Retired engineer and Quality Assurance Manager, Neil Blues, is among many who are perplexed at the current testing of the Cowes floating bridge.
He claims in a letter sent today to Cabinet member for Transport, Cllr Ian Ward, that the testing is taking place without the correct weight on board, nor during the worst conditions for the floating bridge.
He claims the testing that is being carried out by engineers will prove nothing of worth.
Why it’s pointless
Neil’s letter to Cllr Ward reads,
Dear Ian,
As a retired Quality Assurance Manager and engineer, I have to inform you that the current test loading of the floating bridge is not likely to prove anything of worth.
There is a concept called “Boundary Testing” in engineering that your test people should be following.
It mandates testing at the boundaries of the specification i.e minimum value, nominal value, maximum value and over the maximum value.
There are statements for the mass of various objects within the Replacement Floating Bridge Technical Specification Rev 0 BCP/J/10384/00 that do not have authoritative references; because of that the stated masses are suspect and may not represent the real world.
All testing needs to be done at the minimum and maximum loading of the vessel at the extremes of tide height i.e. springs and neaps and at the extremes of tidal velocity in both directions.
If you would like the benefit and knowledge of my extensive career, ask.
Regards
Neil J Blues JP (Retd)
Genuine offer of help
Neil is just one of many engineers and various experts who have offered advice and genuine help to the Isle of Wight council over the last nine months.
They say they’re doing offering their help so the IWC can avoid unnecessary expenditure of ratepayers’ money on non-fixes and, of course, so they can know how to assess the floating bridge properly.
Some say it appears to have fallen on deaf ears.
Image: © BBC
