Minneapolis bridge collapse

My thoughts go out to the victims and their families in today's tragic collapse.
:candle:

+1

I've been to that city many times and have driven over that bridge. Four lanes each way. I can't help but wonder about the people that were doing 55 mph when the bridge collapsed beneath them.

Very sad indeed. :candle:

I'm thinking that the pile driving that they were doing might've loosened up the soil around the foundation by the river bank. Several people said they heard and felt a pounding sensation in the bridge (from the construction work) just before it collapsed.

Now I'm hearing that there were three fatalities. Fortunately all of those kids on the school bus made it out alive, and they're being treated for injuries at the local Red Cross office.

Prayers and condolences for the victims of this sudden disaster. Godspeed in the recovery of the injured people. Horrible situation!

EV_007 said:

I've been to that city many times and have driven over that bridge. Four lanes each way. I can't help but wonder about the people that were doing 55 mph when the bridge collapsed beneath them.

Very sad indeed. :candle:

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According to news reports it was bumper to bumper traffic.

Google has a map of the bridge here

I travel this bridge daily to and from work. Today I left early for a dentist appointment. It makes me shake to think that I could have been crossing this bridge when it went down. It is very tragic and will impact our town for a long time.

Thoughts and prayers go out to the families of all victims and people affected by this disaster. It was good to see how well the emergency teams in Minneapolis reacted.

Sincerely,
Mike

I drove under the 35W bridge about 20 minutes before the collapse. I used to drive on the bridge until the recent road work. I can't help but think that I am very fortunate to have missed disaster by luck of good timing.

I haven't felt this bad since 9/11/01, thank you all for your concern for our community.

fortunately the bridge surface remained out of the water....
My heart goes out to those who have passed away from this tragedy

one survivor mentioned the bridge shaking like jackhammers prior to the breakdown and according to NPR on the radio it was built [somewhat in haste] for the already overcrowded transportation system, and has been tested with conclusive evidence of joint stress in the infrastructure...the accident could've been avoidedoo:

Theres another bridge that collapsed during construction in Orville CA, on the 31st...

Structure engineering....theres no such thing as "a little mistake"

My prayers also go out for the families that lost loved ones.

Below is the YouTube video of the Tacoma Narrows bridge going into resonance and self destructing. I remember watching this video in college physics class. Totally bizarre.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPnbpuG3T0I

chumly and Bhustan....wow.

(a friend in Minneapolis called me at 4 AM to let me know she was ok..)

I hear tell it was the footings, there was some dredging the day before, or perhaps it was the flooding that loosened the piers (if that's the correct term) -- so that would mean the part in the river itself would have gone first..

Yes, from what I heard the witnesses said they saw a side of the middle section crack first. From those reports it looks like the middle section failed then yanked the sides inward enough to make most of the truss work beneath them worthless, so then everything collapsed.

Just awful. Those poor people. I have trouble thinking about it, so I focus on thinking of the engineering aspects.

Video of the collapse from a security camera:

Short Version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0c1UhQ71yU

Long Version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C31IlOHNzbM

I haven't yet heard anyone mention the river traffic that hasn't been able to pass thru there.

greenlight said:

I haven't yet heard anyone mention the river traffic that hasn't been able to pass thru there.

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Theres a dam 600ft north of the bridge. There couldn't be a whole lot more than tourist boats really I would think.

If I remember correctly, there is a steady amount of barge traffic that passes through the St. Anthony Lock and Dam area.

Marduke said:

Video of the collapse from a security camera:

Short Version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0c1UhQ71yU

Long Version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C31IlOHNzbM

Click to expand...

freefall?! with no obstruction on either side to tip the mid section over
okay...is it just me or did that look like a controlled demolition?

Illum_the_nation said:

freefall?! with no obstruction on either side to tip the mid section over
okay...is it just me or did that look like a controlled demolition?

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No, it's just a poorly thought out design. Take away the right key piece, and the whole house of cards falls down. It was designed and built in haste 40 years ago to deal with increasing traffic.

I hope this is a wakeup call for Americans. By chance I just happened to spend a few hours over a couple days last week going over the Infrastructure Report Card at the American Society of Civil Engineers website. I was checking on some claims made in a book I'm reading. Yikes! It is very interesting...for realists. The Report Card covers: Aviation, Bridges, Dams, Drinking Water, Energy, Hazardous Waste, Navigable Waterways, Parks and Recreation, Rail, Roads, Schools, Solid Waste, Transit, Wastewater and it ain't pretty. IIRC the highest mark is a C+ with many Ds and D-s. I would urge all CPFers to spend some time reading on that site -- right before you decide to order a water filter. It will also help make sense out of those 7-10 day power outages we've been seeing in the summer for the last few years... This is just the beginning.

The Gov response kills me -- and will probably kill others, too. I just heard on the news that there will be a rush program to inspect highway bridges. Fluff! The bridge in question was found deficient in previous inspections -- the repairs being made at the time of collapse were not structural. There are thousands and thousands of bridges across this land in the same shape as this bridge in MPLS. Inspections are a sham when they are not followed up with repairs where needed. What we need are serious plans to remedy the terrible state that inspections have already shown our infrastructure is in -- across the board.

We did not always have this problem. In the last thirty years we have stopped investing in our infrastructure.

We need to become more resilient. We've got this crazy top-down approach to Homeland Security and it never occurs to most that our entire infrastructure is falling apart at the seams. Terrorists don't have to blow us up -- the course we're on will take us down without any help from them if we don't change direction.