Posted on 08/01/2007 4:28:27 PM PDT by 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.......
You’re welcome and thank you for catching it ButThreeLeftsDo.
part of the same ...
Radio talk show caller said all bridges around Minnesota/St.Paul are CLOSED!
The critical part of the info from your link:
National Bridge Inventory contains a report on this bridge from 2003. It reports the following items:
Deck Condition: Fair.
Superstructure Condition: Poor.
Substructure Condition: Satisfactory.
Scour: Foundations determined to be stable.
Bridge Railings: Meets currently acceptable standards.
Structural Evaluation: Meets minimum tolerable limits to be left in place as-is.
Water Adequacy Evaluation: Superior to present desirable criteria.
Bridge Sufficiency Rating: 50%
The Mississippi river flows from West to East at this location. The lock is on the South side of the river.
The major portion of the city of Minneapolis is South of the river, if you are using satellite images.
This bridge would be located just North and East of the center of Minneapolis.
I have to agree with you.
Admittedly, I have a minor case of bridge-phobia...but still!
Miss Danette, you are amazing. Thank you very much.
Image 4 of 1690 shows the twisting of the bridge. Barely on the right edge of that image, is the lock.
The structural engineers here might find this PDF helpful.
You’re welcome. That’s all the photos I have............Have a good night.
All night Fox comment said they haven’t seen anything like this. Seems to me they have seen a lot of it in Baghdad this year.
And not just from bombs. There a big bridge collapse during a Shia religious mass procession a couple years ago and IIRC it was just from the weight of the people involved.
With your help, I honestly feel that I have figured out what caused this structural failure.
Minnesota Department of Transportation has the ultimate responsibility, but without divers in VERY muddy water, this scouring would be almost impossible to detect. As I said before, this South side of the bridge was in calm water and protected by the lock.
However, after 40 years, there was enough scouring from the lock's discharge, that the bridge finally exceeded it's design limits.
I would have to classify this one as: Shit Happens!
The best was the caller that called Greta a “Merchant of Death”
you have compiled a wonderful set of pix and great addition to this thread. Thank you!
Veeeeerrrrryy interesting. Thank you, Miss Solt, I think I now know your provenance.
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