Posted on 03/23/2008 7:36:56 PM PDT by george76
Old photos of the Interstate 35W bridge show two steel connecting plates were visibly bent as early as 2003 — four years before the span collapsed into the Mississippi River, killing 13 people.
Minnesota Department of Transportation officials declined to say when the state first knew about the bending in the pieces of steel, called gusset plates.
Two photos, part of a report issued earlier this month by the National Transportation Safety Board, reveal slight bends in gusset plates that hold beams together at two separate connecting points. The plates are in areas believed to be among the first points of failure when the span collapsed.
The NTSB's Office of Highway Safety confirmed that the bowing is part of the investigation into why the bridge collapsed Aug. 1, NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker didn't comment on the photos, but has said the original design for the bridge specified steel for those and other gusset plates that was too thin.
NTSB spokesman Terry Williams told the Star Tribune the bowing is among "the many things that we are looking at as part of this investigation."
The newspaper said inspection records make no mention of repairs to the bending gusset plates.
Since the bridge's construction during the 1960s, the state highway department had increased weight on the bridge by adding a layer of concrete to the deck in 1977 and by installing concrete barriers in 1998. And the NTSB said last week that, at the time of the collapse, more than 191 tons of construction material had been piled over the bridge's weakest areas.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Bent gusset plates on the Interstate 35 W bridge are seen ( center) in this 2003 photo released by the National Transportation Safety Board.old photos of the Interstate 35W bridge show two gusset plates were visibly bent as early as 2003 — four years before the span collapsed into the Mississippi River, killing 13 people.
Photos released this month by the National Transportation Safety Board show the plates that hold beams together at two separate connecting points are slightly bent.
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Whole lotta stupidity going on in this Socialist Paradise.
Mods, if you can't link to an AP photo here, please pull my post.
Are not government “bridge inspectors” responsible for disclosing this?
One article even noted that there was 191 tons of construction material piled on the weakest point of the bridge at the time of the collapse.
what am I missing?
If that was 2003 and there were slightly bent then....then how the hell did they inpsectors miss them later?
In theory they should of been bent more by then...and much more then what is shown here if that was indeed the cause
The bends are not severe, but they indicate that there were forces on the plates that weren’t kosher.
You said it. They can spend a fortune on the welfare state but can’t fund infrastructure— the one government function.
In both photos
Take a look at the large vertical plates with all the rivets in them.
Then look at the forward edge of each...it should be perfectly straight, but it is slightly wavy
***
some of that work near the top going horizintally looks like an afterthought.
Yes, they are ...but they apparently did not ?
Looks like : over the years too many tons were added beyond what the bridge was originally designed to hold.
I’ll wager that the bridge inspector caught it, but his or her bosses simply blew it off. (Of course, I am just speculating).
But at least they got their light rail project funded!
And all of it personally driven there by Dick Cheney at the behest of Halliburton.... (/sarc)
Thanks for the head’s-up! (I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to be looking at either.)
Comments on an older related thread suggest that adding four additional lanes of traffic in 1988 may have contributed to the bridge’s failure.
AP is ok. Thanks.
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