tribal chair has declared this to be the case according to an excellent report by C.S. Hagen of the High Plains Reader who covered the story of the confrontation on the bridge the night the militia that shot water cannons at the water protectors in freezing weather and almost blew off the arm of a young girl when witnesses say a policemen counted to five before throwing a concussion grenade, which of course the police have denied doing as they have denied using the water cannons for any purpose other than putting out the fires the protestors made (and the only ones they made were to warm people up who had been sprayed!)
North Dakota Department of Transportation has closed the Backwater Bridge due to damage caused after protesters set numerous fires on the bridge October 27," Morton County Sheriff's Department reported. "In addition, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has requested Morton County to prevent protesters from trespassing on USACE land north of the camp."Archambault said reports Backwater Bridge is damaged are not true, and an excuse for law enforcement to block Highway 1806.
I wonder if the Spirits had not protected the Water Protectors on the bridge last night and one of the bullets would have fatally hit someone in the head if more officials would start to challenge the treachery and deceptions that continue to define the oil industry's efforts to continue their destruction?
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