Free Republic

CLEVELAND (AP) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Thursday backed off his assertion that pork-barrel spending led to last year's deadly bridge collapse in Minneapolis. With Democrats criticizing him for citing wasteful spending as the cause of the disaster, McCain told reporters in Cleveland, "No, I said it would have received a higher priority, which it deserved." That statement was in contrast to McCain's remarks to reporters aboard his campaign bus as it rolled through Pennsylvania on Wednesday: "The bridge in Minneapolis didn't collapse because there wasn't enough money. The bridge in Minneapolis collapsed because so much money was...

Republican John McCain said Wednesday that the bridge collapse in Minnesota that killed 13 people last year would not have happened if Congress had not wasted so much money on pork-barrel spending. Federal investigators cite undersize steel plates as the "critical factor" in the collapse of the bridge. Heavy loads of construction materials on the bridge also contributed to the disaster that injured 145 people on Aug. 1, according to preliminary findings by the National Transportation Safety Board. "The bridge in Minneapolis didn't collapse because there wasn't enough money," McCain told reporters while campaigning in Pennsylvania. "The bridge in Minneapolis...

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...

Congressman Jim Oberstar chastised the Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board Wednesday for publicly declaring the cause of the 35W Bridge collapse before the investigation was complete. Oberstar sent a letter to the NTSB Chairman Wednesday to raise what he describes as "serious concerns." Oberstar worries that because of what’s already been said, the final report on the cause of the bridge collapse could be tainted. "We do not today, know what caused the I-35 collapse," said Chairman Mark Rosenker last Tuesday. However, a few minutes later, he said the gusset plates on the 35W Bridge were the wrong...

Dozens of bridge victims prepare to sue By MARTIGA LOHN, Associated Press Writer Tue Jan 22, 10:48 AM ET ST. PAUL, Minn. - Dozens of victims of last summer's bridge collapse in Minneapolis — from surviving spouses to the parents of children riding on a yellow school bus — have filed preliminary paperwork to sue the state. The documents, obtained by The Associated Press through a public records request, provide a glimpse into a brewing legal battle over the Aug. 1 disaster, in which the Interstate 35W bridge plummeted 60 feet into the Mississippi River, killing 13 and injuring 145....

The collapse of the St. Anthony Bridge in Minneapolis started with a design flaw in the gusset plates, confirming suspicions that arose in the first week of the investigation. A source familiar with the conclusion told CNN earlier this morning that the NTSB will announce that finding later today, ending speculation that poor maintenance caused the deaths of 13 people last August: Federal investigators have identified a design flaw as the cause of last year's Interstate 35W Minneapolis bridge collapse that killed 13 people, a congressional official said Tuesday. The official, who was briefed by the National Transportation Safety Board,...

It's been three months since the I-35W bridge collapse, and shovels are about to be put into the ground to begin construction of the replacement. And as sure as the Minnesota winter is cold, victims and their lawyers are lining up with their hands out, demanding compensation. Meanwhile, politicians are tripping over each other to see who can shovel the most of someone else's money at these people, the better to claim the mantle of “compassion” and then browbeat anyone who objects with angry cries of how one could be so “cruel” to these poor souls. It's enough to make...

The Minnesota Department of Transportation emergency response executive who failed to return to the state for 10 days after the Interstate 35W bridge collapsed was fired Friday for taking unauthorized trips, making excessive personal calls on her MnDOT cell phone and bringing embarrassment to the state.Staying away from crisis Kevin Hanretta, who was at a conference with Pitt when the bridge collapsed, told MnDOT's investigator that Pitt was torn between staying on the East Coast and returning to Minnesota. Hanretta told the investigator that Pitt decided to stay put because her staff was "doing a great job" and she was...

As is always the case, getting into a bidding war with big-spending liberals ends in defeat for conservatives. Especially when Democrats seem more willing than ever to exploit any calamity, however horrific, for political gain. Whether politicizing the Wellstone memorial, Hurricane Katrina or even the casualties of war, the motto of the majority party in Washington and St. Paul is now best described as "No Tragedy Left Behind." Indeed, no sooner had Minnesota's Interstate 35W bridge collapsed than our liberal elite starting pointing fingers -- and they've been doing it ever since. Led by the state's twin deacons of demagoguery,...

MINNEAPOLIS - As the estimated cost of recovering from an interstate bridge collapse surges past $400 million, survivors of the deadly disaster just wish they could get a few thousand dollars here and there to make ends meet. About 30 of the more than 100 people injured in the Aug. 1 collapse, which killed 13 people, meet weekly to talk about the troubles it's caused them. This past week, one man spoke of his struggles with a $41,000 medical bill. Others mentioned missed paychecks. That they've all had such problems getting aid irritated fellow survivor Kimberly J. Brown enough that...

The last victim of the Interstate 35W bridge collapse has been recovered from the water. The long, complex search for the disaster's cause is ramping up in earnest. It's about the time we'd expect the lawyers to descend. But the pinstripes are already out of the gate, setting new records for jumping the gun in a disaster. Just days after the collapse, while recovery crews were still battling treacherous waters, Schwebel, Goetz & Sieben -- one of the state's highest profile personal injury firms -- petitioned for access to the site for three attorneys and two expert witnesses. An immediate...

I just got an invite to the Midwestern ITE conference. It is being held in West Des Moines, IA this year on September 26th, 27th, and the morning of the 28th. A person from the MNDOT was scheduled to speak there before the I-35W collapse. They are planning to have him tentatively discuss the collapse instead of his originally planned topic. I will try to attend and, if so, let everyone know what he says. There will also be a breakout session on Red Light Cameras which should be interesting.

Pounded and strained by heavy traffic and weakened by missing bolts and cracking steel, the failed Minnesota bridge over the Mississippi River also faced a less obvious enemy: Birds. Inspectors began documenting the buildup of pigeon dung on the span near downtown Minneapolis two decades ago. Experts say the corrosive guano deposited all over the span's framework helped the steel beams rust faster. Although investigators have yet to identify the cause of the bridge's Aug. 1 collapse, which killed at least 13 people and injured about 100, the pigeon problem is one of many factors that dogged the structure. "There...

Pounded and strained by heavy traffic and weakened by missing bolts and cracking steel, the failed interstate bridge over the Mississippi River also faced a less obvious enemy: pigeons. Inspectors began documenting the buildup of pigeon dung on the span near downtown Minneapolis two decades ago. Experts say the corrosive guano deposited all over the Interstate 35W span's framework helped the steel beams rust faster...

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Pounded and strained by heavy traffic and weakened by missing bolts and cracking steel, the failed interstate bridge over the Mississippi River also faced a less obvious enemy: pigeons. Inspectors began documenting the buildup of pigeon dung on the span near downtown Minneapolis two decades ago. Experts say the corrosive guano deposited all over the Interstate 35W span's framework helped the steel beams rust faster. Although investigators have yet to identify the cause of the bridge's Aug. 1 collapse, which killed at least 13 people and injured about 100, the pigeon problem is one of...

Minneapolis I-35 bridge collapse: Failure Analysis The I-35 West bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota, consisted of three trussed spans and several beam and post spans typical of 1960's era freeway construction. Analysis to date here at Free Republic has centered on looking for the triggering cause in the bridge collapse, and the sequence of failure, as determined by available pre- and post-collapse imagery and video. Efforts so far have been hampered by uncertainty regarding the condition and disposition of the eastern truss panels originally located above and near pier 6. I hope to rectify this uncertainty and...

President George W. Bush arrived in the Twin Cities at approximately 4:26 p.m. aboard Air Force One at the International Airport's Air Reserve Station. Following a 15-minute closed-door briefing on recovery efforts related to the I-35W bridge collapse and flash flooding in southeastern Minnesota Bush departed for for a private political fundraiser on behalf of U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman. On hand to meet with Bush at the airport were Gov. Tim Pawlenty and First Lady Mary Pawlenty, Coleman, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, U.S. Reps. Michele Bachmann, John Kline, Keith Ellison, Tim Walz and Betty McCollum and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak. Following...

The Hennepin County Medical Examiner's office has confirmed the body of Greg Jolstad, 45, of Mora, has been recovered from the site of the 35W bridge collapse. The recovery brings the total number of confirmed deaths, and recovered victims, to 13. No more victims are believed to remain in the wreckage of the collapse.

In the wake of the Minneapolis bridge collapse, Gov. Tim Pawlenty's approval rating has climbed to its highest level recorded during his tenure in office, a new poll shows. The poll, conducted by SurveyUSA over the past weekend, found that 59 percent of Minnesotans approve of the job Pawlenty is doing at a time when the aftermath of the collapse has thrust him into the national spotlight. By comparison, 37 percent of Minnesotans disapprove of his job performance and 4 percent have no opinion. The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

At least seven people died, and he voted for the aid. But that didn’t stop U.S. Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski from suggesting Minnesota is trying to “screw” the rest of the country out of federal funding for its collapsed Interstate bridge, generating a firestorm among political bloggers. Comments the Nanticoke Democrat made Tuesday at a regional economic forum at the University of Scranton were posted on political Web logs, or “blogs,” touching off the controversy. “His comments are grossly inappropriate. He needs to apologize to the victims’ families for his rude comments,” a contributor wrote on one Web site. During...

Two failed bridges. Two scarily similar scenarios. Last week, the Interstate 35W span over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis collapsed under the weight of rush-hour traffic and construction crews. Federal investigators now wonder whether the design of steel plates joining beams is to blame. Eleven years earlier, the eastbound I-90 bridge over the Grand River in Lake County (Ohio) failed. The reason: the same steel plates, called gussets. They had corroded, then buckled after crews blasted them during painting preparations. But while the Minnesota catastrophe has shaken the nation and prompted warnings to states to inspect other truss bridges and...

"How long will it take," I thought, as I watched the coverage of the collapsed bridge outside of Minneapolis, "before someone blames President George W. Bush?" It turns out, not long. As divers attempted to locate possible victims submerged in the murky waters of the Mississippi, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) said, "I think we should look at this tragedy that occurred as a wake-up call for us. We have -- all over the country -- crumbling infrastructure, highways, bridges, dams, and we really need to take a hard look at this." Calling it "the right thing to...

For some, too far is never far enough....

Taxation: Always ready to use a tragedy to raise taxes, the Democrats want to hike the gas tax in the aftermath of the Minneapolis bridge collapse. The country should be pleased that President Bush rejects the idea. Democrat Rep. Jim Oberstar, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, has proposed a 5-cent increase on the 18.3 cents-a-gallon federal gasoline tax. The Minnesota congressman says that over three years the extra nickel would raise $25 billion that would be placed in a new trust fund from which money would be drawn to repair or replace structurally deficient highway bridges. We're not saying...

I just received a copy of the last bridge inspection report on the bridge that collapsed in Minnesota last week. While there is no smoking gun, it points to MANY possible failure points. Where I am coming from is this: I am a Certified FHWA bridge inspector and have additional training in fracture critical bridges (which this bridge was). I am mainly concentrating on the center section, since that is where the failure started. The report was dated June 2006. It is 50 pages long. Interestingly, it was NOT done by a private engineering firm (like mine) while under contract...

Among the dozens of wrenching accounts to come out of the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis, the actions of 20-year-old Jeremy Hernandez were a bright spot: [ . . . ] Mr. Hernandez had recently been forced to drop out of an automotive repair program because he could not afford the $15,000 tuition. [ . . . ] That has changed. On Saturday, Mr. Hernandez learned that Dunwoody College of Technology had offered him a full scholarship toward a degree in applied science. [ . . . ] When President Bush’s staff contacted him to request a...

Bridge Politics Unless we change the way we fund our highways, infrastructure will continue to crumble. Jim Peron | August 8, 2007 Politicians are drawn to tragedy like flies to pie. Take the Minneapolis bridge collapse. You have to wonder what makes this a federal responsibility. The typical excuse is that the state can't afford such pricey projects, so it behooves the federal government to step in to help. Whatever Minnesota's spending constraints, the state can apparently afford to spend hundreds of millions for corporate welfare to Carl Pohlad, the owner of the Minnesota Twins, for a new baseball stadium....

MINNEAPOLIS, Aug. 8 — Investigators have found what may be a design flaw in the bridge that collapsed here a week ago, in the steel parts that connect girders, raising safety concerns for other bridges around the country, federal officials said on Wednesday. The Federal Highway Administration swiftly responded by urging all states to take extra care with how much weight they place on bridges of any design when sending construction crews to work on them. Crews were doing work on the deck of the Interstate 35W bridge here when it gave way, hurling rush-hour traffic into the Mississippi River...

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - A week after a deadly bridge collapse, U.S. Navy divers cut through tangled debris with underwater torches and saws on Wednesday in the search for victims while investigators identified a possible flaw in the 40-year-old span's design. The August 1 rush-hour collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge hurled vehicles into the Mississippi River 65 feet (20 meters) below, with many tumbling onto the bridge's crumpled concrete deck. Reacting to the disaster, officials demanded inspections of potentially suspect bridges across the United States amid renewed calls to shore up the country's aging infrastructure. Five people were killed in...

MINNEAPOLIS — Authorities investigating the collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge are looking for a person who was in a kayak below or near the bridge when it tumbled into the Mississippi River last week, Minneapolis Police Capt. Mike Martin said Wednesday. "We need to talk to that person," Martin said.

A week after a deadly bridge collapse, U.S. Navy divers cut through tangled debris with underwater torches and saws on Wednesday in the search for victims while investigators identified a possible flaw in the 40-year-old span's design.

A Quarter-Billion Dollars Goes to Repair a 1/3-Mile, 64-Foot-High Bridge Before adjourning for its August recess early Sunday, Congress quickly passed a bill spending $250 million to repair the 1,907-foot I-35 bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota, an expenditure of about $130,000 per foot. This is more than three times the cost-per-foot of Alaska's infamous "Bridge to Nowhere." Under the bill, the federal government will bear the full cost of I-35 repairs. The quarter-billion-dollar spending measure raced through Congress in about two days. According to the Department of Transportation, the collapsed I-35 bridge was 1,907 feet long (just over one-third of a...

By now it's been so widely adopted by the media that it's easy to be numb to it, but Chicago Tribune's E.A. Torriero breathed new life into the Bush-caused-it meme in the I-35W bridge collapse story by adding a new twist. The bridge collapse, suggested Torriero, is insult added to injury for mostly Muslim Somali immigrants already angered by American foreign policy. In a story filed the evening of August 7, Torriero portrayed the collapse as insult added to injury for Somali immigrants, weaving in suggestions that America under President Bush is becoming akin to a third world country, unable...

Excerpt - 360 degree aerial panorama over the collapsed I-35W bridge spanning the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, MN. This was shot the morning after the collapse when there was a TFR (temporary flight restriction) over the bridge, and I had to fly significantly higher than I normally shoot, so you won't be able to see much detail in the bridge. I may be able to do more at a decent altitude when the TFR is lifted. Click and drag to move around, up, or down. SHIFT zooms in, CTRL zooms out. (QuickTime or Java required)

An elite team of Navy divers joined the search for victims of the interstate bridge collapse Tuesday, bringing to the job lessons learned from such disasters as TWA Flight 800 and the loss of the space shuttle Columbia. The team of 16 divers and a five-member command crew arrived a day earlier. Once their gear arrived before dawn Tuesday, several divers immediately entered the Mississippi River even though local officials encouraged them to wait until daybreak. "Two in the morning, they dove into the water," Minneapolis Police Capt. Mike Martin said, calling them "the best divers in the world." "These...

Presidential advisors Karl Rove and Josh Bolton confer as President George W. Bush visits the damage of the collapsed I-35W bridge in Minneapolis in a photo published Monday, Aug. 06, 2007 on TIME Magazine's online "White House Photo Blog." Rove is clearly using an Apple iPhone:

Ex-Clinton Official Ties Minneapolis Bridge Collapse To Global Warming By Noel Sheppard | August 7, 2007 - 00:12 ET A former member of the Clinton administration, and current Senior Fellow at the virtual Clinton think tank the Center for American Progress, claimed Monday that global warming might have played a factor in the collapse of the I35 bridge in Minneapolis last week. I kid you not. Writing at Climate Progress, the global warming blog of CAP, Joseph Romm - who served as Acting Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy in 1997 and as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary from...

Public officials in Minnesota had been warned that increasing truck traffic from international trade was placing an undue stress on the state's transportation infrastructure, including specific warnings concerning the now-collapsed bridge over the Mississippi on Interstate 35W in Minneapolis. As WND reported, a Federal Highway Administration study begun in 1998 warned increased NAFTA truck traffic would endanger Minnesota bridges along I-35.

The Westboro Baptist Church has announced that they will be protesting the funerals of two victims of the 35W Bridge Collapse. They will be protesting the funeral of Paul Eickstadt at 10:45 AM on Tuesday, August 7th at Grace Evangelical Free Church at 755 73rd Ave. in Minneapolis. They will also be protesting the funeral of Sherry Lou Engebretsen at 10:45 AM on Wednesday, August 8th at Incarnation Lutheran Church at 4880 North Hodgson Rd. in Shoreview, MN. Links to copy and paste to your URL.... These two are just opinions on why the bridge collapsed. 1. http://www.godhatesfags.com/writings/20070804_americas-highways-lay-waste.pdf 2. http://www.godhatesfags.com/fliers/aug2007/20070802_minneapolis-bridge-collapse.pdf...

ST. PAUL -- Governor Pawlenty says he had been reconsidering his opposition to a gas tax increase even before last week's Minneapolis bridge collapse. Last Friday Pawlenty said he'd agree to raise the state's 20 cents-per-gallon gas tax as part of a comprehensive transportation package. That's after he had vetoed gas tax increases in 2005 and again in 2007. Pawlenty now says that the Interstate 35W bridge collapse has made him willing to do, quote, "everything and anything necessary" to raise more money for bridges and roads. But, both Pawlenty and the leading Democratic lawmaker on transportation said today that...

Tuesday, August 7, 2007 It took a collapsing bridge in Minnesota to alert people across the country to the fact that many other bridges in many other places have been allowed to deteriorate without adequate maintenance. If this were just a matter of poor political leadership at various levels of government, we could at least hope for better leaders in the future. But the problem goes deeper than that. It is not just the people but the incentives that are responsible for the neglect of infrastructure, while tax money is lavished on all sorts of less urgent projects. In other...

Bridge collapse inspires threats against MnDOT employees, senator says MnDOT employees are facing threats in the wake of the I35W bridge collapse, says the chair of the Senate Transportation Committtee. Some Minnesota Department of Transportation employees have found themselves the target of "very serious threats" in the wake of the 35W bridge collapse, Sen. Steve Murphy said in a Monday news conference. As a result, he said, MnDOT is considering taking bridge inspection reports off its website until the names and contact phone numbers for individual bridge inspectors and other officials can be removed.

New Orleans (AP) -- For New Orleans residents, the scene was all too familiar: President Bush, touring the site of the collapsed I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, promising to cut red tape and rebuild as quickly as possible. Nearly two years ago, with parts of New Orleans still under water after Hurricane Katrina, Bush made similar declarations in the French Quarter. The president's promise was all Melanie Thompson needed to hear to bring back her family of five and begin work on their flooded home. But today Thompson's family is still living in a cramped trailer and awaiting aid to rebuild....

Dunwoody College is offering to help pay tuition for Jeremy Hernandez, the Interstate 35W bridge's school bus rescue hero. Jeremy told reporters at a news conference that his financial difficulties forced him to drop out of Dunwoody. He aspired to be an automotive mechanic. Dunwoody received many phone calls and e-mails after the news conference from alumni and staff encouraging the college to help Jeremy with school. In response, the College responded with an e-mail to alumni and faculty that stated its intention to help Jeremy re-enroll at Dunwoody An e-mail issued by the Dunwoody administration to staff and alumni...

Families are still huddled near the bridge but already Congressional Democrats are blasting the Bush Administration for failing to spend enough money on infrastructure. This is as indecent as it is stupid. One briefing today declared there are 77,000 bridges in the same classification as the 35W. The problem is obviously the inspection process, not the expenditure --an inability to focus on and find those structures close to catastrophic collapse. The bridge was in fact undergoing a $9 million maintenance program, with many workers on the span when disaster struck. Would $9 million have been enough to repair whatever flaw...

I am writing about an issue that concerns me greatly. I reside in Southern MN and, like everyone in this area, was shocked and saddened by the recent tragedy that has occurred in Minneapolis. The Phelps Family of the Westboro Baptist Church (or "WBC") in Topeka, KS, the same who picketed funerals of fallen soldiers back from Iraq, plans to picket the funerals of the victims of the bridge collapse. I am severely outraged at this disrespectful display of hate, and I am certain that others would feel the same way were they to know of these plans. I am...

Though inspections rate more than 70,000 bridges nationwide structurally deficient, a top transportation official Friday called the deadly failure of a Mississippi River bridge an "anomaly" and said motorists shouldn't fear for their safety. "I don't believe that they should be worried at all," National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Mark Rosenker said while visiting the bridge wreckage in Minneapolis. Rules in place for 30 years "have improved the conditions and the standards that in fact these things are being inspected on," he said. "But with that said, as a result of this catastrophic disaster, we're going to be looking at...

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - Politicians trying to account for one of the worst bridge collapses in U.S. history cast blame ranging from engineering faults to the Iraq war on Friday, while divers tried to reach the bodies of more victims in the Mississippi River's treacherous waters. As investigators probed Wednesday's collapse that killed at least five people, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said outside experts would review the decisions of state engineers to shore up problems with the heavily-traveled 40-year-old bridge in central Minneapolis. Engineers had decided to periodically inspect the steel superstructure beneath the Interstate 35W bridge and bolt on reinforcing...

Engineers are trying to understand what caused the catastrophic collapse of the bridge over the Mississippi river in Minnesota. Resurfacing work was taking place, but the bridge was last inspected in 2006 and no significant structural problems were found. Such complete bridge collapses are a very rare occurrence. If they happen, it is either because the load is too heavy, or the connections between the bridge's structural elements are too weak, Keith Eaton, chief executive of the UK's Institution of Structural Engineers, told the BBC. "The engineers will have to see where the collapse started. Clearly a failure occurred somewhere...

President Bush signed the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007 in the Oval Office this morning. The president, along with Vice President Cheney and other members of his administration, then met with the counter-terrorism team at the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building in Washington. Afterwards, the president made a statement to the press, saying he wants the Democrats in Congress to stop playing politics with our national defense and send him an intelligence bill that he can sign, forcing Congress to stay in session through the August break if necessary. The president does have that authority. (Transcript) First Lady Laura Bush...