Posted on 08/08/2007 7:37:27 PM PDT by traumer
I didn’t know Bush was designing bridges 40 years ago.
Maybe Halliburton will get the job.
Was Bush in college at that time ?
My guess is, it met code 40 years ago.
Liar! Heh heh heh... just kidding. I expect that will be the charge on DU.
If the sun went nova, in the time it took for the explosion to reach us and wipe out the earth, some liberal would blame Bush for it!
Design flaw. We should all write a Letter To The Editor and stick it up the bum of the Bush Derangement Syndrome sufferers.
What is strance about this is that traffic had been reduced in both directions if reports I heard are true. One would think the load was probably 1/2 what it normally was. Why would it fail now if these plates were the issue?
NOW thats funny..
Thanks for posting this.
I’ve added the Keyword “35w”.
Please add this to keywords on any threads about this tragedy so everyone can more easily track new developments.
Thanks.....
Of course there’s a design flaw. While we don’t know what initiated the collapse, we do know that because of the design, the whole bridge came down. A proper design wouldn’t have the whole thing coming down when just one section has failed.
> I didnt know Bush was designing bridges 40 years ago.
Doesn’t matter.
It’s STILL his fault for spending all that money in iraq when he could have spent it building new bridges and fixing old ones.
/SARC
Of course, we NEVER hear about the over one TRILLION dollars spent by the US Dept of Education, and how that money could have been better spent building new bridges and fixing old ones.
And since the establishment of the Dept. of Education by President James Earl Carter in 1977, what aspect of American education has improved? Even a teeney, weeney, little bit?
What have we gotten for our TRILLION dollars, besides another bloated government bureaucracy?
Even though this bridge was designed and built 40 years ago, if Hillary was president, this never would of happened...............
Many bridges relies upon all sections for support but you are correct that there obviously was a design flaw. Perhaps the workers removed a portion that was in some way supporting the bridge structure.
Good question, but conspiracy theories (about terrorism) will only get you flamed from some quarters.
One Freeper tied it to the obesity crisis.
A fatigue crack can move through material very slowly, even over a period of years. The final failure through the overloaded remaining material can happen at any load.
I've seen fatigue cracks that leave only 5% of the original material remaining before a rapid final break.
In the top photo, it is at the right side, on the big horizontal beam. In the bottom photo, it is on the left.
Notice the holes where rivets have pulled out -- and how the plate is buckled.
These photos show the area around the mainspan piers on the south shore where the structure failed laterally, (It toppled to the east) whereas all of the other failed slabs dropped (approximately) straight down.
Many believe this area to be that where the initial failure started...
Investigators are trying to verify loads and stresses on these plates at specific locations as well as the materials used to construct them.
Officials stressed the finding is preliminary and would not say exactly where the plates were located or whether failure would have caused the collapse.
Here is a picture I found on Flickr showing the collapse from ground level...in the left hand side of the frame you can see one of the "gusset plates." Notice how it crumpled just a bit. I don't think this particular plate caused the collapse. Most that I've seen in pictures seemed to have held up just fine...but the ones that failed are probably burried under all that concrete roadway.
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