Bridge Collapse

[BIGSTIC]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070802/...ridge_collapse
http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/2...K6mbjfjaxFbg--
All i can say is WOW. Been in the construction industry for going on 16 years now and worked on 10 good size bridges in Salt Lake City and i am just awe struck. Amazed more were not killed. Extremely interested to see what the cause was.

Best wishes go out for those still missing and my heart goes out to the families who lost loved ones.

[pirahna1]

Yea I was watching a bit of this on CNN. I think they said a dam was slightly upstream and there have been numerous tests done over the years on different bridges close to dams. They said that the current from the dam erodes the silt around the support beams. Least that's what I heard from CNN, dunno how accurate that info may be.

And yea, totally fucking amazing how that bridge just died. Good thing it wasn't more tragic than it could have been, especially during rush hour traffic.

[Koga]

Interesting to say the least...
I thought most bridges are retrofitted and have secondary support systems :/

[Altron]

It's like 10 mins from me. Pretty much been watching the TV all night since it happened. It will be interesting to know what the cause was though (alot of stations have been saying that the road work on the bridge might have caused it, but it wasn't structural work being done). Bridge was built in 67 and is supposed to have a lifespan of around 50 years. So yeah, it will be interesting to hear the cause. Right now it's 7 dead, over 60 injured and 30ish still missing. Thoughts go out to the families.

[Khamsin]

Interesting to say the least...
I thought most bridges are retrofitted and have secondary support systems :/

Cities do tend to have retrofit programs, but if there weren't still bridges needing retrofitting, there wouldn't be those retrofit programs. This one must have still been on the waiting list.

All the ones around here got evaluated and retrofitted after the Nisqually earthquake.

[Michuru]

It's crazy to know I drove over this bridge several times.... and it makes me scared to drive over other bridges in MN that are higher up like the one near my house. I drive over it almost every day!!!

35W has been known for the worst rush hour traffic in MN. I can only imagine how packed the bridge was when it collapsed. I am very surpised that there have not been more casualties however.... the number was reduced to four deaths. But I anticipate it going up as time goes on.... still over 20 missing.

[divisortheory]

It's crazy to know I drove over this bridge several times.... and it makes me scared to drive over other bridges in MN that are higher up like the one near my house. I drive over it almost every day!!!

35W has been known for the worst rush hour traffic in MN. I can only imagine how packed the bridge was when it collapsed. I am very surpised that there have not been more casualties however.... the number was reduced to four deaths. But I anticipate it going up as time goes on.... still over 20 missing.

Well it was at 6:05 PM, which I don't know about Minneapolis, but where I live rush hour is usually starting to die down at that point. I watched a video of the collapse as it happened, and I guess I can understand how people survived. A lot of the people actually slid down the concrete rather than just did a straight drop. Furthermore, the people that did do a straight drop down, it might have been different if they had fallen 50 feet straight down and hit solid ground. Instead they landed on the portion of the bridge that collapsed, but much of the force of impact was probably mitigated by the fact that the concreted they landed on was floating on water. Anyway, it must have been scary as hell, I'm guessing the death toll will rise to somewhere around 15-20 when all is said and done. There was an interview with one guy who said his fiancee was on the phone with her cousin, and her cousin said "holy shit the bridge is collapsing", then the line went dead. Her cousin is still missing.

[Michuru]

There was an interview with one guy who said his fiancee was on the phone with her cousin, and her cousin said "holy shit the bridge is collapsing", then the line went dead. Her cousin is still missing.

That would be the worst thing to hear....

Yeah, as far as 35W goes, there was construction going on where they reduced lanes and such. Most of the time when this is the case, rush hour can last until 7 PM on some highways. I remember construction happening on 494 (south west of minneapolis) and rush hour never ended... every time we hit the construction zone it was stop and go for a short amount of time....

[Dion]

My gf drove over this bridge every day on the way to work and back. She missed it by under 2hrs.

[Sonomaa]

My gf drove over this bridge every day on the way to work and back. She missed it by under 2hrs.

I would seriously hug her as tight as you possibly fucking can, damn.

[killerx]

My gf drove over this bridge every day on the way to work and back. She missed it by under 2hrs.

I would seriously hug her as tight as you possibly fucking can, damn.

yeah that would seriously scare the fuck out of me

[Huggo]

Damn, this looks as bad as when the bay bridge in San Francisco got knocked down earlier this year.

[Po]

I know me and another guy here on BG live in Minneapolis, I hope he is ok...

I got so many calls about my safety yesterday and today, it was a little overwhelming, but I am safe.

The worst part for me is that this has always been one of my biggest fears, bridges collapsing, and this just further instills that it could, and does happen.

[divisortheory]

The worst part for me is that this has always been one of my biggest fears, bridges collapsing, and this just further instills that it could, and does happen.

For what it's worth, one fo the leading experts on structural engineering said that quite frankly, this is one of the most unbelievable things he's ever seen because this type of collapse doesn't happen. I guess what made it weird is that the entire thing just collapsed instantaneously all the way across, and the guy specifically said the chances of that are over 1 in a billion, regardless of any possible structural deficiencies the bridge might have.

[Ddz]

Jeez I was watching the clips on the news earlier and it was surreal.....seriously. Wow. I'm interested to hear how this came to be.

[Raggedstar]

The death count will probably be 30 or so when it's all done. All of the people missing are probably going to be found dead, sadly. The only person I know missing hasn't answered cell phone, hasn't been seen, and car is missing.. so I'd guess it's like this for most people who are missing.
(Police, off camera/off duty, were allready reporting the death count to be higher then what the news was saying only hours after it happened)

Also, it'll be interesting to see what they do about other bridges in the area... Honetsly, sometimes you don't even notice you're on a bridge because they're so frequent.

[6souls]

the local ABC station reported this morning that there was a crew working under the bridge at various points. Not exactly at the time of the collapse, but they had been working on it. but the reason why this was reporting is that the contracted crew has a recent history of 7-8 osha violations.

[Demosthenes11]

I don't mean to be the one without a heart here, as my condolences go out to the victims and their families, but am I the only one that really doesn't care? The school shooting a few months back really made me realize this. Why do we take a freak tragedy/accident that causes anywhere from 1-100 deaths and then take the story on as a nation? Sure, those deaths are bad and all, but what about the 10k people or w/e that die every single day from cancer or heart attacks? There is going to be so much "looking into" this for the next 375498 months by 94989 experts, deeming it just collapsed because beams failed or some shit. I think if american's put nearly as much energy into caring for things that could occur in the realm of possibility we could prevent a lot more deaths than latching on to stories like this.

Call me w/e names you want

[divisortheory]

I guess 9/11 was no big deal either, because more people die from cancer each year.

[Fhqwghads]

Tragedy on large scale > tragedy on small scale

(Plane crash > cancer diagnosis)

Just the way it works...