A strange thing happened right behind me today.

[digger]

The wife and I went to Minneapolis today to get supplies and just about a hour after we went across this bridge, it decided to fall into the river!
Course we didn't know it till we got back home.

 

[tcbusch]

This is going to take years to fix.

Here are some good pictures of the bridge.

http://tinyurl.com/26g86w

 

[kweaver]

Charlie - I thought about calling you to see if you were under one of those slabs.

Bad bad tragedy.

Hope we didn't loose any forum members or their family members.

 

[lbuttke]

If the Romans could built bridges to last 1000's of years, why is it we here in the good ole USA can't build a modern bridge to last more than 50 years.

I agree with Terry, its going to take a few years to clean up that mess and rebuild the bridge.
Talk about a major inconvience for anyone living or working in that part of town.

And lets not forget to take a moment to say a prayer for those who did not make it out alive.

 

[digger]

It was kinda creepy, it took us about 20 minutes to cross that bridge today because of the construction and traffic.
Of course it's always interesting pulling the big trailer and buzzin around downtown, LOL

 

[lbuttke]

Charlie,
Just how heavy was that load you where pulling anyhow.

I am glad to hear you where not on the bridge when it went down.

 

[digger]

Actually we had 12 bags of packing peanuts and 6 rolls of bubble wrap, so it wasn't me that did it.

 

[cbusch]

It was a shock to hear. My thoughts are with the families.

I never really liked steel truss bridges. They always looked flimsy to me. Perhaps from working on old cars, I know how much rust can attack steel. I prefer bridges and tall buildings to be built from re-enforced concrete. (Not to mention what we learned from 9-11.) (The building I work in, is a steel 2 story building and the floors bounce!)

 

[kweaver]

They had someone on the news last night that said the bridge was due to be replaced in the future (forgot when) and it was going to cost over 100 million. This morning a MN senator said he was getting things together to get something over 200 million together to build a new bridge. I think the price just went up ... Now they can build it with good China steel.

The senator also said that 40% of the bridges in MN are structurally deficient.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Bad deal with the I35W bridge.

Charlie, did you by chance pick up the packaging supplies at the U-Line in Edina? I was there yesterday around 2:30 picking up some boxes and bubble wrap.

 

[mdiamond]

My heart and prayers go out to those hurt and the families of those lost in this tragedy.

From my perspective it is killing me to know what caused this. Bridges just dont fall. Those old steel truss bridges are iron dinosaurs, there difficult to maintain and worse to inspect structurally. But are very strong and have a long lifespan. From the pictures ive seen so far it looks to me to be foundation failure in the pier by the water. The pier is leaning towards the water which says to me possible undermining of the foundation, which is what caused the collapse of the scolharie bridge on the NYS t-way which killed 10 back in 87. Not sure if there was heavy flooding in this area recently or if this was a happening over time. I do however find it hard to believe that no one caught it before tragedy struck. Bridges are throughly inspected every 2 years as mandated by the feds. This one however was being done every year which also says to me that something was wrong. We only inspect the bridge every year when theres areas of concern monitor. Unfortunately its going to take at least a year and many millions of tax payers dollars to clean that mess up.

 

[digger]

Kraig,
We loaded up at the Eagan wharehouse, we get 3rd line pricing there ya know.

But the wife thought we needed to go downtown to a couple of those architectural antique stores.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Charlie, oops I meant Eagan, MN,

, we must have just missed each other.

BTW, can the thread title be changed? I know you meant funny "strange" not funny "ha ha", however...... TIA

 

[digger]

Yea, the wife just brought that up a bit ago too.
As Tedd says, My bad!

 

[kweaver]

I kept waiting for the "punch line" to get to the funny part ... some ppl just don't care what they type ....

 

[kide]

My wife retired from the MI branch of a large St. Paul insurance company. Her thoughts immediately went to wondering about the people she worked with that would have been in the afternoon traffic jams.. Charlie - glad you are safe ! We'll be keeping all of the people affected by this tragedy in our prayers.

Has anyone heard mention of the Mythbusters episode of a few months ago in which they set up a vibrating weight to synchronize with the natural resonant frequency of a steel bridge? They didn't have much success at first, but at the end, they were able to set a bridge to shaking with a relatively small amount of weight. A friend today said that when he was in basic training in the mid-60's, troops were taught not to march in step on bridges....... I'm sure that NHTSA and all of the academics will figure this out in time, but meanwhile the affected families will be wondering if this was poor bridge inspections, a freak accident caused by several dynamics or ?????

 

[dsauve]

Ken they still teach the gound pounders... I mean army, (or thay did in 94 when I went through basic training) not to march in step on bridges. None the less a terible loss. The story of what happend in the end should be interesting.

 

[dsauve]

Thanks for the change in the thread name it is a terible loss for the families and friends of the unfortunate. Hopefully something that can save lives will come out of this.

 

[kweaver]

I seen some software today on "How to Build Bridges _{So They Don't Fall Down}"

Kinda tasteless in view of recent events.

 

[dsauve]

Ain't it amazing what gravity can do?