Minneapolis Bridge Collapse

[Karl Valten]

http://www.wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=6874069

Holy crap, I was ON that bridge today. I'm at the U of M for orientation and things are just chaotic around here. A bunch of us ran down to the bridge just after it happened.

All we could see was smoke billowing everywhere and section of the bridge floating in the Mississippi.

I'm glad that the people on the school bus are ok.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

I'm glad you're okay!

Man, this is awful. A lot of our bridges have been undergoing repairs lately and I don't like going over them in the best of circumstances. >_<

[Itala Marzullo]

Holy crap.

Not surprised after hurricane Katrina though.

[Jedi Master Carr]

This is horrible, I hope the death toll is low.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

What on earth does this bridge collapse have to do with Hurricane Katrina? O_o

[Jedi Master Carr]

What on earth does this bridge collapse have to do with Hurricane Katrina? O_o

I am not sure either I don't think Hurricane's go up that far.
Also the worse bridge collapse in U.S history is the Silver Bridge collapse of 1967
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Bridge

47 people died. It is most famous for its urban legend the Montham Prophecies.

[Wyl Staedtler]

How awful. :( Glad you're okay Karl!

[Itala Marzullo]

What on earth does this bridge collapse have to do with Hurricane Katrina? O_o

Lousy structures collapsing, remember the dikes?

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Your comparison is poor, but okay.

[Liam Jinn]

What on earth does this bridge collapse have to do with Hurricane Katrina? O_o

Lousy structures collapsing, remember the dikes?

Right, that makes sense. :rolleyes

Anyway, I heard about this earlier. Sad news

[Jaime Tomahawk]

What on earth does this bridge collapse have to do with Hurricane Katrina? O_o

Lousy structures collapsing, remember the dikes?

Right, that makes sense. :rolleyes

Anyway, I heard about this earlier. Sad news

No, he makes perfect sense. What he is musing is that this bridge probably will turn out to have something wrong with it's construction - and for something like that over several spans to collapse without warning, he is most likely quite right. Katrina exposed the fact a lot of things are shoddily built and while the bridge wasnt affected, you really do have to wonder how a bridge could collapse well before it's design due date.

[Liam Jinn]

Oh shut it. The comparison was crappy, sorry I didn't get the full quote.

[Jedi Master Carr]

What on earth does this bridge collapse have to do with Hurricane Katrina? O_o

Lousy structures collapsing, remember the dikes?

Right, that makes sense. :rolleyes

Anyway, I heard about this earlier. Sad news

No, he makes perfect sense. What he is musing is that this bridge probably will turn out to have something wrong with it's construction - and for something like that over several spans to collapse without warning, he is most likely quite right. Katrina exposed the fact a lot of things are shoddily built and while the bridge wasnt affected, you really do have to wonder how a bridge could collapse well before it's design due date.

Well I think it shows we need better inspections. They should inspect bridges once a year.

[Park Kraken]

What on earth does this bridge collapse have to do with Hurricane Katrina? O_o

Lousy structures collapsing, remember the dikes?

Right, that makes sense. :rolleyes

Anyway, I heard about this earlier. Sad news

No, he makes perfect sense. What he is musing is that this bridge probably will turn out to have something wrong with it's construction - and for something like that over several spans to collapse without warning, he is most likely quite right. Katrina exposed the fact a lot of things are shoddily built and while the bridge wasnt affected, you really do have to wonder how a bridge could collapse well before it's design due date.

Well I think it shows we need better inspections. They should inspect bridges once a year.

It's not the inspections that are the problem, it's the "getting around to doing something about it" that's the problem. Everyone knew that those dikes wouldn't withstand much, but no one was doing anything about them.

[Itala Marzullo]

Well, like always, people wait until crap happens for anything to be done.

I do feel sorry for the victims, but that's still some lousy building, start hiring Germans or something.

[Itala Marzullo]

Haha, now the media in New York is outraged because the engineers say that will happen to the Tappan Zee bridge as well if nothing is done. That bridge is MASSIVE and would be a catastrophy if it plunged, scary as hell.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I think this is a warning. The Silver Bridge's collapse caused people to look at bridges more closely, hopefully they do a better job after this one.

[Karl Valten]

It was most likely structural. There was bumper-to-bumper traffic and a Twins game at the metrodome (which means a very very very long line of bumper-to-bumper traffic). Stress due to weight and vibration probably did something to cause the collapse, possibly age of the bridge as well.

The orientation leaders weren't happy when we ran out to see what was going on.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I think the collapse should be a wake up call to show how bad some of our infostructure is. I heard a report that 40% of the bridges are in bad shape as the one in Minnesota. We need to invest money into fixing them, even if means taking back the tax cuts because our infostructure is more important than stupid tax cuts.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

As far as what caused it, there are a number of things that could have contributed.

I'd read somewhere that the river was a bit lower than normal, exposing some of the supports that were previously underwater (or something to that effect), and that the weather affected it in some way. Also, due to construction, lanes were closed so that the weight distribution was a bit lopsided. Now, what could possibly cause such a massive collapse I have no idea, but I seriously think it to be simply a combination of contributing factors.

And no, terrorism is not on that list.

[Jedi Master Carr]

As far as what caused it, there are a number of things that could have contributed.

I'd read somewhere that the river was a bit lower than normal, exposing some of the supports that were previously underwater (or something to that effect), and that the weather affected it in some way. Also, due to construction, lanes were closed so that the weight distribution was a bit lopsided. Now, what could possibly cause such a massive collapse I have no idea, but I seriously think it to be simply a combination of contributing factors.

And no, terrorism is not on that list.

Still, it would have to have some major problems to collapse like that. The bridge must have had some serious corrosion for the other factors to play a role. They knew this bridge had problems. In 2003 the bridge failed the inspection and it was listed as needed to be replaced by 2020.

[Karl Valten]

Hmm, I didn't know that part of it.

Here's footage from a security camera nearby. Yeesh, the people on that thing were lucky that it collapsed the way it did. It looks like it split in the middle fell straight down and the other part went a few seconds after. There would've been a lot more deaths if it had twisted or gone in multiple pieces.

The bridge itself was about 2000 feet long and fell 65 into the Mississippi.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2007/08/02/vosli.mn.i35w.bridge.collapse.side.view.cnn?iref=m pvideosview

Not to mention that if there hadn't been any construction on the bridge itself, more lanes would've been open and more people would have been on the bridge.

[Jedi Master Carr]

Hmm, I didn't know that part of it.

Here's footage from a security camera nearby. Yeesh, the people on that thing were lucky that it collapsed the way it did. It looks like it split in the middle fell straight down and the other part went a few seconds after. There would've been a lot more deaths if it had twisted or gone in multiple pieces.

The bridge itself was about 2000 feet long and fell 65 into the Mississippi.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2007/08/02/vosli.mn.i35w.bridge.collapse.side.view.cnn?iref=m pvideosview

Not to mention that if there hadn't been any construction on the bridge itself, more lanes would've been open and more people would have been on the bridge.
If it happened at 5 it would have been worse too. People are lucky, like you said. The bridge collapsed at the right spots. If it collapsed in the middle, I think more would have died.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

In Portland we have a bridge that rated a 2 on a 0 to 100 federal test, 100 being the best. And yet we're planning on spending 200,000 dollars on a 'day laborers' shelter (read: illegal alien pick up spot for contractors and the like) instead of fixing it.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I know they closed a bridge that is that bad in Washington. Any bridge that is that bad just needs to be closed down until it is fixed.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

Alaska Way Viaduct, anyone :x

[Jedi Master Carr]

Alaska Way Viaduct, anyone :x


You mean the bridge to no where that Ted Stevens tried to push through? I thought that got canned.

[Loklorien s'Ilancy]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Way_Viaduct

I used to live right in across the street from the entrance to the Battery Street Tunnel, and I was there for the '01 Nisqually earthquake. That one really did a number on the viaduct, and the chances are good that if another quake hits Seattle, the whole thing is just gonna come down. It's already sinking as it is.