Breaking news!

[Nessa 23]

First thing I check when I wake up is the weather on Yahoo and then I read about the bridge and made me thing of Alex and Rey, don't know if they're still living there or not.

[Heracles 417]

Is anyone surprised this happened. I mean come on now. The infrastructure in the US is decades old. Be it bridges, roads, buildings etc. This was the first thing I noticed the first time I arrived in the US.

For once I would like to see politicians and Mayors in office who propose upgrading this nation's infrastructure. It looks like the last time this happened was during the Eisenhower era.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Listening to evil talk radio last night I heard some people comment that structures built 30 to 50 years ago weren't over engineered as much as things built before and after this period. The Brooklyn bridge was built with a 6 fold safety factor for example. And bridges built now are to much more stringent standards.

[Heracles 417]

Listening to evil talk radio last night I heard some people comment that structures built 30 to 50 years ago weren't over engineered as much as things built before and after this period. The Brooklyn bridge was built with a 6 fold safety factor for example. And bridges built now are to much more stringent standards.

All the more reason to start large scale upgrades of the nation's infrastructure. Not only will it change the nations shabby image but it also improves quality of living as well as generates a large number of jobs.

Edited August 2, 2007 by Boo-Yah!

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Listening to evil talk radio last night I heard some people comment that structures built 30 to 50 years ago weren't over engineered as much as things built before and after this period. The Brooklyn bridge was built with a 6 fold safety factor for example. And bridges built now are to much more stringent standards.

All the more reason to start large scale upgrades of the nation's infrastructure. Not only will it change the nations shabby image but it also improves quality of living as well as generates a large number of jobs.

They also said 25% of bridges (30,000+ of a total of 120,000+) are in bad structural shape. I can't find a link or I'd post it. Local news yesterday in Mass (before the collapse) just said we are $300 million behind on repairs to bridges in Mass alone.

[Kathryn41 3,205]

As of 5:16 AM.

Hometown newspaper The Star-Tribune reported that nine people had been confirmed dead, 60 had been taken to hospitals and at least 20 remained missing early Thursday. The Associated Press put the number dead at seven so far.

Authorities said the death toll was expected to climb.

Asked about the possibility of finding more survivors, Fire Chief Jim Clack said, “The likelihood is fairly slim.”

and my sister lives there. no word yet from her

I hope you have heard from your sister by now. My 3 friends -and one of their sisters- who live in Minneapolis all checked in last night. One of them had driven over the same bridge earlier that day but was well south of it by the time of the tragedy. My heart goes out to all affected.

[RaspberrySwirl 20]

We're OK.

Anyone hear from Alex and Rey?

[Dan J 277]

Listening to evil talk radio last night I heard some people comment that structures built 30 to 50 years ago weren't over engineered as much as things built before and after this period. The Brooklyn bridge was built with a 6 fold safety factor for example. And bridges built now are to much more stringent standards.

All the more reason to start large scale upgrades of the nation's infrastructure. Not only will it change the nations shabby image but it also improves quality of living as well as generates a large number of jobs.

They also said 25% of bridges (30,000+ of a total of 120,000+) are in bad structural shape. I can't find a link or I'd post it. Local news yesterday in Mass (before the collapse) just said we are $300 million behind on repairs to bridges in Mass alone.

Don't you love our priorities, we can spend billions in Iraq to fix and rebuild infrastructure there that may only get taken over or blown up, but we cant find money to fix our own bridges.

[Heracles 417]

Don't you love our priorities, we can spend billions in Iraq to fix and rebuild infrastructure there that may only get taken over or blown up, but we cant find money to fix our own bridges.

Never thought we would agree on something but I agree 110%..

[Ban Hammer 13,255]

We're OK.

Anyone hear from Alex and Rey?

not seen or heard from them in about a month. i'm worried about rey

[eric&gen 0]

This is really sad seems bridges are falling apart as of late makes me scared to not want to drive across one.

[Ban Hammer 13,255]

update:

Minn. bridge problems uncovered in 1990

MINNEAPOLIS - Minnesota officials were warned as early as 1990 that the bridge that plummeted into the Mississippi River was "structurally deficient," yet they relied on a strategy of patchwork fixes and stepped-up inspections.

"We thought we had done all we could," state bridge engineer Dan Dorgan told reporters not far from the mangled remains of the span. "Obviously something went terribly wrong."

Questions about the cause of the collapse and whether it could have been prevented arose Thursday as authorities shifted from rescue efforts to a grim recovery operation, searching for bodies that may be hidden beneath the river's swirling currents.

The official death count from Wednesday's rush-hour collapse stood at four, with another 79 injuries. But police said the death count would surely grow because bodies had been spotted in the water and as many as 30 people were still reported missing.

In 1990, the federal government gave the I-35W bridge a rating of "structurally deficient," citing significant corrosion in its bearings. The bridge is one of 77,000 bridges in that category nationwide, 1,160 in Minnesota alone.

The designation means some portions of the bridge needed to be scheduled for repair or replacement, and it was on a schedule for inspection every two years.

Dorgan said the bearings could not have been repaired without jacking up the entire deck of the bridge. Because the bearings were not sliding, inspectors concluded the corrosion was not a major issue.

During the 1990s, later inspections found fatigue cracks and corrosion in the steel around the bridge's joints. Those problems were repaired. Starting in 1993, the state said, the bridge was inspected annually instead of every other year.

A 2005 federal inspection also rated the bridge structurally deficient, giving it a 50 on scale of 100 for structural stability.

White House press secretary Tony Snow said while the inspection didn't indicate the bridge was at risk of failing, "If an inspection report identifies deficiencies, the state is responsible for taking corrective actions."

Gov. Tim Pawlenty responded Thursday by ordering an immediate inspection of all bridges in the state with similar designs, but said the state was never warned that the bridge needed to be closed or immediately repaired.

"There was a view that the bridge was ultimately and eventually going to need to be replaced," he said. "But it appears from the information that we have available that a timeline for that was not immediate or imminent, but more in the future."

Federal officials alerted states to immediately inspect all bridges similar to the one that collapsed.

The eight-lane Interstate 35W bridge was Minnesota's busiest bridge, carrying 141,000 vehicles a day. It was in the midst of mostly repaving repairs when it buckled during the evening rush hour. Dozens of cars plummeted more than 60 feet into the Mississippi River, some falling on top one of another. A school bus sat on the angled concrete.

Engineers wondered whether heavy traffic might have contributed to the collapse. Studies of the bridge have raised concern about cracks caused by metal fatigue.

"I think everybody is looking at fatigue right now, fatigue due to heavy traffic," said Kent Harries, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering in the University of Pittsburgh's School of Engineering. "This is an interstate bridge that sees a lot of truck traffic."

After a study raised concern about cracks, the state was given two alternatives: Add steel plates to reinforce critical parts or conduct a thorough inspection of certain areas to see if there were additional cracks. They chose the inspection route, beginning that examination in May.

Dorgan said officials considered the cracks on parts of the bridge to be stable and not expanding.

When conducting inspections, Dorgan said, inspectors get within an arm's length of various components of a bridge. If they spot cracks, that leads to more hands-on testing to determine the depth and extent of the fissures.

The collapsed bridge's last full inspection was completed June 15, 2006. The report shows previous inspectors' notations of fatigue cracks in the spans approaching the river, including one 4 feet long that was reinforced with bolted plates. A 1993 entry noted 3,000 feet of cracks in the surface of the bridge; they were later sealed.

That inspection and one a year earlier raised no immediate concerns about the bridge, which wasn't a candidate for replacement until 2020.

In a 2001 report from the University of Minnesota's Department of Civil Engineering, inspectors found some girders had become distorted. Engineers also saw evidence of fatigue on trusses and said the bridge might collapse if part of the truss gave way under the eight-lane freeway.

"A bridge of that vintage you always have to be concerned about that," said Richard Sause, director of the Advanced Technology for Large Structural Systems Center at Lehigh University. "In a steel bridge of that age, sure you'd be concerned about those kind of things and be diligent about looking after it. And it seems like they were."

It takes time for a fatigue crack to develop, but a crack can then expand rapidly to become a fracture, said James Garrett, co-director of the Center for Sensed Critical Infrastructure Research at Carnegie Mellon University. "If you get a crack that goes undetected it would be something that appears to happen more rapidly."

At the scene, about 15 divers and a dozen boats were in the water, but the search was proceeding slowly because of strong currents and low visibility. By mid-afternoon, they had located four submerged cars besides the dozen or so visible from the surface.

"We have a number of vehicles that are underneath big pieces of concrete, and we do know we have some people in those vehicles," Police Chief Tim Dolan said. "We know we do have more casualties at the scene."

Meanwhile, relatives who couldn't find their loved ones at hospitals gathered in a hotel ballroom for any news, hoping for the best.

Ronald Engebretsen, 57, was searching for his wife, Sherry. His daughter last heard from her when she left work Wednesday in downtown Minneapolis. Her cell phone has picked up with voice mail ever since.

"We are left with the hope that there is a Jane Doe in a hospital somewhere that's her." Sherry Engebretsen was later confirmed as one of the dead.

link

[lucho562 0]

FWAGUY??? Are you alright????

[mawilson 2,133]

We're OK.

Anyone hear from Alex and Rey?

not seen or heard from them in about a month. i'm worried about rey

I have it on good authority that Alex and Rey are alive and kicking and walking

around the East Village right now...

[Ban Hammer 13,255]

We're OK.

Anyone hear from Alex and Rey?

not seen or heard from them in about a month. i'm worried about rey

I have it on good authority that Alex and Rey are alive and kicking and walking

around the East Village right now...

ah good, so rey didn't die from food poisoning like i'd feared