Minneapolis Bridge Termed a Death Trap in 1990

Minneapolis Bridge Termed a Death Trap in 1990

The Minneapolis the Interstate 35W Steel Arch Deck Truss Interstate 1,907 feet long, 458 feet arch Bridge, 108 feet (8 lanes) wide was built and opened in 1967. It is 64feet above the Mississippi River. It was Minneapolis State’s busiest roadway and carried an average of about 140,000 vehicles a day according to the state transportation department. It was classified by engineering expects as “structurally deficient” in a federal report.
Somewhere last year we all head of the fatal collapse of the Interstate 35W Bridge which killed some people.
What experts said about the Interstate 35W Bridge in Minneapolis before it crashed down was that it was “structurally deficient."
In 1990, the U.S. government rated the bridge as "structurally deficient," citing corrosion in its bearings. The designation means some portions of the bridge need to be scheduled for repair or replacement. Inspectors did not believe the corrosion was a major problem and such didn’t need maximum attention. How sad this is /
In a 2005 inspection, the 40-year-old bridge was rated 50 on a scale of 100 for structural stability and was classified as "structurally deficient."
In another report experts again said they “didn't mean that the bridge was unsafe," the Transportation Secretary Peters said -- "We thought we had done all we could," Minnesota state bridge engineer Dan Dorgan said near the mangled remains of the span. "Obviously something went terribly wrong." According to federal data based on a June 2005, inspection, the bridge compared poorly with others:
To me it appeared some of the so-called engineers instead of thinking about the safety of the general public were rather thinking of their jobs. How unethical and insensitive they were to the people they had sworn to do the good of the people using the bridge.
The ill-fated I-35W bridge collapse seems to have been a prime example of the age and neglect that plagues many U.S. bridges now face.
Must we wait for fatal accidents to happen before people who have been trusted to prevent such things know the civic duties to their fellow human beings?
We all remember the 1987 collapse of a New York State Thruway bridge, in which 10 people died, where officials alerted to the problem of scouring on underwater bridge supports. That's when swirling water erodes sediment in which the supports are sunk. I am sure some the experts have also forgotten about the fall of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa Bay in 1980, after it was rammed by a ship, focused attention on the threat to bridges from water traffic.
"Sometimes it takes a tragedy to get decision-makers to pay attention," Andrzej Nowak said, who teaches civil engineering at the University of Nebraska.
He thinks the biggest thing to come out of this will be that, as a nation, we should spend more money replacing and maintaining these older bridges.
"Everything isn't perfect, we all know that, and it's hard to find the right word for what it is," Maggard says. "Reasonably safe? Yeah. Generally safe? Yeah. Not every inspector catches every flaw on every bridge, but at least we've got someone out there looking."
The ill-fated I-35W bridge seems to have been a prime example of the age and neglect that still plagues many U.S. Bridges.
In the aftermath of the incident, federal officials alerted states to immediately inspect all bridges similar to the Minneapolis Bridge. Questions about the cause of the collapse and whether it could have been prevented arose as authorities shifted from rescue efforts to a recovery operation, searching for bodies that may be hidden beneath the river's swirling currents.
The time has come for professionals to perform their functions without first considering the positions they occupy but rather to uphold the truth and to render an expert opinion that will help the users of such roadways a save trip .


Posted By: Benjamin Yaw Atsem

Sources:

“Dozens Missing as Minneapolis Search Efforts Are Halted”
The New York Times
<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/02/us/02cnd-bridge.html>


Keen, Judy
“Minneapolis Bridge warning issued in 1990”
USA TODAY
<http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-08-02-minneapolis-bridge_N.htm>


Rick Hampson, Dennis Cauchon and Paul Overberg
“Officials see new urgency to improve USA's bridges”
USA TODAY
<http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-08-02-bridge-cover_N.htm>