Holy Crap! Major Bridge Collapse

[danlo]

news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070802/ap_on_re_u ... ollapse_13

[dlbpharmd]

WOW!

[Cail]

Wow.

As horrible as it is, it looked awesome. There's something fascinating about watching stuff fall down.

[Damelon]

Man, that's nasty!

[The Laughing Man]

how in the hell does something like that happen? Even in a backwater area like I live in where a river runs thru almost every town (ALOT of bridges around here) I can find references in the local papers to bridge inspections and subsequent repairs. They just repaired and repaved all the sidewalks on the main one here in town and the bridge was just built 10 years ago! (note: there are still sidewalks with "stamps" on them from the companies that laid them in the 1890's without a crack in them on some streets btw. Being "economical" these days is resulting in low-bid cheap crap with no maintenance thats endangering all our lives....Boston, anyone? )

This collapse is a HUGE failure on the parts of city govt inspectors/engineers there. That is seriously whacked, man.

[Elfgirl]

Yeah, that's what happens when you route funds to useless police actions in other countries...your own country's infrastructure suffers!

Watch the Dubya crew try and find a 'terrorist' connection so they can hide the fact that their own negligence is at fault here.

[matrixman]

Yeah, crazy stuff. Shakes one's confidence in the integrity of modern construction practices.

[Damelon]

This doesn't really have anything to do with W. The state of Minnesota is responsible for maintainence. I'd hate to be those Mn DOT engineers that gave it the ok over the last couple of years.

[Menolly]

Are y'all sure it's not the work of You-Know-Who and the Death Eaters?

[emotional leper]

Are y'all sure it's not the work of You-Know-Who and the Death Eaters?

I had nothing to do with this, and would never consort with Moldy Voldy's followers.

[edit] It was just pointed out to me that Lady Godiva is the Patron Saint of Engineers, not me.

[Avatar]

Nothing Wrong With Bridge

Minneapolis - The bridge on highway I-35 that collapsed on Wednesday over the Mississippi River was built 40 years ago and was under repair for minor problems, Minnesota state authorities said.

Constructed in 1967, the mainly steel structure stretched 581 metres across the river in Minneapolis and rested on 14 spans.

The section of the bridge that straddled the Mississippi measured 300 metres and consisted of three continuous spans, with the central part 139 metres long, and two others at 80 metres each.

In accordance with government regulations in force in 1961, the structure was designed using a cantilever method, with decks resting on triangular metal girders supported by arches between the spans.

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty said that the bridge was last inspected in 2006 and no significant structural problems were found.

The governor said engineers found the bridge deck would need attention in the future and that minor repairs were under way.

"They notified us from an engineering standpoint the deck may have to be rehabilitated or replaced in 2020 or beyond," he said.

There was work taking place on the bridge "relating to concrete repair and rehabilitation and replacement, guard rail replacement, righting replacement and work on the joints", he said.

Corrosion, poor welding

But a 2001 report by the state's Department of Transportation pointed to problems with corrosion in the bridge's steel beams and "poor welding" in trusses.

The report also said that the design of the bridge, in which only two main trusses support the load of eight lanes of traffic, was "theoretically" at risk of collapse in the case of a single crack in a truss section.

The construction method used for the bridge was re-evaluated in the 1970s and design regulations have since become stricter, according to the report.

For Minnesota's harsh winters, the bridge is equipped with an automatic system that sprays antifreeze on car lanes.

Interstate 35 is one of many national highways that criss-cross the United States. The north-south route stretches from the Canadian border to Laredo, Texas, at the border with Mexico, passing through Minneapolis, Kansas City, Oklahoma City and Dallas.

--A

[Zarathustra]

Watching this horrific accident, of course people think about 9/11. Or at least I did. Not the terrorism or the politics, but the carnage, the innocents dying unnecessarily, and the sheer scale. I'm not trying to make a connection between them at all, I'm just trying to relate my feelings of horror at watching this. (I also have some personal reasons to be spooked out by it, but I'll post those in the Close.)

Anyway, watching this unfold, I was thinking, "Well, at least this can't be blamed on Bush." Looks like I was wrong. That's really sad. Dozens of families drowned in their own cars with their children buckled in "safely" in the back seat. Dying while hearing your children scream for their lives must be one f*cked up way to go. Let's not cheapen their deaths by making this political. Please.

[Furls Fire]

Sweet, sweet mercy

[aliantha]

What a tragedy. I feel sad for the folks waiting to hear about their loved ones.

[Ki]

This is just so incredibly sad. Last night, I had trouble sleeping thinking about how horrific it would be to be in that situation. I saw a photo of a mother on the bridge holding her very little baby and another photo of a man sitting beside an injured girl he didn't know, holding her hand, comforting her, and I just cried thinking of what that must’ve been like for them.

[High Lord Tolkien]

That's really sad. Dozens of families drowned in their own cars with their children buckled in "safely" in the back seat.

The number has been downgraded to 4 I think, not dozens.

[Ki]

That's really sad. Dozens of families drowned in their own cars with their children buckled in "safely" in the back seat.

The number has been downgraded to 4 I think, not dozens.

Four confirmed but they don't know what they will find in the cars that sunk.

[dANdeLION]

Anyway, watching this unfold, I was thinking, "Well, at least this can't be blamed on Bush." Looks like I was wrong. That's really sad. Dozens of families drowned in their own cars with their children buckled in "safely" in the back seat. Dying while hearing your children scream for their lives must be one f*cked up way to go. Let's not cheapen their deaths by making this political. Please.

A-freaking-men.

[High Lord Tolkien]

Being "economical" these days is resulting in low-bid cheap crap with no maintenance thats endangering all our lives....Boston, anyone? )

The
I just heard that the Big Dig will last for decades based upon the original spec of 35,000 gallons of water a year that has to pass through the system.

Sounds good right?
Except that currently MILLIONS of gallons of water are going through the setup down there......EVERY MONTH!


So the concrete and steel is being put way past it's design limits every second of every day.

F#cking genius!!

This collapse is a HUGE failure on the parts of city govt inspectors/engineers there. That is seriously whacked, man.

It sounds trite but.... sometimes unexpected sh#t happens no matter you do.

[wayfriend]

Nothing Wrong With Bridge

... Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty said that the bridge was last inspected in 2006 and no significant structural problems were found. ...

That's amazing.

Someone else on the radio this morning, not sure who but she said it was "her district" said the bridge was inspected in 2001 and that the report was showing stress problems.

Since without a link I am a nobody, I went and found this:

Minnesota bridge was 'structurally deficient'

The 40-year-old bridge that collapsed in Minnesota last night, causing the deaths of at least seven people, was graded "structurally deficient" two years ago but was not scheduled to be replaced until 2020. [link]

Bridge maintenance is suffering everywhere. For lack of federal highway funds.

And inspectors, I am sure, are paid to not find problems.

Let's not cheapen their deaths by making this political. Please.

Why is it that it's the people who are to blame that always say that.