Bridge Collapse in Minneapolis MN

[EmeraldRose]

OMG! I drive part of this highway everyday!!

This just happened. It's across the Mississippi River. Anyone in the area, please let me know you are ok!!!!

[Supagoof]

ER - Supagoof checking in. Myself and friends/family as far as I know are okay. Holy hannah! I take it Andre's okay?

[EmeraldRose]

He's ok! He left a few hours ago for Bemidji. He's the one who called and told me to turn on the news...one of our friends called him to check on me. We have absolutely no cell service right now.

I can't call anybody to check on them. I can't even let family in other parts of the country know we're ok. We got a call out to my brother and my grandmother, so they'll have to let others know...

I'm glad you're ok!

[Supagoof]

Good to hear. Our cells are working, plus we have home phone too, so I'll be online if you find you need me to call someone on your behalf. Send me a PM if you do.

Yeah, from the sounds of it a lot of people survived the collapse in their vehicles. Still, quite a lot of cars were on it at the time...good news that the bus with kids had a successful evacuation.

Only thing left to do is pray.

[EmeraldRose]

Thanks for the offer! We got calls out and Andre knows we are ok. We were not on the other side of the river today, so we didn't even have to cross it....

Oh wow....

At least it was down by four lanes! I just hope we hear from the others who are in the area.

I'm trying to think if I know anyone who would've been going across the bridge today...

[Nomrom]

Wow, I just saw this on the news. That's horrible. I hope all the people on the bridge are okay. I think the big danger right now is all the cars that fell into the water. It sounds like a lot of people stayed okay in their cars, since they were interviewing someone who had been on the bridge. The rescue effort is already well underway, and hopefully people will be alright.

[Madame_Zelia]

Wow. Man that is BAD! I'm glad to know that those of you who checked in are okay. I don't have cable, so I'm trying to find someway to get updated information. Keep us posted!

Is this the section near the U? I can't quite remember where 35W crosses the river.

[EmeraldRose]

It's right across where University Ave is...just up river from the U of M.

[Arnen]

My mom's whole side of the family lives in the cities. I'm freaking out even though my mom called everyone to make sure they're ok.

[Jaguira]

We have lots of experiance with water-rescues around here, thank God for that. And for the fact that everyone in my family's safe, and that from the sounds of it everyone here's safe, too

[SDF]

I have a bunch of friends that go to The U, but I think most of them are home for the summer.

[InaVegt]

Godverdomme, my parents are in Minneapolis and I haven't heard anything from them yet. I can't contact them because I've got no number to call them on.

[EmeraldRose]

Gez, I'm sure they'll contact you as soon as they can! Let us know when you hear something!

[Thes Hunter]

Gez, I am with ER above.

I am sure your parents will contact you soon.

But in the mean time *many hugs and comfort*


And I am glad you all checked in.

[Pwenet]

My wife and I were watching the coverage on that collapse.

I hope that everyone who has family there, that they and their family and friends are okay.

[adanedhel9]

Safe and sound.

I was out to dinner (and more than a few drinks) with my coworkers. My mom kept calling me, and I didn't answer her (since I was at dinner and hadn't heard anything about the bridge). So when I had finally heard about the bridge and figured out why she was calling me, I answered her, yelled "I'm not in the river", and hung up.

She stopped calling me after that.

Good to hear everyone's checking in. Gezina: every hope to you; I'm sure your parents are fine.

[Zeful]

I'm okay. My mom called and told me what happened, otherwise I wouldn't have known till tomarrow. Anway, my heartfelt condolences to anyone who lost a family member there.

[SweetLikeLemons]

I've finally found out that all my family members are safe. I am very relieved, but I feel terrible for those who were not so fortunate.

My thoughts and prayers go out for all those affected by this tragedy. Gezina, I hope your parents are ok.

[tetsubo]

luckly me and mine are ok. I had not even heard about it until my mom called histaricly making sure my fiancee and I were ok. Once we turned on the news we could not belive it. We had another worry as My fiancee's folks were supposed to be in the area around that time but they were alright as well.

Thoughts and prayers to everyone who has not heard from loved ones yet and specially to everyone who lost or knew someone in the colapse.

[InaVegt]

My parents are, luckily, alright. They hadn't heard till they turned the news on this morning (in the American part of the world).

[EmeraldRose]

Gez, I'm so happy for you that they are safe! And for everyone else who has heard from family and friends!!

Miraculously, it seems that most of those who were present have made it safely away! I hope the news continues to be good.

[Bor the Barbarian Monk]

I don't handle disasters well. Not since 9/11. I was on Long Island when it happened and watched in horror as the towers came down. I then wandered from the place I was living, crying randomly. I don't know what to say or do. The most I can come up with is a prayer for anyone even remotely connected to this bridge disaster.

[Oeep Snaec]

My mom takes that route to work. She crosses that bridge every day during the school year. It will be interesting to see what they do about the rubble and how they explain what happened. I read several times the Homeland Security denied terrorism as the cause. But something made a safe bridge (inspected in '05 and '06) randomly fall. There is video of it collapsing, I think on CNN.

[13_CBS]

Hmmm...according to CNN, the death toll is about 4 right now, but is expected to climb due to the fact that there are about 20-30 people missing and possibly trapped in the water with their cars.

[Gygaxphobia]

how they explain what happened. I read several times the Homeland Security denied terrorism as the cause. But something made a safe bridge (inspected in '05 and '06) randomly fall.

No conspiracies pls, the bridge scored 4/10 when it was inspected. Don't let The Fear get to you.

[InaVegt]

Hmmm...according to CNN, the death toll is about 4 right now, but is expected to climb due to the fact that there are about 20-30 people missing and possibly trapped in the water with their cars.

According to NOS, the death toll was 7 this morning (dutch time)

[Supagoof]

No conspiracies pls, the bridge scored 4/10 when it was inspected. Don't let The Fear get to you.

That, plus the minor construction on the bridge (repairing bad spots of concrete) and the fact it was loaded with cars (rush hour speed about 10mph = nose to nose cars) adding to the weight. The bridge was 40 years old, so not new by any means.

The bridge needed repair. It's just a matter of time before they state that was the cause. I think the only reason it hasn't been admitted yet is because the DOT doesn't want to take responsibility for it - which is where everyone will blame when that news comes forward.

Problem is, the blame can't be placed so simply like that. The DOT may have known it needed repair, but with the budget they have to operate under (and consider that the budget get diminshed when gas prices go up due to cost of operating all the machinery they do) it comes under what's critical to get done right now vs. what can we wait on. Not an easy decision by any means. Should something have been done - certainly, but could something have been done is the more important question.

I'm glad to hear everyone and loved ones are safe. Gez - I'm happy your parents contacted you. I just hope that the dive teams have great luck in not finding anyone who may have been trapped down there, and by that I mean I hope everyone got out of their vehicles safely if their car did end up in the river.

[SweetLikeLemons]

I guess the seven was an estimate. They had only four confirmed fatalities this morning, but they are pretty sure the toll will go up because there are cars under some of the concrete.

http://www.startribune.com/10204/story/1338294.html

[Bor the Barbarian Monk]

As this event was the big news yesterday, the AZ channels sought their own engineering experts to give feedback. Far from any conspiracy theory, they pointed to climate. A 40-year-old bridge that has been experiencing extremely cold winters and fairly warm summers is going to have its materials expand and contract during the changes of the seasons. This will cause cracking. Now, I don't know the intricate details of the repair work, such as when it was scheduled, how long they'd been working, etc. But with all that potential damage - that which could be seen and may have been hidden - it's not nearly as shocking that it went down furing the height of rush hour.

Of course, all of this simply explains the tragedy. It takes away none of the terror and suffering, so my prayers will remain with those who are victims, know victims, and are helping victims.

[Chris the Pontifex]

The bridge needed repair. It's just a matter of time before they state that was the cause. I think the only reason it hasn't been admitted yet is because the DOT doesn't want to take responsibility for it - which is where everyone will blame when that news comes forward.

Problem is, the blame can't be placed so simply like that. The DOT may have known it needed repair, but with the budget they have to operate under (and consider that the budget get diminshed when gas prices go up due to cost of operating all the machinery they do) it comes under what's critical to get done right now vs. what can we wait on. Not an easy decision by any means. Should something have been done - certainly, but could something have been done is the more important question.

(wikipedia) The cause of the collapse remains unknown. A 2001 Minnesota Department of Transportation report indicated weakness at the joints of the steel that held the concrete deck above the river, due to "unanticipated out of plane distortion" of the steel girders. The report also noted a concern about lack of redundancy in the main truss system.[38] Being a non-redundant structure, the bridge had a greater risk of collapse in the event of any single structural failure.

Glancing over that construction I'd say it was never fit as a highway bridge to start with, its so slender! The way the joints are designed makes them very sensitive to fatigue and second order effects due to "out of plane distortion".
The choice for L-shaped members is in my opinion what made the bridge to fail completely, they can carry huge amounts of tension but when compressed their failure is very unpredictable. This is also where the redundancy part comes from. When a member or joint fails some members designed for tension can be compressed instead, and if they fail its just domino's.

Of course all of this is wild speculation, I know nothing of the bridge's actual design and investigation of the failed members and joints should yield (engineering pun intended) more info.

As an engineer I'll say that some failures are bound to happen sometime. No-one can eradicate the chance of failure completely. But keeping it within acceptable ranges is not a hard choice, Supagoof, its a matter of doing the right calculations and being willing to spend the money. If the DoT was short they shouldve closed the bridge while trying to get that money from other sources. They knew the bridge didnt comply back in 2001! Plenty time for repairs, strengthening the bridge, or relaying traffic I'd say.

[EDIT in response to Bor]
Ah thanks, so fatigue it is. Most bridges that do fail due to fatigue. and its very hard to predict, especially when it occurs due to temperature changes. This doesnt change any of my rant above, however.