Monorail support beams

[mitros]

Has anyone heard of this?' A number of years ago, we were talking to a bus driver at wdw and he told us that the ground support beams for the monorail originally were given a life span of 25 years by the construction company that built them, which would make them 6 years beyond there expected life. How 'bout it Tyler, ever hear that one?

 

[Debi]

Hi there! In order to get an answer to your question, I'm going to move this thread to the Transportation Board. Please check there for further replies. Thanks!

 

[Obi-Wan Pinobi]

Well, Debi was up disgustingly early on a Sunday morning.

My guess is periodic maintenance contributes to lengthened lifespan of the support beams. I don't know about the construction of them but I would imagine they're made of steel-reinforced concrete like highway overpasses.

 

[Chip 'n Dale Express]

The rated life span is more on the lines of 50 years... however, they may last double that... They are made out of a special concrete that is reinforced, and super strong. I used to know more details on that... but... it's Sunday, I'm on vacatation... and so is my brain.

For maintenance... twice a year, the beams get X-Rayed and phyically inspected to insure that they are in proper shape.

In addition to that, last year, there were some sections of the beam that got resurfaced. They would mill down the concrete about an inch or two, and then resurface it with new concrete. It took them about 5-8hrs just to do 1-2ft of milling.

We also do periodical sand blasting and pressure washing to clean the beams. If you go now, you'll notice a lot of the beams in guest areas are super clean, and look brand new.

Rest assured... those beams are A-OK.

 

[Mark P.]

Thanks for the info., Tyler