Good fugging grief: Bridge collapses in Minnesota

[malaise]

several cars have fallen into the water. The bridge is on fire.

When the New York infrastructure collapsed a few weeks ago, I said the next bridge collapse would be disaster for all persons who do not believe the government should maintain infrastructure.

This is a major disaster. MSNBC.

[SoCalDem]

1. Hey.. bridges, once built, last forever with no replacement necessary

at least that's how republican leadership thinks..

There are THOUSANDS of bridges in the US that are unsafe.. and just waiting to fall down:(

[malaise]

5. This is horrible

Reporter says there could have been one 100 cars were on the bridge moving at between 10-15MPH. Why do people pay taxes? How many billions a day is Bush spending in Iraq while infrastructure is deteriorating?

[China_cat]

44. And some of them are even brand new.

Here in Charleston, our brand new Arthur Ravenel Jr. (please note who it's named for) bridge over the Cooper River opened a whole year ahead of schedule, replacing the Silas Pearman and Grace Memorial bridges. Bridges that had stood for over 30 and 60 years, respectively. I told my husband when it opened that there was no way I'd ever travel across it. A year off the estimated time it would take to build meant that they had cut corners somewhere and that thing just wasn't safe.

Only about 2 years old now, they're closing lanes because the bridge is in serious need of repair. And they've destroyed the 2 bridges that were still capable of carrying traffic.

[DS1]

2. I remember you saying that

and we certainly have problems of our own in MA - even other than the Big Dig. People down south don't seem to understand how difficult it is to keep a road system healthy when the whole thing freezes and thaws dozens of times a year.

[HooptieWagon]

34. Hey, in Fla we have our own problems

Saltwater rusts the rebar in the concrete in our bridges - many were supposed to be replaced decades ago. Polititions are more interested in building new highways to allow for more development than in mantaining existing infrastructure.

[Joe Fields]

57. And knowing that fact, it then becomes the city's and the state's responsibility

to budget appropriately for the proper maintaining of roads and bridges. But states and municipalities consistently fail to do just that.

[nini]

3. Have they blamed al queda yet?

.

[in_cog_ni_to]

8. Not yet. Give 'em some time. I'm sure that will come up. It hasn't even been mentioned as terrorism

on MSNBC. That's surprising.

[TahitiNut]

35. In Minnesota, they're called "Al Uffda"

:dunce:

[scarletwoman]

4. No shit -- I'm watching the local news -- no idea of casualties yet.

I live in rural Minnesota now, but I lived in Minneapolis for over 20 years, and have driven over that bridge countless times.

Totally freaky -- it's going to take awhile before the details get sorted out. There are rescue boats on the river now...

[malaise]

7. How deep is Ole Man river in that area?

Damn!

[scarletwoman]

13. I don't really know how deep the river is there. There is a dam upstream, and locks downstream.

The river is relatively narrow at that spot, so it's probably fairly deep.

THey are saying that there are crushed vehicles under the collapsed section, which is partly on land. An unknown number of vehicles went into the water. Still watching the news as it's unfolding...

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

18. How deep it is is sort of irelevant.

[in_cog_ni_to]

6. This is what happens when all funds are spent on WAR and NOT on infrastructure. This is so SAD!

Horrific!

[malaise]

9. Road construction was taking place neaby

They're not sure if that was the problem

[in_cog_ni_to]

10. I just heard some jack-hammering was going on on the bridge and the whole bridge was shaking and

then collapsed. Damn!

[malaise]

11. CNN has better video

Damn people are stranded on the broken bridge.

[bdamomma]

31. exactly, enough just enough.

[TheWebHead]

12. this is the alaska way viaduct nightmare

in seattle... thank goodness the school bus didn't go into the water.

[malaise]

19. That's the best news

Some lucky people survived and are still on the bridge.

[smirkymonkey]

54. What's amazing is that MOST people survived.

The last I have heard, only 3 people were killed. Although that's still very tragic, for a collapsed bridge I find it amazing that the casualties aren't greater.

It was the same with the NYC explosion last week - one woman died - of a heart attack! If you saw the explosion, it was incredible that more people weren't killed.

[dorkulon]

14. Is it really appropriate to blame this on the Republicans?

Not everything is a partisan issue, guys. We don't know what happened here. Seems kind of ghoulish to me.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

15. Sure, sure.

Nobody could have predicted a bridge would collapse.

Just like nobody could have predicted a hurricane would flood New Orleans.

:eyes:

[malaise]

23. The good news is that sections

remained intact despite collapsing.

[dorkulon]

25. I'm just saying I'd like a little KNOWLEDGE about how and why

this happened, and who was responsible for maintaining it, before turning it into political ammo. For all I know it was the Republicans. But I don't know. I'd also probably wait until the bodies were cold. But hey, that's just me.

[malaise]

16. Did anyone do that?

There are hundreds of bridges needing urgent repair work.

[moondust]

40. We do know that candidate Gore wanted to upgrade infrastructure.

I think that was part of his plan for the surplus. I don't have a link but I remember him talking about it. It was also in the 2000 party platform.

[bridgit]

17. very shocking, we're hearing from friends & family that were just on that bridge...

earlier this afternoon, i've been on that bridge it's amazing to see how destroyed it is

[malaise]

20. Glad they're OK n/t

[bridgit]

28. indeed so, still...amazing, simply amazing...

[malaise]

37. 40 years old

Repair work was on the surface. The good news might be that not as many cars were on the bridge as initially reported.

[bridgit]

41. past time to review the contractors involved & their process, high-bid/low-bid...

compliance/contract maintainance...the money all spends the same until such a mind boggling event sequence unfolds

[Salviati]

21. It's the 35W bridge:

http://www.startribune.com/462/story/1338294.html

[scarletwoman]

22. BTW, the bridge was not on fire, it was a bread truck at the break point that was on fire. (nt)

[cboy4]

24. We just had one yesterday in California....WTF is going on?

You can't compare this to the Minneapolis disaster, but still!





OROVILLE, Calif., July 31, 2007

(AP) A highway bridge under construction collapsed Tuesday, trapping a delivery truck under the debris and injuring a construction worker.

A Fed Ex truck could be seen partially crushed under a beam as rescuers worked for more than two hours to free its trapped driver. One large beam had crumpled the hood but missed the cab, and a second had landed on the back of the truck.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/07/31/national/main3117772.shtml?source=RSSattr=U.S._3117772

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

26. It's a collapsing infrastructure.

There have been plenty of reports for plenty of years detailing why the crumbling infrastructure is a greater threat to the country than terrorism.

Bridges, levees, steam pipes, electrical grids, dams...

This is just more blood on Bushes hands.

[malaise]

30. Put government in the bathtub and

citizens in the Mississippi.
Still KO is suggesting that repair work was going on in the area.

[cboy4]

43. It's not like the trillion dollars we've wasted in Iraq would

help or anything. :sarcasm:

[bridgit]

27. we were driving under *that* one just last month...

isn't anyone certifying these contractors, are these all low-bid fly-by-nighters

[malaise]

52. Dan Abrams just said that a 2006 report suggested the

monitoring of fatigue stressing on that bridge.

[bdamomma]

29. damn this fucking government too busy funneling money into

their own pockets than protecting our infrastructure. I hate these fucking repigs.

[bridgit]

32. most agreed, alyce...

[Beelzebud]

33. When we spend TRILLIONS murdering, this is what happens to their precious homeland.

[MrSlayer]

36. Unreal.

Such a large portion of it collapsed. It's too much to hope that no one was killed but I do hope the numbers are as low as possible. What a terrible thing.

[malaise]

38. As bad as it is for those who are dead or injured

the fact that it remained intact in large sections is good news for others.
All the school kids on the bus survived.

[MrSlayer]

42. Yes, I saw that.

I'm glad for them. This is just nuts.

[Junkdrawer]

39. In Pittsburgh, many of the main bridges are being "rehabbed" to extend...

their lives. The "High Level" bridge and the Brady Street bridge are two examples. The collapse of either of these bridges would mean hundreds of fatalities.

...but if either were shut down, two of the most important new economic centerpieces of the city (the Waterfront and the South Side) would die.

...and no way the city has the money to build new bridges.

I'm sure Pittsburgh is not alone.

[blues90]

45. What's next ?

There are floods and fires everywhere . Infustructure failures just waiting to happen . Poison food and toys and missing weapons .

[scarletwoman]

46. Hasn't anyone ever told you to NEVER ask "what's next"?!?!

Do you wanna jinx ALL of us?!?!

[malaise]

48. The reporter with KO said 30 cars

another report says 50.

[scarletwoman]

49. I don't think there's any way for anyone to know any exact numbers yet.

One witness just interviewed about 10 minutes ago on the local news channel said that she "knew" there will be quite a number of fatalities, due to what she saw -- "cars piled on top of each other".

They really have no idea yet of how many cars went into the river -- local news anchor (I'm in Minnesota watching the local coverage) just said "at least 50".

[malaise]

50. Thanks n/t

[blues90]

51. Sorry , I don't want to send a jinx off to others but man !

It's everyday something blows up or falls apart . I get the impression nothing is ever inspected until it falls apart .

Of course there is no money for this and probably a few unskilled workers who do these jobs like looking for rusted out bolts or old cement ready to crumble .

[scarletwoman]

55. The thing is, Minnesota is one of the most stringent states in terms of bridge inspections.

We actually have some very good laws in place -- or so I thought ( :shrug: ) -- regarding regular inspections of bridges and such.

The thing is, the current repairs being done on that bridge were just surface repairs -- it didn't have anything to do with the actual bridge structure.

In any case, this being Minnesota, I'm really quite confident that no one is going to be able to sweep anything under the rug regarding this incident. We are used to, and expect, that our governmental agencies respond to our concerns. It's a Minnesota tradition.

I lived in Alaska for several years, and I was utterly SHOCKED at how corrupt the state government was there. Minnesota -- my birthplace and current home - is NOWHERE near as corrupt. Even our idiot Repug governor has had to come out in favor of alternative energy and government-supported mass transit systems -- and he only won due to vote splitting --he has never won a majority vote.

We Minnesotans WILL get to the bottom of how this happened. You can bank on it.

sw

[blues90]

59. Well not to place another jinx out there , I trust nothing now days

They may inspect structures but who actually does this work and were they people who took a cut in pay , who knows how well they do their jobs now or even it this work was subcontracted to some company who cuts to pocket .

I hope they do find out what happened .

[scarletwoman]

62. Perhaps I'm a naive pollyanna -- but I'm pretty sure that there WILL be a stringent investigation.

Just knowing the general character of Minnesotans, there's really no way that anyone will be able to whitewash this incident.

We EXPECT honesty here. We may not always get it, and we may tolerate a *some* levels of ambiguity -- but bottom line, we are NOT by nature inclined to tolerate incompetence or overt corruption.

sw

[karlrschneider]

64. I agree with you. I lived in MN for a few years and the people up there

aren't the kind to put up with a lot of crap. (I can't explain Coleman, though...)

[scarletwoman]

65. Oh, I can explain Coleman -- but it's a damn painful story and more than I want to tackle

in an off-topic post.

In any case, thanks for your reply.

sw

[karlrschneider]

66. No problem. I think I sorta get it...I know he used to be a Democrat

...'nuff said.
;-)

[blues90]

68. Looks like the truth is begining to spill out , they knew for two years

That the bridge needed repairs and it was a 5 cent gas tax . What a sad thing that this had to happen it could have been prevented .

[Subdivisions]

47. FIRST MENTION OF TERRORISM!!!

DEPT. OF HOMELAND SECURITY ON SCENE TO CLEAR IT!!!

KARE-TV

[Eric J in MN]

53. Information on the bridge

http://www.twincities.com/allheadlines/ci_6518669?source=rv&nclick_check=1


========================

The bridge, built in 1967, had both north and southbound lanes inspected by the Minnesota Department of Transportation in 2004, according to KSTP-TV.

According to the MNDOT Web site, the bridge is included in a section of interstate that was currently having overlay work done to it. The northbound lanes of I-35W between Interstate 94 and Hwy. 36 were restricted to one lane from 8 p.m. Tuesday until 5 a.m. today, according to the site. The southbound lanes were scheduled to be narrowed to one lane starting at 8 p.m. tonight.

========================
MNDOT = Minnesota Department of Transportation

[HCE SuiGeneris]

56. prelude to the big one... hang on to your hats,

the psycho killers are on the move and fear is their weapon. the MSM will blow this up to gigantic proportions...

[malaise]

58. No it is our business to

deal with this in terms of deteriorating infrastructure everywhere.

[joeunderdog]

60. In other news...$2.3Trillion "missing" from Pentagon budget.

How many bridges is that?

How many schools?

How much healthcare?

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

[HCE SuiGeneris]

61. agreed

or is that " a greed" :mad:

[malaise]

63. Ah greed!

:mad:

I'd come off the other bridge immediately. It may well have structural damage after that shake up.

[John Kerry VonErich]

67. I never understood why some of you do that..

Why in the hell would you blame the media that is covering a very real tragedy to cover up political issues? Which would you rather pay more attention to if like Karl Rove gets indicted and lets say a 9.0 earthquake rocking LA or SF to near total destruction? I'd watch the latter.

[joeunderdog]

69. "Some of us do that" because...

The story about the missing money in the defense budget is directly related to underfunded infrastructure projects here in the States. It is a big part of the story. We spend half our budget on defense. Half, and alot of it the money is going to fix roads we blew up in Iraq.

Democrats have been saying that we need to invest in the future for our country to remain strong. Repubs start wars and cut taxes and domestic funding despite the warnings. There's no pleasure in "I told you so" but this tragic chapter of the story was predicted long before the most recent request for more funding for the Iraq war. This is the part when you reap what you sow.

[John Kerry VonErich]

70. The impression I got was.....

that the bridge was another media cover up for a major breakthrough in rounding up the Bush adminnistration to justice. Some people have a habit of doing this. You may be right though in what you said, no denial on that.

[malaise]

71. 100% correct n/t