General

Minneapolis Bridge Update

Popular Mechanics has an early out report:

Age and heavy use are by no means isolated conditions. According to a report card released in 2005 by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), 160,570 bridges, or just over one-quarter of the nation’s 590,750-bridge inventory, were rated structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. The nation’s bridges are being called upon to serve a population that has grown from 200 million to over 300 million since the time the first vehicles rolled across the I-35W bridge. Predictably that has translated into lots more cars. American commuters now spend 3.5 billion hours a year stuck in traffic, at a cost to the economy of $63.2 billion a year.

Here is the video from a security camera:

HT to Captain Ed: who comments:

The bridge appears to break, as one might guess from the pattern of the rubble, not in the center but as the span goes over the water of the river. The center section drops straight down, and the video briefly shows the cars that went down with it. A few seconds later, that first third of the bridge follows it down. In that first couple of frames, the steel structure buckles dramatically.

And the Strib reports that it was rated structurally deficient.

For local flavor I tried to look up the brent spence in the national bridge inventory, but that site is understandably slow right now. That bridge is “functionally obsolete” not “structurally deficient” which I think means it won’t fall down anytime soon. Here are some links.

An old enquirer in-depth story.

The ODOT fact sheet.

The replacement project, which is probably going to go on rails now.\

Taxman blog has intense thoughts on the subject:

At least once a week, a serious accident involving injuries or death occur on this bridge as a result of the increased traffic. Many times these accidents tie up the bridge for hours resulting in lost productivity for the area and it’s citizens.

Can you get a politician to address it.

HELL NO!

I disagree vehemently. The problem is probably TOO MUCH political involvement. Take all the highway money that is directed from Washington DC and divide it fairly among the various state Departments of transportation. Maybe, just maybe, they would have enough money to take care of these things without having to go begging to DC anytime they want something done.

But then what would we need the congressmen for? They are not going to voluntarily surrender this power.

UPDATE

This is the link I was trying to find. Back in 2002 Oklahoma rebuilt an interstate bridge in 65 days. Minneapolis shouldn’t be crippled for months or even years.

The bridge, knocked down May 26 by an errant tow barge on the Arkansas River, was reopened to traffic early Monday, with Ridley riding in the lead vehicle.

In what Ridley called “an ODOT (Oklahoma Department of Transportation) magic trick,” the bridge was rebuilt in only 65 days from the time the barge struck it.

A more in depth article here, which looks like a fascinating read.

UPDATE

Taxman responds with my internal devils advocate position.  He’d rather have someone he can hang the blame on when it goes wrong.  He might be right, but personally I think we have too many Murtha’s and Ted Stevens with too much power to trust them to do the right thing.

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