The eight lane I-35W highway bridge over the Mississipi River collapsed at 6:05pm. The steel arch bridge was built in1967 and spanned 480 feet across the river. The road deck was undergoing routine resurfacing at the time of the collapse and over 1000' of roadway was severely damaged.
reports at 9:30pm indicate only 28 injuries and only 6 deaths
downtown Minneapolis is in the lower left, the main University of Minnesota campus is on the right
[above from wcco.com]
[Jim Mone/Associated Press]
[Brandi Jade Thomas / AP]
[Jeff Wheeler / AP]
[www.Bridgepix.com. ] in better days.
for an hour or so the bbc had better coverage then the AP. Local tv news has been repeating itself and interviewing anybody who can talk.
Ok- all those rumors about terrorism and a bomb is just plain bunk - if somebody planned on maximum fear and damage the timing should have been earlier in the midst of rush hour. Plus there are better bridges to go after that would gum up the national economy by blocking river traffic further down stream.
This news link is excellent, Barry, as it is continuously updated. Thanks for posting it.
It sounds like all the schoolkids on the bus are OK. And sounds like someone thinks it's a steel collapse, not concrete - I don't think that resurfacing work had anything to do with it.
Interesting though, that there was apparently some jack-hammering going on at the time, and the bridge was unevenly loaded (one lane per direction?). Perhaps the freqeuncy of the hammering happened to be tuned exactly at the oscillating frequency of a portion of the bridge. A minor failure somewhere might have been the start of a catastrophic chain reaction.
thanks for the update barry. was just listening to npr and the mayor was reporting as many as 50 cars in the water, but no #s on missing/etc. sounded like there were many more unaccounted for than 20 so it's good to know.
But what I find hillarious (and i hope you do too) is the fact that on the news on BBC Radio One, they said that the government confirmed that it was not due to terrorist activity.....
Was anybody wondering that?!??! Seriously!?!??!!......
: “The American Society of Civil Engineers issues annual rankings of the state of the nation’s infrastructure and most of the grades are C and D,” said Michael J. O’Rourke, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
But he said it was likely the renovations the Minneapolis bridge was undergoing, rather than general decrepitude was the cause of the collapse. “It is more common for a bridge to have problems during renovations than before or after,” he said. “Two or three things have to happen simultaneously for that to happen.”
Kumares Sinha, a civil engineering professor at Purdue University, also thinks the renovation may be the key to the collapse. “You have a lot of contractors working there, and somebody probably cut something critical,” he said.
Aug 2, 07 9:15 pm ·
·
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.
BREAKING NEWS - Minneapolis Highway Bridge Collapses
The eight lane I-35W highway bridge over the Mississipi River collapsed at 6:05pm. The steel arch bridge was built in1967 and spanned 480 feet across the river. The road deck was undergoing routine resurfacing at the time of the collapse and over 1000' of roadway was severely damaged.
reports at 9:30pm indicate only 28 injuries and only 6 deaths
local tv link
downtown Minneapolis is in the lower left, the main University of Minnesota campus is on the right
[above from wcco.com]
[Jim Mone/Associated Press]
[Brandi Jade Thomas / AP]
[Jeff Wheeler / AP]
[www.Bridgepix.com. ] in better days.
for an hour or so the bbc had better coverage then the AP. Local tv news has been repeating itself and interviewing anybody who can talk.
Ok- all those rumors about terrorism and a bomb is just plain bunk - if somebody planned on maximum fear and damage the timing should have been earlier in the midst of rush hour. Plus there are better bridges to go after that would gum up the national economy by blocking river traffic further down stream.
will keep this updated...
Mpls Shout Out
This news link is excellent, Barry, as it is continuously updated. Thanks for posting it.
It sounds like all the schoolkids on the bus are OK. And sounds like someone thinks it's a steel collapse, not concrete - I don't think that resurfacing work had anything to do with it.
i'm really wondering how it could have happened, I mean the bridge was up for 40 years right?
Interesting though, that there was apparently some jack-hammering going on at the time, and the bridge was unevenly loaded (one lane per direction?). Perhaps the freqeuncy of the hammering happened to be tuned exactly at the oscillating frequency of a portion of the bridge. A minor failure somewhere might have been the start of a catastrophic chain reaction.
two center lanes were closed on each side - so not that asymmetrical a situation.
traffic count was about 140,000 vehicles/day.
current count is 20 missing, 7 dead, 60 injured and ? escaped without major injuries...
thanks for the update barry. was just listening to npr and the mayor was reporting as many as 50 cars in the water, but no #s on missing/etc. sounded like there were many more unaccounted for than 20 so it's good to know.
But what I find hillarious (and i hope you do too) is the fact that on the news on BBC Radio One, they said that the government confirmed that it was not due to terrorist activity.....
Was anybody wondering that?!??! Seriously!?!??!!......
i guess it´s a normal antipanic procedure ... a disaster on first page world wilde which happens in the states is alway a wonder ...
That parallel bridge intrigued me; I looked it up...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10th_Avenue_Bridge
Yup, one of the Twin Cities' concrete arch classics.
:
“The American Society of Civil Engineers issues annual rankings of the state of the nation’s infrastructure and most of the grades are C and D,” said Michael J. O’Rourke, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
But he said it was likely the renovations the Minneapolis bridge was undergoing, rather than general decrepitude was the cause of the collapse. “It is more common for a bridge to have problems during renovations than before or after,” he said. “Two or three things have to happen simultaneously for that to happen.”
Kumares Sinha, a civil engineering professor at Purdue University, also thinks the renovation may be the key to the collapse. “You have a lot of contractors working there, and somebody probably cut something critical,” he said.
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.