Breaking: Bridge Collapse in Minneapolis

KSTP TV 5/ME | 8/1/07 | Me

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Just turned on the news. 35W bridge collapsed in the Mississippi River. Cars, trucks, semis.....

Fires burning, tanker trucks, at least one school bus, more than ten cars......

Just now breaking.......

[Abigail Adams]

And glad your cousin missed being on the bridge! My husband’s coworker usually drives over the bridge to the U on Wednesday nights, but didn’t go that night because he wasn’t feeling well. Another coworker went over the bridge about 10 minutes before the collapse.

[floriduh voter]

Is Chertoff hiding? I saw Tom Ridge on tv but no Chertoff. I wonder if Chert wants to quit his job. Just sayin’.

[floriduh voter]

If 2 lanes were light except for 18 construction workers & their stuff and the thru lanes were bumper to bumper would that not be like a ship that had too many passengers on one side? Could it have been too much load on the open lanes like a tipping over event?

[floriduh voter]

what about 2 closed lanes and more load on the 2 open lanes? Could there have been a tipping event with the metal like with a ship listing due to uneven weight distribution?

[floriduh voter]

IMO, they could have had more divers or dive teams.

[floriduh voter]

Shep interviewed my cousin’s son. I missed the interview cuz I was callin’ my bro to tell him family’s on the tube.

[floriduh voter]

wagglebee, I wanna know who the cement dealer was.

[wagglebee]

It doesn’t matter anymore who originally built the bridge, the liability of the builder ended about six years after completion.

[floriduh voter]

So you’re saying the cement was all original to the bridge? My FR is really slow today. I can’t ck my FM or read posts. Maybe it’s just me.

[wagglebee]

FR was down for about a half hour, it seems fine now.

From everything I’ve seen, the cement didn’t fail, it was the steel.

[floriduh voter]

Shep has a distinctive voice.

[floriduh voter]

I heard the witness say everything went up and there was a big puff of smoke.

[spunkets]

"What is the purpose of that fabric within the layers of cement."

That's dangling rebar with broken concrete attached to it.

[spunkets]

"the liability of the builder ended about six years after completion."

MNDOT designed and built the bridge.

[wagglebee]

I assume they hired contractors to do the actual work. And I read today, that Minnesota law caps the state’s liability at $1 million TOTAL.

[Road Warrior ‘04]

I’m glad your relatives are OK! Send them our prayers from Florida.

[spunkets]

"I assume they hired contractors to do the actual work."

They suncontract, but it was an in house design and use MNDOT workers. I'm sure the supervision by MNDOT was extensive. I know MNDOT does not allow shoddy work and I highly doubt anything like that was involved at any time. By shoddy work, I mean contrary to what's specified.

"Minnesota law caps the state’s liability at $1 million TOTAL."

I don't know the details of that.

[angcat]

I’m not convinced it was just a structural accident.

Really? It seems to have just been a non-terror related accident and things have moved on. I don’t think they will tell us the truth anyway. We shall see!

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

At a press conference an official said the 35 was “partially inspected” and then they stopped to do the work on the top. They never got the chance to complete their inspection. Maybe that’s not such a hot idea to do a partial.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It’s sure starting to sound like the places they wanted to
“plate” ,and did not, were the cause of this...