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.......
Sounds like a 1957 Plymouth in a movie....Christine!
It's a Adobe Flash Player thingy. Hit 'Before and After Sideview', it has a diagram of area at bottom.
The bridge inspection by MnDOT would have noted any significant casson erosion. The safety factors on these bridges would allow you to park trucks stacked 3 high on top of each other in bumper to bumper before you’d be at the limits. It’s the simultaneous and complete failure of both trusses that bother me. This thing should have twisted if 1 side went. It didn’t.
That’s what I would think as well.. Thanks re: the load limit.
also, They did have a heavy water flow scenario not so long ago. Just a thought.
I am sure they will be looking at every possibility as to any contributing factors for the collapse.
Neil Cavuto just reported that there are celebrations in Iran and Syria over the news of the Minneapolis bridge collapse. What scum.
Holy cow. D*** those bastards.
I’m very sorry about your relatives......!
YouTube has LIVE video from a nearby security camera, here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osocGiofdvc
The whole center span goes down nearly flat, like an elevator. The approach span you can see, hangs in there for a few seconds after the center span splashes down, before it then buckles backwards toward the shoreline.
I am so sorry about your relatives!
Prayers for their loved ones!
So far, we have not heard that any of our relatives or friends were involved.
I feel very blessed right now.
If I were to guess, I bet it is a superstructure failure at a relatively secondary member. Cascade effect collapse starting at one end of the major span that once underway pulls everything else in other spans away from vertical support stability and whammy, house of cards.
Nothing at all, it’s just that the left blames everything on George Bush. So, I’m sure they will find a way to make it his fault. The local papers were focusing on how the dept of transportation reports on the condition of the bridge. They’ll probably say that the dept of transportation didn’t make the repairs sound urgent enough.
I’m so sorry to hear about your family members
May God be with you and heal your broken heart..
Claire, do you know if phone service is still down? My daughter’s mother-in-law lives in Minneapolis, and they haven’t been able to reach her. (It’s 2:15 p.m. here on the Left Coast, and my daughter is getting worried.)
What I want to know if why the video didn’t include the beginning of the event. That camera would likely have been on the whole time. Why on earth wouldn’t we get to see it start earlier? Even if it doesn’t show the actual section where it started, it seems odd that the released video begins after the event does. What are not supposed to see?
Also, if you notice at the very end of the collapse, there is a section across the river that was still standing after the rest went down. Then it collapsed as well, beginning with the part closer to the other shore. I’m not an engineer, but that seemed odd to me as well. Then you have several different witnesses describing a large “boom” just before it went down. Lastly, this happened in Minneapolis, home of the flying imans.
I guess I should put on my tin foil hat because this all seems kind of suspicious to me.
There are others who know a lot more than I, except that I have heard repeatedly today that the section over water went first, the middle, not an end, as was reported yesterday.
Reporters agree with witnesses I’ve seen that say they saw the center fail first.
HAven’t seen any. Jeffers posted a still above.
Praying that all is well for her!
When its brand new, yes. But over time, exposed to de-icing and nature, elements deteriorate, concrete has a half life of 20 years, less when exposed to the spray from traffic.
They were working on this bridge, had the two outside lanes open to traffic, and equipment parked in the inside lanes. It looks like the bridge seperated at an expansion joint.
My original comment last night about the bridge looking like it had dropped straight down was close.
Why did those supports fail? My guess right now would be construction operations.
Same thing almost happened to a bridge I was working on in 1998.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.