WI - 35W bridge in Minneapolis collapses!

[GonzoReiter]

They knew.

Internal MnDOT documents reviewed by the Star Tribune reveal that last year bridge officials talked openly about the possibility of the bridge collapsing -- and worried that it might have to be condemned.

The documents provide the first look inside MnDOT's decision-making process as engineers weighed benefits and risks, wrestling with options to prevent what they believed was a remote but real possibility of the eight-lane freeway bridge failing.

Their concerns were not generalized, documents show. The San Francisco-based consultant, URS Inc., identified 52 crucial steel box beams deemed most susceptible to cracking. URS also had a specific recommendation that 24 of the 52 members be reinforced while the remainder would be kept on a special watch.

Video of the Aug. 1 collapse being examined by the National Transportation Safety Board shows the bridge first falling on the south end over its shoreline pier -- a section of the superstructure where eight suspect beams were specifically tagged for reinforcing.
​

So why wasn't the work done to fix the bridge?

 

[cheko1]

They knew.

Internal MnDOT documents reviewed by the Star Tribune reveal that last year bridge officials talked openly about the possibility of the bridge collapsing -- and worried that it might have to be condemned.​

The documents provide the first look inside MnDOT's decision-making process as engineers weighed benefits and risks, wrestling with options to prevent what they believed was a remote but real possibility of the eight-lane freeway bridge failing.​

Their concerns were not generalized, documents show. The San Francisco-based consultant, URS Inc., identified 52 crucial steel box beams deemed most susceptible to cracking. URS also had a specific recommendation that 24 of the 52 members be reinforced while the remainder would be kept on a special watch.​

Video of the Aug. 1 collapse being examined by the National Transportation Safety Board shows the bridge first falling on the south end over its shoreline pier -- a section of the superstructure where eight suspect beams were specifically tagged for reinforcing.​

So why wasn't the work done to fix the bridge?

Thank you for the link. I'm totally speechless............how can anyone involved sleep at night knowing they helped kill & injure so many people! Then not to own up to the responsibility there actions caused.

They should of put weight restrictions on the bridge ASAP. Not wait for something to happen. Thats the government for you.

 

[philamena]

They knew.

Internal MnDOT documents reviewed by the Star Tribune reveal that last year bridge officials talked openly about the possibility of the bridge collapsing -- and worried that it might have to be condemned.

The documents provide the first look inside MnDOT's decision-making process as engineers weighed benefits and risks, wrestling with options to prevent what they believed was a remote but real possibility of the eight-lane freeway bridge failing.

Their concerns were not generalized, documents show. The San Francisco-based consultant, URS Inc., identified 52 crucial steel box beams deemed most susceptible to cracking. URS also had a specific recommendation that 24 of the 52 members be reinforced while the remainder would be kept on a special watch.


​

This is shocking news. They knew--- yet continued to allow people to use the bridge day after day. That dreadful accident probably could have been prevented.:furious:

 

[panthera]

Breaking News on msnbc.com ~

Remains found of last person missing in bridge collapse

 

[cheko1]

Breaking News on msnbc.com ~

Remains found of last person missing in bridge collapse

Yes panthera, it was the 45 yr old construction worker.

His name is Greg Joelstad......he is the last known victim!

 

[Texana]

What a wonderful, heartbreaking, tear-inducing story about the bus driver. She is a hero, no matter what she thinks. God bless her.

 

[Buzz Mills]

This is really a very unique, but completely plausible possibility. I can see it happening. This will cause a flurry of actvity in the bridge inspection business. Pigeons and bridges get along really well, apparently all too well..

Pigeon dung examined in bridge collapse

ST. PAUL, Minn. - 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 many factors that dogged the structure.

"There is a coating of pigeon dung on steel with nest and heavy buildup on the inside hollow box sections," inspectors wrote in a 1987-1989 report.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070822/ap_on_sc/bridge_collapse_pigeons

I can see the pigeons, combined with runoff of saltwater in the winter, from salt being used on the bridge, as causing a very accelerated rusting/breakdown of the bridge steel.

 

[panthera]

This is very interesting! I just saw the article on msnbc.com today since I haven't had time to catch up with all the news. I wonder about the pigeon droppings being the problem or an excuse to cover up something else to avoid lawsuits?

 

[Taximom]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22663216/
Flaw ID'd in deadly bridge collapse
NTSB blames undersized plates in Minn. tragedy that killed 13
The Associated Press
updated 3:51 p.m. ET, Tues., Jan. 15, 2008
WASHINGTON - Undersized gusset plates in the Interstate 35-W bridge in Minneapolis were “the critical factor” in the bridge collapse last year that killed 13 people and injured 100, the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday.
Chairman Mark Rosenker said the plates, which connected steel beams, were roughly half the thickness they should have been because of a design error. Investigators found 16 fractured gusset plates from the bridge’s center span, he said. (much more plus video at link)

 

[SuziQ]

Below is a link to a pdf doc that the NTSB released. It's the investigative and reconstruction pictures of I-35. It gets interesting at around page 12.

http://www.ntsb.gov/dockets/Highway/HWY07MH024/387406.pdf

Related article:

http://kstp.com/article/stories/S387696.shtml?cat=1

Some old photos of the Interstate 35W bridge show two gusset plates were visibly bent as early as 2003 - four years before the span collapsed into the Mississippi River, killing 13 people. (more at link)

 

[SuziQ]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,340488,00.html

(snip)
Around the country, 74,000 bridges are classified as structurally deficient. Just this week in Minnesota, another bridge was closed to traffic — its condition so poor that it may be beyond repair. Experts believe another collapse is all but inevitable.
/**/
“I would say that chances are we will have something occur in the future, [in] the next year or two, that will probably take lives again,” said Professor Kevin Womack, professor of civil engineering at Utah State University.

 

[Trino]

Minneapolis placed a memorial with raised letter to those who lost their lives in the I-35W bridge collapse. Within two days it was vandalized, with theives taking letters, plus one comma and one period. It's possible the letters were taken for scrap metal, but there's no dealer around that wouldn't know about the stolen letters. Police are trying to see if spelling out a name (or gang) could be possible. Below are the letters. Any ideas?

The missing letters, in the order they took in the message: u, l, n, t, d, w, a, i, n, y, a, w, g, e, a, s, r, m, m, o, g, e.

http://www.startribune.com/local/minneapolis/126870063.html

 

[Trino]

http://www.startribune.com/local/minneapolis/127097338.html

Possible solution. Seems logical because the thief stole a dot over an "I." Local scrabble player came up with this.

"Damn your metal signage, W.W"

 

[0101ABA]

A survivor of the 2007 Minneapolis bridge collapse that killed 13 people now faces terror charges after authorities say he traveled to Syria to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), departing the U.S. just a few weeks after collecting more than $91,000 in settlement money for his injuries.

Mohamed Amiin Ali Roble, 20, was charged Wednesday with providing and conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/survivor-of-2007-minneapolis-bridge-collapse-now-facing-terror-charges/

 

[Hatfield]

Minneapolis placed a memorial with raised letter to those who lost their lives in the I-35W bridge collapse. Within two days it was vandalized, with theives taking letters, plus one comma and one period. It's possible the letters were taken for scrap metal, but there's no dealer around that wouldn't know about the stolen letters. Police are trying to see if spelling out a name (or gang) could be possible. Below are the letters. Any ideas?

The missing letters, in the order they took in the message: u, l, n, t, d, w, a, i, n, y, a, w, g, e, a, s, r, m, m, o, g, e.

http://www.startribune.com/local/minneapolis/126870063.html

Definitely like a scrabble puzzle. I think the order of taken helps maybe determine what they were trying to spell. But how did they determine order of removal. Not sure unless they have video. I have to read article. Based on above.

How about these words maybe

Starting with these:
u, l, n, t, d, w, a, i, n, y, a, w, g, e, a, s, r, m, m, o, g, e.


"United Way"

leaves these left:

, l,, , n, a, w, g, a, s, r, m, m, o, g, e.

Then .......................................................

"United Way"

"Gears"

leaves this remaining .....................

, l,, , n, a, w, , , , m, m, o, g, .

then

"ammo"

leaves this......

, l,, , n, , w, , , , , g, .

"United"
"Way"
"Gears"
"Ammo"

 

[Hatfield]

Or another option........

"Guns and Ammo"

leaves this remaining.............

, l, , t, , w, a, i, , y, , w, , e, , , r, , , g, e.

 

[Hatfield]

JMO
Ive been thinking of someone who owns a business and wanted to create their own sign for their business. That's the only thing I can figure the thieves wanted it for. I don't think it was scrap metal thieves or they would have not been so random chosen.

 

[Hatfield]

http://www.startribune.com/local/minneapolis/127097338.html

Possible solution. Seems logical because the thief stole a dot over an "I." Local scrabble player came up with this.

"Damn your metal signage, W.W"

He has the best possible answer so far. Maybe the thieves were going to put them right above the sign and ran out of time or got scared about doing it.

 

[K_Z]

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/survivor-of-2007-minneapolis-bridge-collapse-now-facing-terror-charges/
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Here's the 18 page criminal complaint. It's a good read. Knits together this man's connections to the other 10 Somali-Americans from Minneapolis who have been convicted of ISIS terrorism charges. Criminal complaint lays out what Roble was planning during his waiting to turn 18 to get access to the $91,000 bridge collapse settlement.

http://kstp.com/kstpImages/repository/cs/files/Mohamed Roble Complaint.pdf

Roble’s name had never surfaced publicly until this year, when three Somali-Minnesotan men went on trial on charges that they also tried to join the Islamic State group in Syria; 21-year-old Guled Omar, 22-year-old Mohamed Farrah and 22-year-old Abdirahman Daud were convicted of the terror charges after the month-long trial.

Testimony showed some of the defendants knew Roble had a lot of money from an insurance payout, and he was rumored to have bought cars for other fighters in Syria once he arrived overseas.

http://kstp.com/news/mohamed-roble-islamic-state-terror-charges/4244726/