Bridges Under Scrutiny As Minn. Mourns

As Many As 30 People Still Missing In Wake Of I-35W Bridge Collapse; At Least 4 Dead, 79 Injured

(CBS/AP)  Earlier, at the White House, press secretary Tony Snow said while the inspection did not indicate the bridge was at risk of failing, "If an inspection report identifies deficiencies, the state is responsible for taking corrective actions."

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Thursday ordered an immediate inspection of all bridges in the state with similar designs, but said the state was never warned that the bridge needed to be closed or immediately repaired.

"There was no call by anyone that we're aware of that said it should be immediately closed or immediately replaced," Pawlenty said. "It was more of a monitor, inspect, maintain, and potentially replace it in the future."

The eight-lane Interstate 35W bridge, a major Minneapolis artery, was in the midst of repairs when it buckled during the evening rush hour. Dozens of cars plummeted 60 feetinto the Mississippi River, some falling on top one of another. A school bus sat on the angled concrete.

A strong current and low visibility hampered the search for bodies, but at least four submerged vehicles had been located with sonar, officials said.

The divers face extreme danger — they have to avoid mountains of twisted steel, concrete and cars. The massive debris field has created pockets of fast-moving water, small whirlpools that could pull a diver to his death, reports CBS News correspondent Byron Pitts.

"We have a number of vehicles that are underneath big pieces of concrete, and we do know we have some people in those vehicles," Dolan said. "We know we do have more casualties at the scene."

Speaking with Couric on Thursday, Pawlenty said there were 80,000 bridges designated as "structurally deficient," adding that inspectors of the I-35W bridge "indicated there was no need for dramatic intervention."

As 2007 began, at least 73,694 of the nation's 596,808 bridges, or about 12 percent, were classified as "structurally deficient," Federal Highway Administration figures show. They include 816 built as recently as the early 1990s and 3,871 that are nearly a century old,

In the Mississippi River, divers took down license plate numbers for authorities to track down the vehicles' owners. Getting the vehicles out is expected to take several days and involve moving around very large, heavy pieces of bridge.

Relatives who could not find their loved ones at hospitals gathered in a hotel ballroom Thursday for any news, hoping for the best.

As many as 50 vehicles tumbled into the river when the bridge collapsed, leaving those who could escape to scramble to shore. Some survivors carried the injured up the river bank, while emergency workers tended to others on the ground and some jumped into the water to look for survivors. Fire and black smoke rose from the wreckage.

"People who were pinned or partly crushed told emergency workers to say 'hello' or say 'goodbye' to their loved ones," Dolan said.

The first step of the federal investigation will be to recover pieces of the bridge and reassemble them, much like a jigsaw puzzle, to try and determine what happened, NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker said.

Investigators also want to review video of the collapse, and were setting up a phone number for witnesses to call with information.

"It is clearly much too early in the initial stages of this investigation to have any idea what happened," Rosenker said.

This week, road crews had been working on the bridge's joints, guard rails and lights, with lane closures overnight on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The steel-arched bridge, built in 1967, rose 64 feet above the river and stretched 1,900 feet across the water. It was built with a single 458-foot-long steel arch to avoid the need for piers that might interfere with river navigation.

[kidsmom65]

If you have a family member or friend missing or unaccounted for due to the Interstate 35 freeway bridge collapse spanning the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota please register here. www.nokr.org

This contact information will be passed on to area emergency officials responding to this disaster.

NOKR has made contact with Minneapolis 311 and also Minnesota Homeland Security and Emergency Management

State of Minnesota Listed Under Additional Resources
National Next of Kin Registry
http://www.state.mn.us/portal/%u2026..=NorthStar

About NOKR:

The Next Of Kin Registry (NOKR) was established as a FREE tool for daily emergencies and national disasters. NOKR is an emergency contact system to help if you or your family member is missing, injured or deceased. NOKR provides the public a free proactive service to store emergency contacts, next of kin and vital medical information that would be critical to emergency response agencies. Stored information is only accessible via a secure area that is only accessible by emergency public trust agencies that have registered with NOKR.

NOKR is a humanitarian organization. As part of our mission to society NOKR has created a trusted safeguarding system for all personal emergency contacts worldwide. NOKR does not own the information we store, this information belongs to the registrants and is made available securely to registered emergency agencies during times of urgent need.

[why_not_nar]

_continued_Former staff members of the Whitehouse?
Instead of listening to each of them call each other "little Mr. Bush", maybe we should give them a task. Something that we know needs to be done, and see how they do.
Not only is it the most powerful position in the world, the President has enormous latitude to do good, to do nothing at all, or to hurt the country.
I am not suggesting that someone else pick our President. I am asking how we can improve the process?
There has to be a process to elect a President that is shorter, less costly, and more likely to produce a good result...than the one we have now.

[why_not_nar]

My heart goes out to the families as well.
I will ask my question again.
How did we elect George Bush President?
(unless we believe a conspiracy theory was afoot, we elected him). In the past generation we have also elected Carter, and Nixon. Two of the past eight Presidents we have elected, we felt it necessary to start impeachment hearings on.
Looking to the future, why won't this happen again? I agree with everyone's states positions. Bush and Cheney are not close to the mark. Their performance doesn%u2019t rate a D. And no, history will not re-grade it to an A, despite our President%u2019s hopes.
It%u2019s not that that we disagree with his policies. (we do) This President is incompetent. Of course he doesn't understand IRAQ, there is nothing in his background remotely related to foreign policy. There was nothing in his character that spoke of generosity, or being able to lead a team. There should be no surprise here.
Leaving Mr. Bush aside, what can we do prior to the next election to insure more of the same?
How can we change the process, as imperfect as it is, to attempt to know what a man will do in office.
We don't send men into space who have never flown. We don't trust our lives to men with no medical training. In addition to debates, there is certainly enough time before the election, should we ask the opinion of former Presidents?

[amerfamily]

Can anyone tell me who or why "construction workers were hand digging a trench" moments before the collapse as per a survivor interview by Hannah on the cbs Early Show (partial article printed below?) I wish they would find that out-- maybe it is coincidence and maybe we do alot of hand digging of trenches in construction in this day and age, but it did seem odd to me...
and I would like someone to ask him further about it and look into it a bit more. Also wondering if there was digging on the other side of the arch at the same time. Also I'd like someone to look into the plume of ???? that went up in the air...

(CBS) As Bernie Toivonen was heading home last night, his biggest annoyance was a backup on the approach to the I-35W bridge.

"I reached %u2026 this point on the freeway, (and) there was some construction workers hand-digging a trench and the traffic was really slow up until this point here where we're at, right below the bridge," he told The Early Show co-anchor Hannah Storm.

Traffic sped up for a few seconds and then, Toivonen remembered, "The bridge deck collapsed and it was a point where it was almost a 45-degree angle on the bridge deck. And I knew right away it was going down.

[aaabee-2009]

This had nothing to do with George Bush. You people are sick.

***

No. Like Rush Limbaugh says, Don't blame Bush when its all liberals fault.

[rushlimpdrug]

Blame it on BUSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He is blame for everything!!!!!. . . . .
My Cheating Wife!!!!!!. . . .
Posted by mercer_rd

Your wife is having an affair with bush?

[coffeehead-2009]

This had nothing to do with George Bush. You people are sick.


***

I beg to differ.
sick is not finding WHY these people died and not just jumping into the subliminal mindlessness we have had in the past with this administration. Just saying "oh it's tradgic" - do what you want, is why we are in the pathetic state we are.

I would check into all construction on and AROUND this area. I posted the super-highway information for only one reason.

TTc-35 is a massive project- and quite controversial and NEWSWORTHY for the entire country as far as our roads and foreign take-over are concerned.
But worse is that it's construction plans included this very water-way span. TCC-35 is to run parrallel to I-35 - over the mississippi.

It would be prudent and smart to see if any construction or repairs were being carried out.

And sick is what this country was when we had those mindless morons spewing "liberal/dem0" *** like "rats rats rats" --- most of the country has matured and deprogrammed...
good luck

[mcvet]

Please seek it. And for the rest of you nut libs - please seek help as well. It is simply amazing how you people have to make everything political. This had nothing to do with George Bush. You people are sick.
Posted by jb01201a at 03:11 AM : Aug 03, 2007

Sparky go back and check EVERY budget submitted by the Little Nazi and all the Fascist before him. Check the facts and you'll see that we do not have enough inspectors to properly check these bridges for a REASON! You'll see we can not FIX those bridges for a REASON. The reason Swastika Breath? BUDGET CUTS so we can give tax cuts to the very rich. It's there for anyone to see even if you have swastika's for blinders. Sieg Heil Bush!!

[coffeehead-2009]

Kansas City taxpayers are providing a loan (and the property) for the construction of the Mexican customs facility!

Emminent Domain. New highways like the TTC, will take up to a million acres of land through the use of emminent domain.

PPP-Private Public Partnerships. This is how much of the superhighway system will be built. Private companies will lease the highway infrastructure, and they will recoup their investment plus profit with tolls and receipts from concessions (gas stations, restaurants, etc.) American highways will be effectively owned, controlled and maintained by foreign companies that will make a profit. For existing (not new) highways, taxpayers will literally pay for the same highway twice.

In Texas, the NAFTA Super Highway is being sold as the Trans Texas Corridor. In simplest terms, the TTC is a superhighway system including tollways for passenger vehicles and trucks; lanes for commercial and freight trucks; tracks for commuter rail and high-speed freight rail; depots for all rail lines; pipelines for oil, water, and natural gas; and electrical towers and cabling for communication and telephone lines. One of the proposed corridor routes, TTC-35, is parallel to the present Interstate Highway 35 (I-35), slightly to the east, running north from Mexico to Canada. Its present scope is 4,000 miles long, 1,200 feet wide, with an estimated cost of $183 billion of taxpayer funds. It runs through Kansas City.

[coffeehead-2009]

- and we pay and lose more and more of our country.


1. we don't OWN the very roads and bridges these guys want us to repair.

2. We will pay for repairs - then pay to use them so some PRIVATE foreign company can charge us to drive on them.

3. we WON'T drive on them unless we comply with selling our souls to the U.N. - *mandatory intensive recording of every aspect of our lives*.

4. We paid to build them - the scum in the whitehouse SOLD them - we pay to repair them - the scum in the white house and his NWO capitalist signed the papers ALREADY.

Among those already gone or actively being considered for privatization are Chicago's Skyway commuter route, the city's entire downtown parking system, and Midway Airport; in Indiana, three major throughways (a 157-mile toll road across the state, a new Illiana Expressway, and a section of the I-69 NAFTA highway) and the state lottery; Virginia's Pocahontas Parkway and Dulles Greenway; the 537-mile Pennsylvania Turnpike and Philadelphia International Airport; New York's Tappan Zee Bridge; a vast 4,000-mile network of toll roads across Texas; Colorado's Northwest Parkway; Alabama's Foley Beach Expressway bridge; the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel; and, in New Jersey, the NJ Turnpike, Garden State Parkway, and Atlantic City Expressway.

Second -- and this is the biggest factor of all -- private owners get to raise toll rates.


http://www.infowars.com/articles/nwo/nafta_superhighway_coming_through.htm

[andor3]

wake up! America does not have unlimited resources and it is foolish pride to think it does. Where is our tax money spent? On defense. And where does that money go? to soldiers? To rebuild Iraq? No it goes to wealthy corporations and individuals.

Meanwhile, bridges fall, levees leak, children go hungry and education of the next generation is neglected. Workers have inadequate health care.

We CANNOT fund everything. Choices must be made.

[robertr121]

Because if the baby dies after it is born...this is where the right-wingers among the Republicans always lose me.
Posted by ibsteve2u at 01:37 PM : Aug 02, 2007

This is way over their heads, why bother?

[bennyblack1]

mercer;
Take out Bush. Insert, "The American People." And continue with the list.

[bennyblack1]

Do I believe that we should extend our hands to help those less fortunate than ourselves? Sure, I do. But, if helping someone else is going hurt my ability to take care of myself, then I can't help. It's economics. 9 times out of 10, I'm not going to get paid back. So, any help I give is charity. And, frankly, I'm the first charity I need to be giving to. That is the case in the United States. Charity starts at home. Taking care of the American people is paramount to all other nations. Fixing and rebuilding our own nation must now come first. No one will do it for us, in spite of our "good will toward others."

[bennyblack1]

I initially liked Bush's idea of helping Iraq, because if the Iraqi people actually responded to our help, then they would become the world's leader in oil production. We would become their trading partner, and that would drive the oil prices down. The Iraqis did not respond to our help, and have continued in their support of terrorists right under the nose of the US Government, the hand that's feeding them right now. They have continued in the support of terrorists before the fall of Saddam, during, and after. Now, the oil profits are going to fund terrorist activities as the brainless Iraqis destroy the facilities that we built for them. If they will not take care of themselves, simply, all the training, and the greatest leadership in the world should be withdrawn, and put to good use in the United States. It should have happened around 3 years ago. Now, we pay the price.

[bennyblack1]

markmn29;
HELLO! (knocking on head), our gas is taxed already at around 2$ per gallon. The expense side of the gas we use is really only $1 per gallon. The average price of a gallon of gas now, is $3.05. So, a buck goes to the expense, paying for the gas we bought. A buck goes to the taxes paid for importing it and use tax for the state, and a buck goes to pay the people and profit. If you ask me, the problem is no longer whether we should raise taxes or put "fees" on fuel. We need the tax to pay the import fees, we need to pay the people that cater to processing the oil and delivering that fuel, and the companies need the profit to buy more oil and process it. Frankly, to me, the answer is alternative fuels and more efficient cars. The American people are already taxed and fee'd to death. If you add a fee to the already high price of fuel, the various states would have a different fee, and we could end up paying on average $5 a gallon.

[jb01201a]

Considering this was a large bridge, one could assume there were a large number of GOP/Bushbot Trolls in residence, and may not have survived
the collapse. Finally, a ray of sunshine in an otherwise tragic event.
You need some type of help. Please seek it. And for the rest of you nut libs - please seek help as well. It is simply amazing how you people have to make everything political. This had nothing to do with George Bush. You people are sick.

[bennyblack1]

grgeng
Just remember, sir, that it is the dirty white trash that still has enough innovation to feed your lazy butt.

[l8c6]

Lets hear from the economists and business leaders. Afterall, america is best run like a business. That's what the neo con boys have been telling us for at least 25 years.

Does it make sense to repair an old antiquated factory or operate it past the time its return becomes inadequate and no longer justifies paying for the cost of its overhead?

Same with america. It's getting old. The right wing corporatists elected to minimize government bureacracy like the U.S Army Corp of Engineers have underfunded such repair like good business people knowing it just doesn't make good business sense to keep patching an old antiquated machine.

So, I guess like good global entrepreneurs the robber barons will be investing in Dubai.

[mercer_rd]

Blame it on BUSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He is blame for everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!

street Gangs!!!!!

Hurricanes!!!!!!!!

Car Jackings!!!!!!!!!!

Teen ***!!!!!!!

Abortions!!!!!!!!!!

Evil!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IRAQ!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chinese Imports!!!!!!!!!

Japanese Impports!!!!!!!

Fascism!!!!!!!!!!

Faulty Sears Tools!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My Cheating Wife!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Child Porn!!!!!!!!!!

Gas Prices!!!!!!!!!

Crack!!!!!

It is all relative, and it is all GWB's FAULT!!!!

Cripe the son of Gosh! DO SOMETHING!!!!!!!!!