Minneapolis bridge collapse

[rock_nog]

Holy crap... Just over in Minneapolis, the 35W bridge over the Mississippi River collapsed and sent a bunch of cars plunging into the water. And right now, a storm is rolling in, which I think is gonna seriously mess with rescue efforts. Good God...

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/08/01/bridge.collapse/index.html

[erm2003]

That's horrible. The article says there are 3 lives lost so far, hopefully there won't be any more.

I wonder how old the bridge is. Looks like the supports just gave away. The article says there was construction work going on. Hopefully there wasn't some weird human error...

[phattonez]

Holy hell this was an interstate bridge? This is exactly what happens when the government ignores our infrastructure.

[CrystalBlade]

According to http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN0123484920070802:

"The Minnesota Department of Transportation said in a May 2006 report that inspectors saw fatigue cracks and bending of girders, according to the local ABC-TV affiliate."

If this is true, then I don't like it at all. =/ That better be what the construction is about, since apparently nobody knows what kind of construction was going on. There is still no excuse.

I hope there aren't any more casualties. I know I wouldn't want to be on that bridge, or anywhere near it for that matter.

[Beldaran]

It will be interesting to see if there are political implications for the government ignoring the engineers' reports on the cracks and bent girders.

[XMuppetSB]

Holy shit!:eek: That bridge was built 40 years ago, but it just collapsed today? That's horrible! And several vehicles caught on fire according to what Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-35W_Bridge#Effects_of_the_collapse) says. We haven't had a bridge disaster like this in a while, have we? The cause of the failure still remains a mystery, however...

[Aegix Drakan]

That sucks like crap.

I hope that casualties remain minimal.

[Glenn the Great]

At the risk of being called morbid again, I'd just like to state that I hope by some chance someone caught the collapse on video.

[CrystalBlade]

The death count is now up to 6, and it looks like its staying there, along with the 28 other injuries.

Haha, right as the news comes on: "See if any Portland bridges are in danger!!"

Somehow, I don't think so.

[Prrkitty]

CrystalBlade... I doubt the I-5 or the I-205 bridges will collapse. I think they're both fairly new. Plus the I-5 at Jantzen Beach has had reconstruction going on for a few years now.

Last I read the death toll was up to 6. And I think I read where the bridge was 40 years old. I feel sorry for the family/friends of those caught on the bridge. I also read where there was a bus load of kids on the bridge when it collapsed. The bus didn't fall in - thank God... and supposedly all the kids were rescued.

[Orion]

It's a little freaky. I can't tell you how many times I've driven across that bridge. 35W is probably the most frequently traveled interstate in the Twin Cities. You never even think that something like that could happen. Thankfully the traffic was reduced to only a couple of lanes because of surface work, or it could have been a lot worse.

[phattonez]

I heard that the bridge repair was only on the deck, not the support structures. So that's great, they knew that there was a problem and they did nothing about it.

[Zelda_Warrior]

Well I don't see too many bridge collpases with bridges that big.

Also, it looks like a pretty heavy-used bridge, so im not surprised it collapsed. But what makes me wonder is why it wasnt fixed a little sooner? If it was inspected sooner they could have made repairs. Not only was the money put into making that bridge wasted, but now the death toll is getting higher now, and if only they fixed it all of this could have been prevented... Youd think theyd do more inspections on higher traffic bridges. But even that isn't enough. If you find a problem you need to fix it then.


I heard that the bridge repair was only on the deck, not the support structures. So that's great, they knew that there was a problem and they did nothing about it.

Well that makes things even worse...

[Orion]

To clarify, the construction on the bridge was not to the bridge itself, it was only resurfacing. It had nothing to do with the bridge structure, or why it collapsed. The bridge was inspected recently and there were no problems with the support structure. So who knows what went wrong with it.

[AtmaWeapon]

Resurfacing can put a lot of stress on a structure; I swear I read something of a bridge that was too close to its safety factors and the added weight of the new asphalt was the straw that broke the camel's back.

I'm sure there will be an intense investigation and the results will turn out to be similar to the Challenger disaster; engineers that knew, managers that didn't want to know, and politicians that were more than happy to hear what the managers told them. The engineers might speak up though history has set the precedent that doing so tends to put a really black mark on your career. If they don't speak up, the public will bridge the gap but what can they do about it?

I daresay that, absent a truly anonymous whistleblowing mechanism, we should expect to see catastrophic engineering failures with increasing frequency.

[Cloral]

This makes me think of Katrina. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that the local and state politicians diverted bridge repair funds for their own pet projects.

[biggiy05]

I've got some friends out there that run a case modding workshop. The shop is only a few miles from the bridge which is freaky but they are all safe along with the families.

[Mitsukara]

Damn. Bridges scare me for this reason. Apparently there was one around Bremerton that collapsed sometime in the 90s, too- although I hear it was wobbling before the collapse, and there was more than one way so people had the chance to go around it. Still, damn. I'm only just recently getting over being apprehensive when I'm in a car going across a bridge here :X

I hate to admit I wouldn't be surprised if they did indeed know the bridge had flaws and didn't want to spend the money to fix it anyway. The joys of capitalism at work; why pay to fix something really expensive that's "probably" going to be fine?

Damn.

[Cloral]

I was reading the topic about this at Wikipedia, and it lists something like 4 different surveys that were done this decade that found major structural problems or classified the bridge as being in need of replacement. So yeah, they knew there were problems with the bridge and chose to ignore them.

[Prrkitty]

My God-Mother lives not too far from that bridge as does her kids/grandkids/family/etc. As far as I know, last I heard everyone is safe.

I feel sorry for those that aren't...

[The_Amaster]

Yeah, front page of my paper carried a huge article on this.

Of course they knew and didn't do anything about it. Is anyone really suprised? I know that in these last few years I'm not.


This makes me think of Katrina

Yup.

[Cloral]

Of course they knew and didn't do anything about it. Is anyone really suprised? I know that in these last few years I'm not.


What I mean is, people need to get outraged at this. Otherwise it is going to keep happening again and again.

[phattonez]

The US in general doesn't do enough for transportation. So if you need to attack anyone, attack the system which is keeping us in traffic with undermaintained roadways.

[Zelda_Warrior]

Spending too much time fixing little cracks in the roads and not enough time fixing bridges. I always see work being done on roads that don't really need it, but hardly ever work on the bridges around where i live, but i'm sure the bridges need more care than the road does because theyre under a lot more stress

[Glenn the Great]

A lot of the people in this country are very lax about preparing for disaster. There is a prevailing mentality of "Oh! That's not going to happen!" People who warn of impending danger are too easily written off as Chicken Littles and ignored.

Much of this is due in fact to our country's lucky streak of low disasters. Our most critical issues, like the WTC destruction, Katrina, school shootings, or this bridge's collapse, are absolutely nothing compared to what most other countries face on a regular basis.

We've grown complacent, and our sense of security isn't realistic.

[biggiy05]

Spending too much time fixing little cracks in the roads and not enough time fixing bridges. I always see work being done on roads that don't really need it, but hardly ever work on the bridges around where i live, but i'm sure the bridges need more care than the road does because theyre under a lot more stress

We don't have many bridges around me...actually I only know of one and it's a very small bridge.

161 and I-270 are two of the busiest roads in Ohio and they just started an expansion project in 2003-2004? It's slated to be done by 2009 but if Korna-Kokosing can finish early they get one hell of a bonus so they are moving as fast as they can. Right now 161 is 2 lanes and I-270 is three. They are almost always congested during the day and rush hour traffic is no better.

What's sad is that ODOT is always somewhere one of these two roads filling in cracks with fresh asphalt or tar. Waste of money.

[Deviance]

Yesterday when I woke up and went downstairs I saw it on CNN. I am very shocked. This is why I don't trust bridges. I know for a fact that the bridges in my area are unstable. One bridge in our area you can see swaying. Yet they say oh it's fine. I would like to know if they really do inspect the bridges. I highly doubt it. For the people that lost their life that day. My heart goes out to them.

[deathbyhokie]

What's sad is that ODOT is always somewhere one of these two roads filling in cracks with fresh asphalt or tar. Waste of money.

ODOT, or contractors hired by ODOT? Not ot mention it's better off to seal the surface cracks now, rather than allow water to seem into the subsurface and proceed to tear the road up from underneath.


I would like to know if they really do inspect the bridges
Yes, they do. I bet you that your state's DOT has several people on the payroll with the title "Bridge Inspector". Guess what they do every day?


The US in general doesn't do enough for transportation. So if you need to attack anyone, attack the system which is keeping us in traffic with undermaintained roadways.
Agreed.

[biggiy05]

ODOT, or contractors hired by ODOT? Not ot mention it's better off to seal the surface cracks now, rather than allow water to seem into the subsurface and proceed to tear the road up from underneath.

A mix of both. Sometimes ODOT is filling in the cracks and other times it's contractors. I forgot to mention that Ohio has a had habit of letting roads get torn up into nothing before replacing them. They are getting better but they seem to think a 5 mile stretch of tar will fix the problem.

[AtmaWeapon]

I just read on Wikipedia the bridge fell down because of a particularly intense fight between two trainers who were sadly unaware of the folly of battling Snorlax vs. Geodude on a flimsy bridge.

*edit* Also no one got offended by my pun I am sad now :(

[Glenn the Great]

I also read on Wikipedia that one of the rescue workers swimming around in the river was approached by someone who asked him if he had found any Mudkips in the river.

He replied saying that he was trying to recover missing persons.

The stranger replied by saying he was asking because he heard the rescue worker liked Mudkips.

[Aegix Drakan]

Mudkips? wtf?

If that guy was trying to be funny, he failed. Massively.

And I know what you guys mean about the government fixing perfectly good roads. My dad drove me to high school every morning, and at one point, an intersection we crossed was put under construction. After a few months, it was done, and was better. a month later, it went under constuction again, and the end result made it even worse than the original original!

[AtmaWeapon]

Yeah the mudkip bridge was a bit of a stretch, I think the joke kind of collapsed there. I was working towards more of a jab at how just a few hours after the incident Wikipedia was being cited as the source of startling information, when the following two facts are true: The expert sources on the article at this point were guys who got the information from Fox News, who got the information from whatever they could get anyone to tell them. If you were to put all of the Pokemon articles on Wikipedia together I have a suspicion that their wordcount could trump Dickens at his best.