Nice job by the rescue personnel in Louisville Kentucky

[Omega Man]

The good work and some luck gave this drive a second chance on life today-

I have run wreckers in the past and have done a lot of technical rigging. This is a nice job, complicated by the obvious. It seems fortunate that this occurred over a main, concrete span support which I would guess allowed the bridge to "take" a load moment in a direction that it wasn't designed to absorb.
If I was anywhere close, I would take a look and see what they come up with for a removal.
I'm guessing that this "older" bridge was designed in the "slide-rule" era when the calculations were made and were "rounded" up to achieve the final specifications.
OM

 

[dduelin]

Yes, amazing work by a well trained urban rescue unit. Miracles still happen.

 

[skibum69]

They left that rescuer hanging in position for a long time.

 

[lee]

Looks like a lot of the maneuvering was done by hand.

 

[Omega Man]

Best I can tell is they rigged 2 pulleys and ropes off the end of the ladder truck and a team of men were on each line. Without a winch out at the end of the ladder, the teams suffered the disadvantage of having to gain or lose as the ladder was extended or retracted.
It’s a pretty simple operation when there is a winch at the end, pure muscle and grip the way they did it.
Figure around 450 lbs out on the end of the ropes.
Real men doing real work.
OM

 

[dduelin]

Best I can tell is they rigged 2 pulleys and ropes off the end of the ladder truck and a team of men were on each line. Without a winch out at the end of the ladder, the teams suffered the disadvantage of having to gain or lose as the ladder was extended or retracted.
It’s a pretty simple operation when there is a winch at the end, pure muscle and grip the way they did it.
Figure around 450 lbs out on the end of the ropes.
Real men doing real work.
OM

Hey, my daughter is part of an urban rescue team in a million plus population city that trains for stuff like this. She'll still help men when they need it......

 

[Omega Man]

Looks like they did a “hand over hand” shuffle using 3 “rotator” style wreckers-

New photos shows damage following semi crash, rescue on Clark Memorial Bridge; bridge set to re-open

The inspections began Friday night, hours after a semi truck veered off the road following a crash that led to a woman's rescue and two others seriously injured.

www.whas11.com

Very tricky.
Very nice.
OM

 

[20774]

I never did see what the crews did to stabilize the truck from slipping any further which then would allow them to maneuver to rescue the driver.

 

[Omega Man]

I never did see what the crews did to stabilize the truck from slipping any further which then would allow them to maneuver to rescue the driver.

I didn't either. The truck looked sufficiently wedged where it was but was probably secured so it wouldn't shift. Choosing an anchor point in a case like that would be multiple anchor points to reduce the bridge loading in a direction most likely not taken into consideration during the design.
OM

 

[20774]

There were two cranes on the bridge that I could see. One was used to lower/raise the people. Maybe the one in the background was used to "anchor" the truck?

 

[Omega Man]

There were two cranes on the bridge that I could see. One was used to lower/raise the people. Maybe the one in the background was used to "anchor" the truck?

The rescue appeared to be using a traditional ladder truck as a rigging point as my description described earlier. In the second video, it shows the three "rotator" wreckers on the bridge probably handing off the load to each other as the truck became closer to being back on the bridge.
OM