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.......
Well, send an email to John Robinson and ask him what’s up? I asked him several years ago about JAVA when I tried to post a picture series that, if you clicked on it, would change pics. It never worked and that’s what he told me...
G
Looks real to me, up here in Alaska I have personally delivered numerous loads of concrete to a large bridge north of me spanning the Susitna River near Talkeetna on the Parks Hiway, it amazes me the amount of bounce and shudder it was going through while the construction equipment was on it like the big air compressors, concrete pump truck and of course the continuing roadway traffic. The project was an earthquake improvement job of replacing the footpads under the main supports, this bridge is of a similar design as the MI bridge and nearly identical in age. Of another footnote is that we have recently installed an anti-icing system on another set of bridges over the Knik River and though its said the mixture is non corrosive its a thought to consider if the I35 bridge was using an anti ice mixture that was detrimental to steel like calcium chloride.
Just now looking at the video footage on TV I keep looking at the angle of the footing columns, and it looks apparent that though the stress of the deck falling could have pushed them to one side it looks more like an underground fracture or collapse of the footings.
Being the lead investigative detective in the reopening of the Michael Skakal case, and single handedly bringing him to trial & judgment gives him a definite edge!
Yeah, the "oh, the heat did it" crowd is pretty hilarious.
I lived in MPLS for a while in the early '70s (pre-global warming, LOL!), and it got a lot hotter than the current weather there.
Funny thing, though -- no bridges (and there are a lot of bridges in that city) ever went kaboom, taking out a decent portion of a mile's worth of roadway.
It just doesn't happen -- until yesterday, of course. :) And now, it makes perfect sense, and anyone who doesn't swallow the notion that 90 deg. weather will catastrophically destroy bridges is a nutcase!
And that "it's old" story is itself getting old. Hell, this country is chock full 'o bridges a LOT older than that. The Brooklyn Bridge -- built with sub-grade defective steel (crooked contractor) dates back to the 1860s, and it's still standing -- and carrying a lot more traffic than that MPLS bridge -- and carrying it over a MUCH longer span.
Then there's the George Washington Bridge -- MUCH older (I think they added the second layer of roadways BEFORE this bridge was built) -- also traversing a much longer span, and still standing. And, the Whitestone bridge -- now there's a bridge that was built with a defective plan (it's twin vibrated apart in Tacoma WA), re-fitted to avoid wind problems, and, still standing (across a much larger span).
I doubt it would be difficult to compile a massive list of "old" bridges, still in service, with no problems.
The "it's old" gambit reeks of hasty "we've got to come up with something to shut up these 'could be terrorism' clowns before they scare someone!"
Of course, there's the guy who last night insisted it broke NOT because it was "old", but rather, because it was too new! I kid you not. You just can't make this stuff up.
It's hilarious -- and sad -- seeing a once-proud people quivering in fear of that which they... fear, coming up with one lame excuse after another, rather than face up to the reality that we are at war, we are under attack, by a brutal, merciless, and credibly dangerous foe.
Hell, we won't even roll up the carpet and lock the damn door at our borders. Anything to avoid coming out of denial.
So, forget I said anything, folks. Go back to sleep. Watch your teevee set. The bigger the better. Pay fifty bucks for the wrestling channel. Buy more beer.
Bread and circuses beats reality any day. ('cept for the day when the bill comes due, and then everyone whines about why didn't anyone warn them about what was coming.)
Oh, the humanity.
UPDATE:
“Bridge Tragedy: Live Coverage as Recovery Resumes”
#
http://www.startribune.com/462/story/1338294.html
“9 dead, 60 injured, 20 missing after dozens of vehicles plummet into river”
Carolyn
It would be extremely hard for a team of military sapper engineers to bring down that bridge. They would have to have multiple charges placed at precise points. It would be a huge undertaking, AND it would leave an obvious explosives footprint.
If I had access to an independent team of explosives inspectors, I’d get them there to find out if there are signs.
One guy I heard on the news said that the bridge dropped in a matter of seconds. The info-babe on Fox & Friends was talking about how awfully hot the summer’s been in Minneapolis (as if hot weather drops bridges), so if she can postulate something that odd, then I can certainly say we should get independent explosives experts on the scene immediately.
Why?
Because there MIGHT BE powers that would want to suppress acknowledgement of terrorist activity.
I find myself REALLY irritated by the disaster theme music that FOX is playing. Every disaster has to have it’s own theme music these days it seems - this is the worst one yet.
NO
I think I would need a pill for that one.
To an extent... so do I. Just observing an old stretch of the Florida Keys, 7-Mile Bridge gives me the creeps. It's a section, still standing, that shoots skyward to the east.
I'm sure there are many libs in the Twin Cities who wouldn't report an Arab-looking man with a bomb if they saw one. Mustn't profile!
From my view of the bridge from various Fox reports.....
The main span collapsed. It balanced the spans on each end and loss of the balancing load caused the end spans to collapse in the opposite direction.
The main span appears to be supportes at the ends by a steel truss. Failure of one or more of the truss connections would result on progressive overstress of other connections and collapse.
Which joint failed? What caused the very localized initial joint failure.
Sabotage of the critical joint should be suspect.
Bert’s off the cuff analysis.
The video of the bridge collapsing looks very weird. Right after the woman runs past, the bridge seems to appear out of no where and then it immediately collapses. Maybe I’m just seeing it wrong.
What's your point?
We were discussing TERRORISTS calling to claim responsibility for attacks.
Go to the back of the line.
“””Chesapeake Bay Bridge”””
Yes - but avoid it by going through Delaware;)
Mercat
Do you have that link?
“””7-Mile Bridge gives me the creeps.””
The flat ones are OK - (Okeefenokee??) but that Tampa-St Pete was an ‘eyes closed - are we there yet?’
I theory I’ve had is that the bearing concrete pylon and footing settled — that is the footing slipped — moved deeper or sideways into the its bedding. That created a torque at the one bearing point, and structure does not handle such torques well — the joints started popping, catastrophic collapse followed.
Your poor guess demonstrates ignorance, but lots of self-confidence. I'm going to presume you are a product of the public school system.
When you come off your high horse (either voluntarily, or as a byproduct of having fallen on your face), try to do some research, and look at the TESTS administered in the 8th grade a century or so ago.
Then, come back, and try to convince me that they were testing the students on subject matter they did not teach.
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