Posted on 08/01/2007 4:28:27 PM PDT by 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.......
BTW, the Kansas City Hyatt bridge was a suspended walkway inside the Hyatt Regency Hotel. Same reason for collapse as for this bridge in Minnesota. OVERLOADED.
One of the local reporters said the FBI is onsite and so are bomb sniffing dogs. I assume they are ruling things out.
Hey,,,How much SALT is used on that bridge in the winter ??...
Can I say that I’m amazed at the high level of response from the emegency personnel and nearby citizenry in Minneapolis?... great work!
Yeah - we've looked at the actual footage on TV, and they aren't in the water, they're on a big levy... pictures can be deceiving, and it doesn't make a bit of difference to me.
If it was widened without increased strength, then that is possible. But the engineers would never let it get to a low value (lower than 2.0). I still think it is much more likely that corrosion, fatigue, and/or construction work probably killed this bridge. The photos are bad right now but I'm curious how the collapse progressed and where it started. That is the most important question that needs to be answered before we can determine the cause. The high temperature (in the 90s) is only helpful in this discussion so far as it makes brittle failure very unlikely (though it would be unlikely in any case since the engineers designed the bridge to survive Minnesota winters).
OUCH
God have mercy.
Causes?
MN official: Sadly, seven now confirmed dead. More sadness, they expect that number to go up.
Except this bridge does not have any piers in the water.
I hope he is pro America and does not have any supportive leadings for Islamic jihadists
___________________________________________________________
At this time in our lives, there is no excuse to put it to chance.
Dr. Clinton. Guess why I remember his name?
Think bridge security will be hightened over the next few days?
Sadly the number will go up - and at the same time there will be many survivor stories that will inspire us all
OK....You win.
Osama was in the Twin Towns tonight and picked this bridge to make a statement.
Happy?
This bridge is old, built in the 50s, is steep, shakes, they cannot
keep light bulbs burning because the vibration burns out the bulbs,
scary to cross, is rusted, has way more traffic than it was designed
for, and was weaken by hurricane Rita.
I don’t know how you heighten bridge security. There are so many bridges with such heavy traffic it seems an impossible task.
From the pictures on TV it looked like it might have been an upper chord joint, right over the east support bent that failed. The main span appeared to have dropped intact, and broken on impact.
That was a different issue in a sense. The original design wasn’t used and a “modified” design was used to support the two walkways. The modified design was far less structurally sound, though it should be noted the original design wasn’t sound itself - and it wouldn’t have supported that load.
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