Posted on 07/15/2008 8:36:39 PM PDT by ButThreeLeftsDo
At 6:05 p.m. on Aug. 1, silence will fall along the Mississippi River in Minneapolis.
And those standing along the river's banks will remember that at that moment one year ago, the Interstate 35W bridge collapsed into the Mississippi River, killing 13 people and injuring hundreds of others.
A prayer service on Aug. 1 at the Basilica of St. Mary followed by an outdoor memorial service at Gold Medal Park on the Mississippi River will mark the first anniversary of the bridge collapse.
"It was one of the worst days that I will ever be part of that ironically showed the very best of what we can be,'' Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak said. "Tragedy tests what people are made of, and when this unthinkable catastrophe happened in the middle of our city, people ran to help instead of running away."
The victims of the collapse and their families suffered "far greater consequences than any one us could imagine,'' Rybak said.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
Original thread:http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1874950/posts
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Just last week I attended a 3-day “refresher class” on bridge inspection. I am now certified for 5 more years. The two instructors were asked about the Minnesota Bridge class and they refused to talk about it in any way, shape, or form.
I was totally disgusted by the findings. I wonder if others in the field are too? It was wrong to only blame the original designers and refuse to blame any of the people who made bad decisions afterward. Those decisions include (1) adding additional lanes (increasing the load) without beefing it up, (2) adding a corrosive spray device on a bridge that already had corrosion problems, in order to reduce icing, (3) canceling the reinforcing project that would have plated over the very gussetts that failed, (4) deciding to redeck the bridge (which implies that they figured the bridge would last at least 15 years more without substantial work, and (5) generally ignoring the serious cracks for the 10 years prior to the failure.
"Class" as in "type" or "series of lectures?" In either case, why would the instructors not want to talk about it?
Sorry. The Minnesota Bridge “collapse”, not class. They did not say why. They just refused to talk about it. From their actions, I think they had orders from above not to talk about it.
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