Bridges Under Scrutiny As Minn. Mourns

(CBS/AP)  With as many as 30 people still missing following Wednesday evening's catastrophic bridge collapse, families are braced for further news as the recovery effort continues in the murky waters of the Mississippi. Laura Bush will visit the scene today and meet with victims and victims' families.

As divers search the river for submerged vehicles and bodies trapped beneath the twisted debris of the I-35W bridge, finger-pointing has already begun over a federal report two years ago that found the bridge was "structurally deficient."

Several teams of investigators are examining the evidence on what may have caused the eight-lane Interstate 35W bridge to buckle and collapse.

"It's hard to be conclusive so early, but it looks like the main support, the main steel arch, may have given way or something right near it," Richard Stehly, an expert in bridge engineering and co-founder of St. Paul, Minn.-based American Engineering Testing, told CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric.

"Also, the things that support the main arch, the foundations on either bank, perhaps they did. But investigators will look at everything. They will look at the materials. They will look at all the pieces of debris. And they'll find out the cause, because we need to learn the reason for its failure."

Inspections as far back as 2000 on the bridge identified both corrosion in the steel and a lot of cracking, says Stehly.

Questions are also being raised about a 2005 report in the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Bridge Inventory that rated the bridge as "structurally deficient" and possibly in need of replacement.

The report said there were fatigued details on the main truss and floor truss system. Yet it concluded there was no need to prematurely replace the bridge because of fatigue cracking, avoiding the high cost associated with such a large project.

When the bridge was built 40 years ago, it was state of the art, a massive steel arch spanning the Mississippi. But the bridge was designed without the extra support common to later designs, which meant that if one component failed, the whole bridge was likely to fall, reported CBS station WCCO-TV in Minneapolis.

Federal officials alerted states Thursday to immediately inspect all bridges similar to the Minneapolis bridge that collapsed.

President Bush, who will travel to the scene of the disaster on Saturday, said the federal government would help rebuild the bridge in the city that will host next year's Republican National Convention.

"We in the federal government must respond, and respond robustly, to help the people there not only recover, but to make sure that lifeline of activity — that bridge — gets rebuilt as quickly as possible," Mr. Bush said.

Still stung by harsh criticism of the government's sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina, Mr. Bush talked with state and local officials in Minnesota, and the administration dispatched officials to the scene.

The House Transportation Committee quickly approved legislation Thursday that would direct $250 million to Minnesota to help it replace the bridge.

The White House said a U.S. inspection of the 40-year-old bridge in 2005 found problems. The Interstate 35W span rated 50 on a scale of 100 for structural stability and was classified as "structurally deficient," transportation officials said.

The designation means some portions of the bridge needed to be scheduled for repair or replacement, and it was on a schedule for inspection every two years. "It didn't mean that the bridge is unsafe," Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said.

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[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