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.......

[fatima]

Calm down Dutch Tulip.We don’t know that.

[Abigail Adams]

Sometimes in very hot weather here the highway surface will buckle upwards, making a ridge in the road.

[SheLion]

Homeland Security just said that this doesn't "appear" to be a terrorist attack.............but it sure makes me wonder.

One woman said she saw big black smoke and the a loud bang.  Maybe construction, but it sure is suspicious to me.

[WestSylvanian]

How about divers underwater installing charges after dark and then blowing things up remotely?

[Cindy]

UPDATES:

http://wcco.com/

http://wcco.com/topstories/local_story_213191448.html

Aug 1, 2007 7:30 pm US/Central

“I-35W Bridge Collapse Into Mississippi River”

Slideshow: I-35W Bridge Collapse

(WCCO)

ARTICLE SNIIPPET: “A maintenance project began about nine months ago repairing potholes and other concrete on the bridge. According to a spokesperson from the Mn-DOT, there was no work on the actual structure under the bridge.”
###

http://www.kare11.com

http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=261140

“35W Bridge near University Avenue Collapses”

Bridge Specs
[http://www.visi.com/~jweeks/bridges/pages/ms16.html ]

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “HCMC is in full emergency mode.”

ARTICLE SNIPPET: “That motorist told Joe Fryer that there was shaking from jack hammer and then the bridge just dropped.”

[DrGunsforHands]

I just noticed that train tracks go under the bridge on one side.

[DugwayDuke]

Usually, it’s not one single thing. As I said, the larger than normal weight plus metal fatigue plus corrosion. Any way just a guess.

[Halls]

this is a huge disaster!!!!!!!!!

[mware]

I can only go by the words the reporter said, she said the lady in the red car said if it was 30 seconds later she does not think she would be alive.

She also said that objects were blowing upward and then there was downward movement.

[angelcindy]

It’s his automatic reply nowdays..not terrorism even before they check it out...

[GOP_Party_Animal]

Or that crappy material would be used without many levels of checking.

I'm not sure, but I think a partial collapse on a Milwaukee bridge about 10 years ago was due to faulty materials. Ultimately they had to remove large sections of the bridge with explosives and rebuild.

[Fudd Fan]

Praying for all involved. Even those who are rescued will have a lot to deal with.

Thanks for the prayer *PING*.

[ninergold3]

I am shocked the Twins are playing baseball during this.

Rather than dump 10's of thousands more people/cars onto the highways, it's probably best to go on with the game.

[Petronski]

MSNBC reports “daytime piledriving” scheduled for the area this week.

[CJinVA]

http://local.live.com/Default.aspx?v=2&sp=Point.rgwtw676wmsc_Bridge___&encType=1&lc=1033

[Palladin]

Posting from that mosque in Amsterdam, are you?

[casino66]

Don’t know if it has been posted b4, but Fox is streaming here:

http://www.foxnews.com/projects/livestream/player.html

Getting dark and difficult to see what is happening.

[mombonn]

After the 2nd plane hit the towers, FR threads were almost immediately calling it terrorism.

I still say if the DHS had been in opeation at that point, they would have found a reason to discount terrorism.

Government sucks.

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

If you’re talking about the Cedar Ave bridge over the Minnesota River in Bloomington....no.

[GRRRRR]

not the heat melting steel, BUT...the heat causes steel and concrete to expand quite a bit...it’s possible the expansion joint expanded and slipped off a cross member and the rest came down like dominoes...

Seems they’ve been resurfacing etc. so maybe some of the expansion joints were wide open??