Breaking: Bridge Collapse in Minneapolis

KSTP TV 5/ME | 8/1/07 | Me

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Just turned on the news. 35W bridge collapsed in the Mississippi River. Cars, trucks, semis.....

Fires burning, tanker trucks, at least one school bus, more than ten cars......

Just now breaking.......

[luvie]

If Robert Byrd alone were to have some of his “goodies” removed from bills, we could pay for repairing the major part of America’s structures!

[Therapsid]

Interesting how both ends seem to have given way at once.

[Lonely Bull]

Jack Cafferty on CNN just now, about this collapse: how could the US “better” use the $2 billion a week being spent in Iraq...

Unbelievable. I’m not sure how I got parked on CNN, and I’m changing the channel.

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Oh, right. Sorry I wasn’t clear. That’s real time, for certain. But, somewhere, there will be video, recorded, that is more than likely being very closely scrutinized by the experts.

[Lonely Bull]

I’m not sure how I got parked on CNN, and I’m changing the channel.

Oh, and I'm darkly amused: as I was changing the channel, the channel had gone to commerical, and there was a "we never forget who we're working for" thing for Lockheed Martin. Nice disconnect between the ad and the barfalertworthy twaddle that came on right before it.

[SilvieWaldorfMD]

I suggest you read my post again, Sir or Madam... Sheesh!

[jim_trent]

Lets say that one of the tension members in the center span (one on the bottom) had a fatigue crack that was ignored or missed. The bumper to bumper traffic and the construction equipment were too heavy for the remaining metal.

The tension member would snap. That side would start to fall straight down. It would pull the other side out of vertical and that would fail before it got very far off vertical. The center section would then fall straight down (although tipped slightly since one side got a head start), pulling the supports on each bank towards the water. That is what it looks like in your photo.

Once those supports were gone, the bridge approach structures on both sides would fall, starting from the missing supports and working in both directions until it reached solid ground (or very close to it).

BTW, the researchers will be looking for a piece that has a crystalline (brittle) crack for about half its width. That part will be rusty because it took YEARS to develop. The rest of the break will be ductile and have little rust (only that which forms from the yesterday to when they pull it out of the water). That will be the initiation point for failure.

Anyway, that is what my money is on.

[RS]

“Nah... it couldn’t have been dollar diverted from the transportation bills into moronic things like “light rail” could it?”

What do you want the future to be, light rail or ity-bity electric cars ?

If the local people didn’t perform needed maintainence, or scream their heads off because they couldn’t ... blame them.

[RS]

“A person with a Muslim/Arab name.... “

Barack Obama ?

Just what IS a Muslim/Arab name anyway ?

... and send the boys out to round up Karem abdul Jabbar and Muhaumd Ali for questioning - I’m sure they were in the area in the last year or so.

[xzins]

You don't suppose that is what they are celebrating in Iran and Syria, do you? Me neither.

Careful, O'Reilly will accuse you of "hate" speech. (What a numnutz....:>)

[bvw]

Not all footings are on bedrock, nearly all are. Some “float” on a less than bedrock underpinning. I do not know about this bridge.

[yield 2 the right]

that is out of context....

[Lijahsbubbe]

first they say there are 50 cars in the rubble and in the water and then they say there were only 50 cars on the bridge and in video shots I can see about 30 cars/trucks etc. Anyway I’m puzzled by the coverage - nobody seems to know much of anything and they are right there on the scene.

I don't get it either. I been catching the news all day and not much is forthcoming about how many cars they have seen in the water so far. They are going to lower the water level tomorrow in hopes of making rescue less treacherous, and if that doesn't work, it was said they have no plan B yet. Poor families.

[yield 2 the right]

It’s funny that they are still not ruling out terrorism 24 hours later. Twin Towers, Twin City

I think the terror target would have been a packed or almost packed Metrodome for a Twins game.....

[terilyn]

He/She read your post just fine. You were very clear in that and previous ones.

For the record, we have a rather conservative Republican Governor. We have one Republican Senator and one Democrat.

We have a State that is split about 50/50 on a lot of issues.

Keith Ellison the Muslim Congressman won in a primary with about 25% of the vote - there are no run-offs in MN. In the 5th district if you have a D behind your name you win.

They’ve told the cabbies at the airport that they work for the Met Airport Commission, do your job or leave.

Most areas of MN are very conservative. Have you ever seen the 2000 election red/blue map?

You are insulting all of us here in MN with your posts.

And here I thought most Freepers were more intelligent than to believe all of the liberal main stream media spin.

[concretebob]

The South end did indeed drop first. I wish there were another angle though.
I can't imagine the expansion assembly failing all at once.
Those assemblies are high strength steel plates with 2"-3" pins. Unless it pulled away from the face of the concrete approach slab or the anchors in the bridge deck failed.
This had to be a catostrophic underpinning/super-structure failure.
Either they chipped away too much concrete around the anchor bolts at the piers, or they created a point load in the wrong place.

[Lijahsbubbe]

SE mom you are right. It was reported that rescuers stayed with dying victim/s and they gave their goodbyes.

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Minneapolis Police Chief Dolan commented on that today, during one of the pressers.

I got a bit choked up over that....