Minneapolis Bridge Collapse

[M GO BLUE!!!]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6927113.stm

Hope anyone in the area's families are ok...

[King of New York]

:eek::eek::eek:

CNN is reporting on it now--that looks pretty bad.

[Joe]

good thing I left work early

[M GO BLUE!!!]

good thing I left work early

Did you use that bridge?

[kingfc22]

wow

[Pyser]

in the summer? odd

[MJ4H]

Man. I have actually had a twinge of fear of bridges since the Webers Falls, OK bridge collapse a few years back. I had gone over the bridge a few days before it collapsed.

This is horrific.

[sterlingice]

Wow. I'm thinking there's some comment here about the excessive highway construction weakening bridges that we'll probably see in the next few months.

(Particularly since we're big fans these days of closing the barn door after the horse is out)

SI

[Ryche]

Wow. I crossed that bridge last night.

[M GO BLUE!!!]

Did the bridge look like the bridge we see in the background of the pics or was it a different design?

[gstelmack]

Wow. I'm thinking there's some comment here about the excessive highway construction weakening bridges that we'll probably see in the next few months.

There have been increasing numbers of articles about decaying infrastructure in this country. The steam pipe blast in New York generated a few. The problem is they aren't going back and doing maintenance like they should be.

[sterlingice]

"The U.S. Department of Homeland Security in Washington said there was no indication of terrorism in the disaster."

Oh, and can we stop seeing this as the second line in the story. Did anyone actually think terrorism was the most likely conclusion to jump to? Until I saw it in the previous AP story (it was the second to last line, I believe), it didn't even cross my mind.

SI

[terpkristin]

"The U.S. Department of Homeland Security in Washington said there was no indication of terrorism in the disaster."

Oh, and can we stop seeing this as the second line in the story. Did anyone actually think terrorism was the most likely conclusion to jump to? Until I saw it in the previous AP story (it was the second to last line, I believe), it didn't even cross my mind.

SI

Didn't cross my mind til you just wrote it.

/tk

[Ryche]

Did the bridge look like the bridge we see in the background of the pics or was it a different design?

No, the collapsed bridge was a steel span.

[mckerney]

Did you use that bridge?

I live in Dinky Town about half a mile away, my friends and I use it somewhat frequently. Not quite as much this summer being the main on ramp by the U being closed.

[Ryan S]

Did the bridge look like the bridge we see in the background of the pics or was it a different design?

Here is a MSN Virtual Earth birds eye view (http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=rgwwtp76wm77&style=o&lvl=1&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=6176674&encType=1) of the bridge.

[Cards4ever]

My cousin told me that he drove over the bridge a few times today. I usually take that road when I go over to the U area, I can't imagine the traffic issues that are going to happen with that thing out for quite some time.

The Twins have cancelled tomorrow's groundbreaking for their new stadium because of the accident.

It's been extremely warm, I wonder if that had anything to do with the bridge collapsing.

[Hurst2112]

Hey guys. Haven't been around in some weeks but I wanted to let you know I am safe, all my friends are safe.

I drove over that bridge today around 3pm. Was bitching about the construction and how messed up it was.

I'd give almost anything to have the construction back and not have had this happen.

peace and prayers

-daryll

[sterlingice]

All of our other Minnesota FOFC'ers ok?

SI

[Ryche]

http://www.startribune.com/10136/gallery/1338445.html

Some really dramatic pictures of the damage.

[clintl]

To all of you who use the bridge - glad to hear you're safe. On another board I visit, someone said she had crossed over it about 15 minutes before the collapse.

[wade moore]

My fiance has family In Minnesota - mostly in St. Cloud. But several of them live closer to the city and work in the city. She's not too anxious about it so I won't find anything out tonight, but I suspect i'll know something more tomorrow.

My heart goes out to anyone effected by this.

[Hurst2112]

This is a thread at a music forum I belong to. I'm sure that, because of the distance from the incident, some of you may find this guys takes as interesting. I don't wish to deal with them right now but feel free to discuss

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Spoontoad:
daryllh:
I mean this in the nicest way...honestly



Save your shitty Richard Gere movie conspiracy theories for another thread for now. I don't mind talking about it but right now, people are still trying to find out if their loved ones are ok. (your theories and views aren't shitty...the movie was).













No offense taken...so I take it you dont want to hear about the Earthquake theory or the Black Ops Test Run theory already spreading around?

As for family, my brother was involved in that project and been going back & fourth between that bridge and another area of the construction site, depending on daily activities, and havnt heard from him yet, so belive me - I am one of those people trying to get ahold of family.

As for my theory? It was the stress cracks found last May 2006 directly under the bridge from the MnDot Inspection





I have no family here. Still, I'm on the verge of being emotional over this. I don't care about crazy sci fi theories or any other black magic mumbo jumbo.

My concern is more for your brother and others.

It's obvious that MnDot dropped some ball in the last year. That isn't important now.

[MikeVic]

Wow, I hope every Minnesota FOFCer is safe. I don't think I used that bridge when I was there a couple months ago, but it's a fear of mine that a bridge will collapse when I'm under it (although that's not possible in this case).

[Craptacular]

My aunt and uncle would use 35W, but live south of downtown, so hopefully they weren't anywhere near this. I have other family in the Twin Cities, but I'm not sure exactly where. After seeing the pictures and hearing how many cars were on the bridge, I'm surprised the death toll is only six right now. My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone affected by this.

As a civil engineer, I'm, of course, very curious to find out what happened.

[mckerney]

Wow, I hope every Minnesota FOFCer is safe. I don't think I used that bridge when I was there a couple months ago, but it's a fear of mine that a bridge will collapse when I'm under it (although that's not possible in this case).

Actually it is possible here, there are roads and bike/running paths that go under the bridge on each side of the Mississippi. My roommate's route home from work went under the bridge. Working for a cruis ship on the Mississippi I think she may have also been woried being the boat would go underneath 35W, though I'm not sure on that.

[JAG]

I drove over that bridge today around 3pm. Was bitching about the construction and how messed up it was.

I'd give almost anything to have the construction back and not have had this happen.

That's basically me, except around 7:40am this morning. I had thought to myself a number of times that the construction seemed like a waste of time, that the road seemed fine prior to it, and that they didn't seem to be making a lot of progress.

[M GO BLUE!!!]

Here is a MSN Virtual Earth birds eye view (http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=rgwwtp76wm77&style=o&lvl=1&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&scene=6176674&encType=1) of the bridge.

Looking at the difference between the two bridges one looks like it was built to last. The one that collapsed looks like a longer version of a highway overpass. If presented this photo and asked which bridge is more likely to collapse... But it is typical of construction of the time. :(


Glad to hear that it seems everyone from here and your families seem ok.

[Scholes]

I drove over it two days ago, but it's not a normal part of my commute. Like Cards said, it's going to be a nightmare around Minneapolis for the foreseeable future.

[path12]

My fiance has family In Minnesota - mostly in St. Cloud.

I used to go out with a girl who was from St. Cloud. That is a fun town to drink in.

My thoughts are with these folks. I drive bridges like that every day. Can't imagine a much more scary thing.

[MikeVic]

Actually it is possible here, there are roads and bike/running paths that go under the bridge on each side of the Mississippi. My roommate's route home from work went under the bridge. Working for a cruis ship on the Mississippi I think she may have also been woried being the boat would go underneath 35W, though I'm not sure on that.

Eek, I didn't know that. Looked like all water under when I saw it on the news. That sucks. :( Did they say if anyone got crushed?

[nilodor]

As a civil engineer, I'm, of course, very curious to find out what happened.

Me too. Just random ass guessing from looking at the bridge type I think it's one of those orthotropic bridges and they had alot of problems with fatigue over in England. But in the paper it also said there was construction on the bridge, so who knows.

[Ryche]

Eek, I didn't know that. Looked like all water under when I saw it on the news. That sucks. :( Did they say if anyone got crushed?

No word yet, seems likely to me though as it doesn't appear that anyone under it would have had time to get out. Until they can actually move some sections though, I don't think they'll know for sure.

[cthomer5000]

There is video of the collapse happening on the cnn main page:
http://www.cnn.com/

Scary stuff.

[Huckleberry]

Obviously fatigue has to be the starting point for a heavily used bridge. But this was obviously a very fast failure. Wouldn't fatigue give some sort of sign somewhere that something was wrong? In terms of visual structural deformation.

I haven't studied materials science in 10 years but seems like most fatigue failures were analogous to ductile failure and not brittle failure.

[scooter]

My wife is a structural engineer. One of her first thoughts was that maybe in the construction work they were doing (I they were doing resurfacing work), if they had one of those machines that chews up the road surface so you can get a good bond for a new topping, maybe they chewed into some post-tensioned strands in the roadway. She said that she has heard of pt failures as being similar to this, where things just go. She isn't sure of anything as she works on residential contruction, but it was an idea that popped into her head. It will be interesting to see what information comes out of the investigation.

[rowech]

My wife is a structural engineer. One of her first thoughts was that maybe in the construction work they were doing (I they were doing resurfacing work), if they had one of those machines that chews up the road surface so you can get a good bond for a new topping, maybe they chewed into some post-tensioned strands in the roadway. She said that she has heard of pt failures as being similar to this, where things just go. She isn't sure of anything as she works on residential contruction, but it was an idea that popped into her head. It will be interesting to see what information comes out of the investigation.

I would not be surprised if they found this train going underneath started a chain reaction somehow. Cracks in the structure over the last couple of years got worse and a vibration went through it, cracked it and then it was gone.

[Coffee Warlord]

Large amount of my girlfriend's family lives up there. They were frantically calling everyone last night. Everyone's checked in okay.

[Scholes]

...And the what if stories have started coming in. Apparently Flip Saunders is in town and would have been on the bridge at around the time of collapse, but had to take a detour to his destination.

A close friend of mine drove on the bridge twice yesterday, the last time being at around 4:30 pm, an hour and a half before the collapse.

Another friend may have cut it pretty close, but she decided to choose a different route to get north of the cities because the last time she made that particular trip the traffic was bad. She said she would have probably been on the bridge at around 5:30.

I'm sure there are a hundred such stories out there.