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.
“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.
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.
Impossible. The 9-11 Truthers and Experts assure me that steel must become molten before it loses its tensile strength and collapses.
</sarcasm>
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.)
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!
What! No way! Steel doesn’t melt!
The bridge was completed in 1967 ... that's pretty danged "post-war."
I heard the official say that the collapse originated at U-10. Anyone have a photo of the bridge?
Just so everyone understands...
It’s still Bush’s fault!
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
The Engineer attended all pass/fail classes, and was given diversity points.
.
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.
....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?
One day Bush drove by the civil engineering firm that designed the bridge; ergo, it’s Bush’s fault.