Major Freeway Bridge Collapse in Mpls

gismo

gismo

Touchdown! Greaser!
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One of the main interstate freeways through Minneapolis is now missing about a 1/4 mile segment that was a bridge over the Mississippi River. The entire bridge (3-4 lanes in each direction) collapsed into the river around 6pm with bumper to bumper traffic on the span. The local TV stations and national news networks are showing videos. So far there's only one confirmed dead and around 20 injured, some critically.
 
leah was just telling me about this. awful
 
Hey, Lance, I was just getting on here to post and make sure you & family were OK. Glad that you are.....

The Homeland Security folks wasted no time in getting a message out that they don't believe it was terrorism.... sheesh.

What a tragedy - and what an ongoing traffic mess it will be. That was a busy bridge, IIRC.
 
Six confirmed dead now. They are making it sound like there will be a *lot* more tonight. They are still attempting to locate/rescue people. Night is falling and a thunderstorm is threatening to hit the area..

I moved to Lincoln, NE last Saturday.
 
what a tragedy. the coincidence for me was that I am in Memphis and was just down by the I-40 bridge footings on the Wolf River where they are reinforcing it to prevent a collapse.
 
There was also a construction worker killed in a highway overpass collapse in California.



Look for a new round of "Our Nation's Infrastructure: Disaster Waiting to Happen?" stories like what they went with when the crews punctured the tunnels under the river in Chicago.
 
its incredible that this bridge collapsed, ill be very interested to learn why. civil engineering typically includes factors of safety of 10 or so. these things just shouldnt happen. aerospace structures have FoS's of 1.5 usually (max). hows that make you feel?:)
 
tonycondon said:
its incredible that this bridge collapsed, ill be very interested to learn why. civil engineering typically includes factors of safety of 10 or so. these things just shouldnt happen. aerospace structures have FoS's of 1.5 usually (max). hows that make you feel?:)
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There was some construction going on at the same time as this collapse. There may be some relation, but it is far too early to speculate as to the real reason.
 
according to the article the construction was only to the deck, non structural, but you are right, time will tell.
 
well now scott, the media would never get anything wrong :no::no:
 
I had a book called "Why Buildings Fall' or some such. What an eye-opener. Draws the same sort of fascination as airplane crashes, for those wanting to learn how disasters can be prevented. Many of them involved someone bypassing safety regs for convenience sake, some were contractors shorting architect's plans to save money, some were design flaws.
 
jason my understanding was that it was a suspension bridge.
 
tonycondon said:
its incredible that this bridge collapsed, ill be very interested to learn why. civil engineering typically includes factors of safety of 10 or so. these things just shouldnt happen. aerospace structures have FoS's of 1.5 usually (max). hows that make you feel?:)
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Salt corrosion can be very bad, and can weaken structures quickly. How many winters has that bridge been salted?
 
I'm surprised it happened there and not in the Pittsburgh area... there are a couple of thousand bridges in that area, and most are about 40+ years old... some are in bad shape, too.

I was thinking about Mothman Prophecies too... that was filmed in Kittanning, PA, about 20 miles from my parents' house. I drove across that bridge... kinda freaky. (FYI - they collapsed a model, not the real thing) :D
 
Greebo said:
This AP report says the bridge had been rated as structurally deficient 2 years ago.
http://wbal.com/news/story.asp?articleid=61439
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"structurally deficient" does not automatically mean unsafe or in imminent danger of collapse. It is a term applied to structures that in view of current engineering knowledge and practices are not built in the manner or to specifications in use today.

I just heard in one of the ongoing news conferences that some 17% of the bridges across the country are "structurally deficient". Within Minnesota, the figure is 3%.
 
t0r0nad0 said:
I was thinking about Mothman Prophecies too... that was filmed in Kittanning, PA, about 20 miles from my parents' house. I drove across that bridge... kinda freaky. (FYI - they collapsed a model, not the real thing) :D
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I spent several months in Kittanning several years ago and traveled over that particular bridge many, many times.

Even stranger, I was in Minneapolis last night when the news of the bridge collapse came over the news. I was about 15 miles from the bridge when it collapsed and drove over the 35W bridge last week. :hairraise:

I think I'll stop driving over bridges for a while.:D

My heart goes out to all those who were injured and the families of those who perished.
 
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