Posted on 08/08/2007 7:37:27 PM PDT by traumer
MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - A week after a deadly bridge collapse, U.S. Navy divers cut through tangled debris with underwater torches and saws on Wednesday in the search for victims while investigators identified a possible flaw in the 40-year-old span's design.
The August 1 rush-hour collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge hurled vehicles into the Mississippi River 65 feet (20 meters) below, with many tumbling onto the bridge's crumpled concrete deck.
Reacting to the disaster, officials demanded inspections of potentially suspect bridges across the United States amid renewed calls to shore up the country's aging infrastructure.
Five people were killed in the bridge collapse, a death toll that was confirmed within a day of incident. Eight other probable victims are listed as missing.
The recovery process has been slowed by huge slabs of steel-reinforced concrete and dangerous chunks of debris submerged in the river's swift, turbid waters. In some cases, divers had to use their fingertips to read license plates.
"This is going to be a process of having to, most likely, pull these vehicles out and do a long-term extraction, taking apart the vehicle to recover evidence, (and) any (human) remains," Minneapolis Police Capt. Mike Martin told reporters.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators said they had found a potential design problem with gusset plates, or steel plates that tie together angled steel beams of the bridge's frame.
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.
"We are continuing to make progress on this investigation, and each area of inquiry gets us closer to ultimately determining the cause of this tragedy," National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Mark Rosenker said in a statement.
Out of some 100 people injured, only a handful remained in hospitals with one in critical condition.
City officials have called the large number of survivors miraculous.
For the families of the missing it has been an agonizing wait. Members of Minneapolis' large Somali immigrant community are grieving over the presumed death of a 23-year-old nursing student, who was pregnant, and her 2-year-old daughter.
Minnesota officials were quickly laying the groundwork for replacing the vital eight-lane bridge, which had been the state's busiest with 140,000 vehicles crossing it each day.
Construction bids were due on Wednesday and officials hoped to choose a contractor within weeks to build a new bridge by the end of 2008, with the help of $250 million (123 million pounds) promised by the federal government. One proposal called for two spans of five traffic lanes each, with room for light rail or buses.
It was unlikely a new bridge could be completed before the Republican Party convention in September 2008, to be held in neighbouring St. Paul.
Or so they thought......
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v210/hercuroc/gore.jpg
I’m waiting for the inevitable global warming cause for this accident.
ice caps melting causing higher tides at full moon pushing on bridge supports...yadda,yadda
Sorry, but it's not "of course" there is a design flaw. In fact the more likely culprit will be about maintenance than design. This bridge stood for 40 years under far greater loads than were present when it fell. That doesn't imply a design weakness at all.
With regard to a single failure bringing down the whole bridge this is almost to be assumed with such structures. Bridges stand because they divide, spread and balance enormous forces. A break anywhere in the structure will almost always bring the entire thing down.
It could turn out to be any number of things. Most likely a combination of things. But the place to look first will be all about metallurgy and maintenance.
truss uplift?
It did; the code changed the next year (1968).
I didn't say a design flaw brought it down. I have no idea what did initiate the collapse and even said so. I implied it was a poor design for the whole thing to come down because of a failure in one section. This isn't a suspension bridge. The adjacent bridge has a much better design. The Oakland bay bridge suffered heavy damage in the '89 quake and one section failed and dumped cars into the bay, but the whole bridge did not collapse due to the failure of the one section.
Oh this is such BS.
Did you not see the before pics and reports that indicate the DOT was storing road base and construction material ON THE BRIDGE prior to collapse?
The bridge was IN USE, under construction?????
Didn’t Al Gore invent bridges?
Think of a stone arch. Pull one stone and the whole arch fails.
In a truss bridge a failure of any segment likewise will compromise the entire structure.
The sections that fell in the bay bridge were just that. Sections of roadbed that broke. There is no parallel to this bridge.
Nine popped/broken and missing rivets. No tears in the holes on the gussett or framing. Rust/corrosion is my guess.
Good point.
Tancredo said he would end it.
No, fully certified mechanical engineers did this and apparently they don't know what Shinola is.
No, I’d didn’t see or hear such a thing.
Extreme sarcasm/off
Due to Bush's terrible economy and Bush's high gas prices, only 1/2 of the normal traffic was necessary for the bridge to fail, because Bush's Global Warming had already weakened the plates, and they failed, even before Al Queda could blow them up because Bush didn't catch them due to Bush's quagmire in Iraq.
Were our bridge designs outsourced to Mexico 40 years ago?
Just with an offhand post, you make more sense than the moonbats (granted, that's like shooting a tuna fish in barrel, but even so...).
FReegards!
I know, but my comments weren’t meant to imply anything like that. Just pondering...
I hadn’t thought of that. Thanks for the oversized information. LOL
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