Search For Answers In Bridge Collapse

2005 Report Called Minnesota Bridge "Structurally Deficient" And Possibly In Need Of Replacement

(CBS/AP)  Federal transportation officials arrived in Minneapolis on Thursday to begin investigating the deadly collapse of an interstate bridge into the Mississippi River.

The Homeland Security Department said the collapse did not appear to be terrorism-related, but Hennepin County Sheriff Richard Stanek said the cause was still unknown.

"All indications are that it was a collapse, not an act of someone doing it," Stanek said.

The first step of the federal investigation will be to recover pieces of the bridge and reassemble them, kind of 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.

But speculation was already beginning into what may have caused the eight-lane Interstate 35W bridge to buckle and collapse during the evening rush hour Wednesday

"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 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 which 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.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said Thursday that there was no indication from that and other reviews that the bridge should be shut down.

"There are 80,000 bridges in the United States with that designation," Pawlenty told Couric. "Neither the federal officials nor the state officials who did the inspection indicated the bridge needed to be replaced immediately. It was something they foresaw in approximately 2020.

"Clearly, there was fatigue, but it wasn't uncommon and not unlike many bridges," Pawlenty said. "And the inspectors who looked at the bridge, actually looked at the bridge, indicated there was no need for dramatic intervention. In other words it could be monitored and dealt with. They did not call for the closure of the bridge. Had they done that the bridge would have been closed immediately."

Pawlenty ordered an immediate inspection of all bridges in the state with similar designs.

Former NTSB chairman James Burnett was in Minneapolis when the tragedy happened. He told CBS Early Show co-anchor Hannah Storm the 2005 report "does not necessarily mean there was safety inadequacy of the bridge. There are other types of structural deficiency that may not necessarily mean there's an immediate safety problem."

The I-35W bridge, a major Minneapolis artery, was in the midst of being repaired and two lanes in each direction were closed when the bridge collapsed.

Burnett said NTSB inspectors will be looking at the inspection reports of the bridge and "examining the bridge itself and particularly the metal portions to see if reports of fatigue cracking were, in fact, accurate, and whether there was any factor that might have caused those cracks to promulgate more quickly than had been projected. They'll be looking to see if there had been any external damage to the bridge, and also whether or not the construction process may have contributed, even by vibration, to the bridge failure."

Burnett said that in the 25 years he's been following transportation safety, there have been about five interstate bridge collapses.

"Bridge collapses averaging once every five years would be not as frequent, or more frequent, than we're having plane crashes," he said.

[missmead]

Of course president Bush is not directly responsible for the bridge collapse. He should not even receive a large part of the blame, but he has failed us. He decided to fight the wrong war. He is off spreading democracy to countries that do not really want it.
Anyone who attended the ninth grade should know that if we do not know our history we are doomed to repeat it. The only country that the U.S. reminds me of is Roman Empire. Both of our nations are the only ones to ever place our hands on our hearts. We both feel the need to spread democracy even if it is by force.
I cannot remember what brought down the great nation of the Roman Empire, but I do know that their infrustructure went first.

[wilsale]

Dr. Hamid Saadatmanesh Professor of Civil Engineering from the University of Arizona statement regarding the I-35W Bridge Collapse:

These type of fatigue cracks are the most likely cause of the bridge failure. I have developed a unique solution for strengthening of this type of bridge with composites at a fraction of the cost and time that it will take to do a conventional repair. The repair not only is more cost effective, but also is more technically sound as compared to current technology. To the best of my knowledge, no one else has done this type of work that I have done. Furthermore, I received a NSF grant to do this work and I have received the year's best paper award from the ASCE in 2001 for this work.

Credentials:

EDUCATION
Ph.D. in Structural Engineering, August 1986, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland.


2001, The year%u2019s Best Paper in Basic Research, Journal of Composites for Construction, American Society of Civil Engineers, Tavakolizadeh, M., and Saadatmanesh, H.,%u201D Galvanic Corrosion of Carbon Composites and Steel In Seawater and Deicing Salt Solutions,%u201D Journal of Composites for Construction, American Society of Civil Engineers, Vol.5, No.3, August 2001, pp. 200-210.

[rushman71]

infidel_us: my bad, didn't see that you put Waco down.

[rushman71]

infidel_us: don't forget the Branch Davidians back in 93 when Bill "Free my Willy" Clinton was just in office!!!

[infidel_us]

HOW many of these people CUT funding for the Highways? Posted by MCVet at 07:18 PM : Aug 02, 2007

Here's another *******. Show mw where Bush "cut funding for highways", you moron. Liberal democrats are as much of an enemy to America as islamo-fascist terrorists.

[infidel_us]

We are able to blame Bush for this disaster, because he is responsiblePosted by barbaraf4 at 08:17 AM : Aug 03, 2007

What a total *******. So, CLinton was to blame for the USS Cole, Waco, WTC '93, etc., etc. It's a shame that idiots like this have the right to vote.

[barbaraf4]

"Well said thgdriver
I agree, as much as I dislike Bush, how can he possibly be blamed for this?" Posted by ozone-baby
~~~
We are able to blame Bush for this disaster, because he is responsible, until he is able to find a flunkie to blame. He is responsible for everything that happens to this country while he is President. If he is not capable of doing his job, then we need to impeach him and remove him from office.

[rocketman454]

I think a key structural link gave way to corrosion. This bridge apparently see's much salt every winter and that salt can seep into bolt assemblies and corrode them nearly all the way thru with little or no indication on the surface. Each time the structurs are sand blasted and re-painted their is no visible way to see inside the bolt hole so they simply get painted over. Salt corrosion can bring down ocean liners, aircraft and yes bridges.

[jack773]

There is, or should be, plenty of money for road maintenance which includes bridges from road use taxes. These are taxes from car and personal license fees, taxes on tires,gas and oil, etc., which used to be dedicated solely to roads. It was perhaps the only truly fair tax we ever had, those who used the roads indirectly paid for them. But then, a long while back, the Feds and the States got into these formerly "exclusive" funds, and dumped them into their general funds. This meant that they could apportion any amount they wanted to roads in spite of the fact that the roads were really paying for themselves. Consequently what has happened with that money is an incredible growth in beaurocracy since the designated road funds were redirected. Face it America. Instead of fixing that bridge you now have a full time bereavement counselor at your seven year old's school, which I guess is necessary when Mom goes down on a bad bridge.

[mcvet]

I agree, as much as I dislike Bush, how can he possibly be blamed for this? Yes, the reports showed damage, just like any structure of that age would. But do you honestly believe that the powers that be would let people drive on it if they thought for one minute this would happen? I don't think so. I am not always in support of politicians and the things they try to get by with but I do think this was just "one of those fluke things" that unfortunately happen in the world.
Posted by ozone-baby at 05:21 PM : Aug 02, 2007

No it isn't just Bush but the whole NeoCon mentality all the way back to Reagan. EVERY SINGLE YEAR that a Fascist has been in the White House those funds have been CUT. Yep, check the record Sparky, EVERY SINGLE YEAR a Fascist was in the White House they FAILED to properly fund the Highway System and it's been falling apart ever since. It's right there in the Congressional Record, repair funds were cut so tax cut's to fund the Trickle Down Economics could be had. READ the RECORD SPARKY!! Sieg Heil Y'all.

[mcvet]

By the way, the blaming of our present president for this is getting old fast!!

Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Reagan, Bush, they all spent money on our military and this country's defense.

Talk about a waste of our young ---Vietnam anyone?? 54,000 dead. Johnson's war.

Talk about a waste of our wealth---Race to the moon anyone?? Billions and billions of (1960's) dollars, for who? For what? Kennedy's friends.


Posted by thgdriver at 04:25 PM : Aug 02, 2007

HOW many of these people CUT funding for the Highways? How many of these presidents refused to fund repairs properly so they could give tax breaks to Oil Companies who were making TON's of money. But the biggest thing to note was that the funding for those hightways and Bidges were NOT cut because our nation had the TAX BASE to support the spending on the Space Program, which has been a great benefit to EVERY American. The Trickle Down Economics ELIMINATED the Jobs of the workers who were paying the freight and EVERYONE knows it... Sieg Heil Y'all.

[qualityl]

Right on, teeus! I also heard about the bridge being rated a 4 out of 9. As a MN resident, I am well aware that Pawlenty REFUSED to fund MNDOT to do maintenance, because he was insisting that the state heavily increase its debt to fund the maintenance via bonds, rather than increase taxes. Even though his rich buddies have gotten significant tax breaks since they funded him into office for his first term.

Well, I hope his rich buddies have fun counting the money stained with the blood of the victims of the I-35W bridge crash, not to mention the cost of now REPLACING the bridge instead of just repairing it!

[klingon69]

Based on the lie that companies do everything better than governments do
Politicians are selling our bridges
http://www.hightowerlowdown.org/node/1
309

Posted by coffeehead at 03:23 PM : Aug 02, 2007
We already had a pres that gave away our national parks to the UN.

[michellem99-2009]

Dears,
Do you think that I don't think OF them people who are there,who lost loved ones,who have to find another way of getting around. We have been over that very bridge..When we used live there.
We have aging bridges every where. And flankly it scarey. We all have go over bridges and they ARE old and unsafe. Yes it took years for them get in this state. Fix them right or rebuild and maintain as you oaght.
We are so sad for the people during their time of need. I am 52. Put the blame on the proper parties after the dearly departed have been found and their remains layed to rest. Heart felt prayers .

[pepperp1]

So our United States infrastructure is collapsing but no money to fix it and Congress wants us to pay for it through bonds, buy us paying bonds. How about these Senators you pay for the war with bonds we will pay for the countries infrastructure that we all benefit from with our taxes. Gives Halliburton, Exxon and the college repugs and neo con sect members an opportunity to give back to the country by buying war bonds, now with an estimated cost in excess of 1 TRILLION dollars.

[teeus]

Relax--I'm not blaming the pres. I'm blaming the gov:

"The bridge was rated as "structurally deficient" 2 years ago and possibly in need of replacement. The deficiency rating is from a complex formula. A score of 80 percent or less indicates some rehabilitation may be needed; a 50 percent score or less indicates replacement may be in order. The bridge was rated at 50 percent.

The data also summarize the bridge's status as "structurally deficient." Bridge components are ranked on a scale of 0 to 9, with 0 being "failed" and 9 being "excellent."

In 2005, the bridge's superstructure was rated at 4. The bridge's deck was rated 5, and the substructure, comprised of the piers, abutments, footings and other components, was rated 6. The report noted "many poor fatigue details" and said certain members of the main truss should be inspected every two years. In addition, the report said, certain sections of the floor trusses had high stress areas that should be inspected every six months.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty said Wednesday night that the bridge was inspected in 2005 and 2006." http://www.startribune.com/10204/story/1338970.html

But what they fail to mention is that Gov Tim Pawlenty cut the MNDOT budget for inspections. They might have inspected the bridges, but it was a shortened version of the standard tests.

[ozone-baby]

Well said thgdriver
I agree, as much as I dislike Bush, how can he possibly be blamed for this? Yes, the reports showed damage, just like any structure of that age would. But do you honestly believe that the powers that be would let people drive on it if they thought for one minute this would happen? I don't think so. I am not always in support of politicians and the things they try to get by with but I do think this was just "one of those fluke things" that unfortunately happen in the world.

[jonesforch]

thgdriver

Applauding your well spoken veiws.

I lived in and around this bridge for 15 years. I hate bridges to being with. Drove over it many times. This is a horrible thing to happen in any city.

[thgdriver]

By the way, the blaming of our present president for this is getting old fast!!

Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Reagan, Bush, they all spent money on our military and this country's defense.

Talk about a waste of our young ---Vietnam anyone?? 54,000 dead. Johnson's war.

Talk about a waste of our wealth---Race to the moon anyone?? Billions and billions of (1960's) dollars, for who? For what? Kennedy's friends.

[nkp007]

I agree with Long this seems logical because alot of the witnesses were saying that the bridge tilted to one side then the whole thing collapsed (theres a video of it collapsing on cbs's website). that does seem logical, but the deck ontop has nothing strutural about it, so repairing the deck would not weaken the bridge substantially if at all.