Minneapolis freeway collapses during rush hour

[thelakelander]

Bridge Falls Into Mississippi River

BREAKING NEWS
MSNBC staff and news service reports
Updated: less than 1 minute ago
MINNEAPOLIS - A busy highway bridge that spans the Mississippi River just northeast of Minneapolis collapsed during rush hour Wednesday, sending a school bus, other vehicles and tons of concrete crashing into the water.

The entire span of the Interstate 35W bridge collapsed about 6:05 p.m. A tractor-trailer caught fire, and flame and black smoke billowed into the sky.

Local media reported 20 to 30 injuries and one death. NBC News reported that every Minneapolis ambulance had been requested to the scene.

At least 20 cars and a truck fell into the river. Local media said a school bus taking children back to the city from a field trip was among the vehicles that were involved.

A nursing supervisor at Hennepin County Medical Center interviewed by local WCCO radio said, "We have multiple patients. Some critical, some non-critical.” Asked if there were any deaths, he said: "Not that I know of."

Local television stations captured video of injured people being carried up the riverbank. Divers were also in the water.

Some people were stranded on parts of the bridge that aren't completely in the water.

A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security said there is no reason to think that terrorism was involved in the collapse, NBC News' Pete Williams reported.

Workers have been repairing the 40-year-old bridge's surface all summer along that stretch of the interstate, StarTribune.com reported. The arched bridge rises about 64 feet above the river.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation told local media that 200,000 cars a day use the bridge.

'It shook the ground'
Ramon Houge of St. Paul was on his way home from work at Wells Fargo and was driving on the bridge when heard a rumbling noise, saw the ground collapse and cars go down, StarTribune.com reported.

“It didn’t seem like it was real,” he said. Traffic was bumper to bumper and hundreds of people would have been involved, he told the Star Tribune, adding that he saw kids on a bus with blood on their faces.

Sarah Fahnhorst, who lives in an apartment a block away from the bridge, heard a huge thud and then “the entire building shook. It shook the ground,” she told the Star Tribune.

StarTribune.com reported that many vehicles were trying to get to the 7:10 p.m. CT Twins game at the nearby Metrodome.

NBC News, The Star Tribune, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Bridge earlier today

[Lunican]

This kind of thing is probably going to become more and more common. Widespread power failures, steam pipe explosion in NYC, and now a bridge collapse. Everything is approaching or beyond its lifespan and lack of investment in infrastructure is starting to catch up.

[thelakelander]

Yeah, makes you wonder about our older bridges.  Especially since the riverwalk appears to be in a failing stage as well.

[spidey]

Just think about it.....most of our Interstate system was built in the 1950s during DDE's term as President.  We've been mostly patching it up ever since.

[Lunican]

The corrosion of the Maumee River Dam in Fort Wayne, Ind., has produced holes that have caused massive leaks in the structure.


The middle of Samuelson Road in Portage, Ind., has a pothole the size of a person’s head.


The aging Rockefeller Road Bridge in Cleveland, Ohio, is one of many decaying bridges over the rail corridor.


Tonawanda Creek Road in Clarence, New York has a sink hole that city officials hope will be repaired some time this year.


Tonawanda Creek Road’s sink hole is another example of our nation’s crumbling infrastructure.


As of 2003, 27.1% of the nation’s bridges (160,570) were structurally deficient or functionally obsolete, an improvement from 28.5% in 2000.

http://www.asce.org/reportcard/2005/page.cfm?id=103

[Lunican]

Fixing America's Infrastructure
Our bridges, roads & tunnels are crumbling. Time for an extreme makeover.
By Gary Sledge
From Reader's Digest
October 2006

Ripping at the Seams
In Boston the roof fell in. In New York the lights went out. In Oregon, antiquated bridges suffer from rotting timbers and metal fatigue. America was built with steel and concrete -- and a vision for the future. The future is here -- but it's ripping at the seams. It's time to build for the next generation.

This July, a 12-ton section of Boston's newly constructed highway and tunnel system, the "Big Dig," collapsed, killing a woman passenger and becoming a rallying cry to fix our faulty infrastructure.

According to the 2005 Report Card compiled by the American Society of Civil Engineers, the U.S. needs to spend $1.6 trillion above what's budgeted to shore up its dams, strengthen its bridges, reboot its power grid and reconstruct roads and sewers. Patchwork won't do, since crumbling water and sewer systems, canals, railroads and airports are putting the economy and people at risk. Our particular focus is on the roads, bridges and tunnels, since the nation would come to a dead halt without them.

In 1956 President Eisenhower worked with Congress to create the Highway Trust Fund, financed by taxing gasoline. The act created the greatest highway network in the world -- a network that was essential for America's economic success.

But cars and trucks on the road have quadrupled since then, and the miles each driver travels have vastly increased. The result: Roads, bridges and tunnels are collapsing from the pummeling impact.

Full Article: http://www.rd.com/content/restoring-americas-bridges-roads-and-tunnels/

[Lunican]

August 2, 2007
Engineers See Dangers in Aging Infrastructure
By JOHN HOLUSHA and KENNETH CHANG

A steam pipe explodes near Grand Central Terminal, a levee fails and floods New Orleans, a bridge collapses in Minneapolis.

These disasters are an indication that this country is not investing enough in keeping its vital infrastructure in good repair, engineering experts warn.

“Governments do not want to pay for maintenance because it is not sexy,” said John Ochsendorf, a structural engineer and an associate professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He said the bulk of the nation’s highway system was built in the 1950s and 1960s and is ageing. Referring to the collapse in Minneapolis, he said “This type of event could become more common.”

“We have a major infrastructure problem in this country,” said Maureen L. McAvey, an executive vice president with the Urban Land Institute, which recently published a report on global infrastructure issues. “The civil engineers have estimated that we have a $1.7 trillion shortfall in this country alone”

But other factors come into play, as in 1982, when a bridge inspector looked at the Mianus River Bridge in Greenwich, Conn., and did not see the metal fatigue in a pin that would break nine months later, collapsing three lanes of Interstate 95 and killing three people.

In 1987, a New York Thruway bridge near Amsterdam, N.Y., also had a clean bill of health, but inspectors had never gone underwater into the Schoharie Creek to look at the bridge’s footings, where flood waters had scoured the concrete base. When the footings slipped, the bridge fell. Ten died.

Full Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/02/us/01cnd-engineer.html