[gusopol3]

between this and declining violence in Iraq, leftists have less and less to be happy about. of course, they can keep pulling for a recession.

[scottdeus12]

“Others demanded a gas-tax increase to bolster the $2.2 billion annual budget for MnDOT, the agency which spends three times more than the budget for public safety every year.”

Yeah, let’s increase taxes to give more to Leviathan to take care of us. Great idea.

Time to privatize.

[jim_trent]

This is total BS. It is an attempt to sweep the entire thing under the rug.

It has been long known that the bridges built during the original Interstate building program had flaws. I have no doubt that the bridge (indlucing the gussets) fully met design standards WHEN IT WAS BUILT. Since then we have learned a LOT more and the design standards have changed.

The problem is that there are still a lot of those bridges out there. They need to be replaced, but until there is money to do so, they need to be INSPECTED. This one was inspected regularly (the last time just 6 months or so before it collapsed) and found a mirad of problems. SOMEONE high up in the MNDOT decided to keep the bridge in service in spite of the problems. They are totally ignoring that here.

I only hope that the inevitable lawsuits will allow outside inspection of the documents that they are trying to keep hidden here.

[randog]

...once the first gusset plate fractured, the rest would have failed as the weight of the bridge shifted and generated momentum.

Impossible. The 9-11 Truthers and Experts assure me that steel must become molten before it loses its tensile strength and collapses.

</sarcasm>

[GovernmentShrinker]

The pigeons are vindicated!

(For those who don’t recall, one of theories proposed by engineers, shortly after the collapse, was that it had been caused by damage to structural components by corrosive pigeon poop.)

[gridlock]

The Liberal prescription for everything is always the same: Raise Taxes.

A bridge falls down, raise taxes. A bridge stays up, raise taxes. It’s warm outside, raise taxes. It’s cold outside, raise taxes. Schools are failing, raise taxes. Schools are doing the job (as if!), raise taxes. The price of gas is down, raise taxes. The price of gas is up, raise taxes...

Whatever it is, we gotta raise taxes!

[Incorrigible]

What! No way! Steel doesn’t melt!

[r9etb]

he bridge was built in a post-war period where streamlining and efficiency created a lot of questionable bridge designs; a few years later, architects returned to the more robust pre-war concepts.

The bridge was completed in 1967 ... that's pretty danged "post-war."

[Abigail Adams]

I heard the official say that the collapse originated at U-10. Anyone have a photo of the bridge?

[airborne]

Just so everyone understands...

It’s still Bush’s fault!

[NavyCanDo]

So will there be news retractions for all those stories about it being Bush’s fault for spending money on war instead of bridges? Don’t count on it.

[Abigail Adams]

Maybe someone could post relevant pics and diagrams that show where U-10 is on the bridge? From here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1884493/posts

[Dan(9698)]

The Engineer attended all pass/fail classes, and was given diversity points.

[Emperor Palpatine]

Often design flaws take years to show up or even decades. When the Silver Bridge collapsed in Gallipolis, Ohio back in the 60's it was caused by a tiny crack in an I-Bar suspender that was there since the bridge was built in the late teens.



Lockheed built a turboprop airliner called the Electra in the late 50's that at the time was one of the most thoroughly tested planes ever built. They flew flawlessly in service for several years until the wings started to tear of several planes in flight killing hundreds. The design flaw was failure to isolate engine vibrations in wing spars. Lockheed fixed the problem and the plane continued to fly successfully. The military variation of the Electra is the P-3 orion and still flies to this day.



Some bridge engineer somewhere is about to lose his license, I'd wager.

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

[OESY]

Gusset plate and rust damage (not the St. Anthony Bridge in Minneapolis)

.

[Steve_Seattle]

Since that bridge collapsed, I’ve seen numerous references to it in columns and letters-to-the-editor, usually - you guessed it - blaming Bush. One of the most recent was a snide reference in a column by Seattle Times columnist Joni Balter, who over the years has morphed from a reasonable liberal into a stinking, lying pig.

[Myrddin]

Identifying the problem as a design flaw instead of negligent maintenance is going to pull all the justification for tax increases for more maintenance. The lefties are going to get very shrill if they can't raise taxes.

[bert]

....architects returned to the more robust pre-war concepts....

If he can’t distinguish between an architect and a structural engineer one wonders if he knows the difference between his ass and a hole in the ground?

[toddlintown]

One day Bush drove by the civil engineering firm that designed the bridge; ergo, it’s Bush’s fault.