Mississippi bridge collapses

[digitalpunk]

I don't know if any of you have heard this today, but it looks very horrific. This is one of my major fears when travelling over a bridge, I am not paranoid or anything, but it is just something that freaks me out slightly.


http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22175940-2,00.html



FREEWAY bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis has collapsed, sending up to 100 cars into the river and killing three people.

Sky News carried an unconfirmed report that at least seven people were dead.

The bridge was packed with rush-hour traffic. At least three sections of the bridge had collapsed and there was a danger a fourth might collapse.

Tonnes of concrete have collapsed and witnesses said 20-30 people have been injured.

Rescue officials told CNN there could be up to 50 to 100 cars in the river.

CNN said it had confirmed three people had been killed.

There are fears that vehicles may be sandwiched under the main bridge span.

Aerial footage of the collapse showed cars and other vehicles strewn across the collapsed bridge.

Cars hung over the edge of the collapsed bridge, trucks were cut in two or on fire and other vehicles lay precariously on collapsed sections of the structure, footage showed.

Local television stations captured video of injured people being carried up the riverbank. There was no immediate word on injuries, but dozens of rescue vehicles were there. Divers were also in the water.

Some people were stranded on parts of the bridge that were not completely in the water.

The entire span of the 35W bridge collapsed about 6.15pm (9.15am AEST) where the freeway crosses the river near University Avenue.

Witnesses said they heard a rumbling sound as the bridge collapsed into the river.

"First I heard this huge roar," Leone Carstens, a nearby resident, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

"I was at my computer. Initially I thought, Wow was that an airplane?"

Melissa Hughes, a new mother with a three-month-old child, was in a car on the bridge during the collapse.

“I was pretty much freaking out and sitting in the car with my foot as hard as it could go on the brake,” Ms Hughes said on Fox News.

“I thought: ‘oh my God, what do we do?’

After she was helped from her car, she saw at least one male victim seriously hurt during the accident.

“I saw him screaming in pain. After it happened and I found out he had gotten out of the car during the accident and that’s how he got hurt so bad.”

Another victim who was on the bridge at the time said he saw the bridge buckle in front of him, and suddenly found his car sliding down a 45-degree incline until it hit the car in front.

One witness said she saw people swimming in the water seeking safety.

Huge chunks of the bridge stuck at odd angles out of the river, in places surrounded by cars half submerged in the water.

A nursing supervisor at Hennepin county medical centre interviewed by local WCCO radio said, "We have multiple patients. Some critical, some non-critical," he said.

Asked if there were any deaths, he said: "Not that I know of."

The road was carrying bumper to bumper traffic when the 160m steel arch bridge collapsed. The bridge, built in 1967, was 20m above the river.

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

Local media said a school bus taking children back to the city from a field trip was among the vehicles involved.

Reports on Sky News said all the children got out of the school bus, although some were injured.

Workers had been repairing the 40-year-old bridge’s surface as part of improvements along that stretch of the interstate.

A NEWS.com.au reader in Minneapolis claimed a safety report last year said beams on the bridge were cracked.

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

He said cars backed up as best they could and he parked in a construction zone and was finally able to turn around and drive off the bridge.

“It didn’t seem like it was real,” he said.

Traffic was bumper to bumper and hundreds of people would have been involved, he said, adding that he saw kids on the 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.”

But the Department of Homeland Security said there was no reason to think it was a terrorist attack.

[Polyal]

Oh man thats terrible!

I know what you mean about driving over bridges, a thought always flashes through your mind (eg- the Westgate).

[jason71]

Jesus Christ, how the hell did that happen? I`m just watching it on Sky news now.

[photn]

my condolences to the people affected and the families that died.

on a not so serious note. Looking at the americans previous history on fixing things. they should really outsource to say the germans!

[blueoval]

shocking to see. Condolences to families involved.

[Rodp]

Why they would be jackhammering at a bridge during at peak hour is beyond me. Let's hope they manage to pull more survivors out of the drink safely.

[Mechan1k]

Have been watching it on Sky News at work all day.

What a mess ... somewhere between 50-100 cars in the drink ... a hell of a lot of people unaccounted for.

[Dezza]

Gee. That's a big one! Condolences to all the friends and families of all the people who were injured or killed

[Nostalgia]

My condolences to all affected by this tragedy. Apparently the bridge was having structural repairs done to it. A few lanes have been closed for a few days, but authorities are looking into report of structual fatigue which was reported quite a while ago.

[SNB05T]

a tragedy that could've been avoided and also could've happened anywhere.

what really gets me going is the fact that, now everytime something like this happens, people immediatley think terrorist attack. is society getting that bad? :

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by digitalpunk

I don't know if any of you have heard this today, but it looks very horrific. This is one of my major fears when travelling over a bridge, I am not paranoid or anything, but it is just something that freaks me out slightly.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22175940-2,00.html

But you left out the best bit of the report...
"In a report released in May 2006, transport department inspectors had seen fatigue cracks and bending of girders that lift the approaching span, local media said."

[Full Noise]

Originally Posted by GasOLane

But you left out the best bit of the report...
"In a report released in May 2006, transport department inspectors had seen fatigue cracks and bending of girders that lift the approaching span, local media said."

This was obviously bound to happen.

Let’s face it. It was built by Americans and was more than three years old.

[Nostalgia]

Originally Posted by GasOLane

But you left out the best bit of the report...
"In a report released in May 2006, transport department inspectors had seen fatigue cracks and bending of girders that lift the approaching span, local media said."

I thought i heard something about that. Dose'nt WestGate Bridge have issues similar to this also. I remember maybe 18mths-2yrs ago it was big news. They had structual engineers check it out and they confirmed it had cracks which you could see daylight through but also re-assured the public that it is totally normal with a structure of this type.

[Full Noise]

Not quite. The Westgate has an expansion joint issue on the east side that’s monitored on a daily basis. This has tripped the expansion alarm, something like twice in 16 years. It’s still well within spec. No real problem.

[Nostalgia]

Originally Posted by Full Noise

Not quite. The Westgate has an expansion joint issue on the east side that’s monitored on a daily basis. This has tripped the expansion alarm, something like twice in 16 years. It’s still well within spec. No real problem.

Sorry, my wrong. Thanks for posting the real issue Full Noise.

[asusdragon]

heard on the radio on the way home that so far only 9 dead, thought go out to the family of the victims, but lets home the number stays this low

[Full Noise]

Here’s a Google Earth image of the bridge. I’ll try and find a few more pics.

[Full Noise]

Here’s an interesting link on the bridge.

http://www.visi.com/~jweeks/bridges/pages/ms16.html

Edit: Interesting reading here. taken from link.


The National Bridge Inventory contains a report on this bridge from 2003. It reports the following items:

Deck Condition: Fair.
Superstructure Condition: Poor.
Substructure Condition: Satisfactory.
Scour: Foundations determined to be stable.
Bridge Railings: Meets currently acceptable standards.
Structural Evaluation: Meets minimum tolerable limits to be left in place as-is.
Water Adequacy Evaluation: Superior to present desirable criteria.
Bridge Sufficiency Rating: 50%
A University of Minnesota Civil Engineer in a report to MN-DOT recently noted that this bridge is considered to be a non-redundant structure. That is, if any one member fails, the entire bridge can collapse. A key factor is that there are only four pylons holding up the arch. Any damage to any one pylon would be catastropic. The textbook example of a non-redundant bridge is the Silver Bridge over the Ohio River. It failed shortly before Christmas in 1967 resulting in 46 deaths. A single piece of hardware failed due to a tiny manufacturing defect. But that piece was non-redundant, and the entire bridge collapsed into the icy river. Today, bridge engineers design bridges so that any single piece of the bridge can fail without causing the entire bridge to collapse. It is tragic that the I-35W bridge was built a few years too early to benefit from that lesson.

[TUF_302]

Now this is a teribble accident! but how the hell did it happen the bridge only just went through a major inspection in 05!

[GasoLane]

Am I the only one here thats wondering why a bridge collapse in Seppoland, killing about 9 people, makes the lead story on all news stations, with live crossing to 'on the spot' reporters.

But when a train crash in the Congo kills around 100 and injures more than 200. Where there are NO emergency services and the injured had to walk, or were carried by bicycle, 12 kms to the nearest hospital hardly gets a mention after the first day!.

There's definitely something wrong with the world here!

[Full Noise]

Gee, it took a while for the drama queens in the Australian media to find a local angle on this one.

Be very careful when you go outside today, the sky might fall on you.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=283554

[Full Noise]

Originally Posted by GasOLane

Am I the only one here thats wondering why a bridge collapse in Seppoland, killing about 9 people, makes the lead story on all news stations, with live crossing to 'on the spot' reporters.

But when a train crash in the Congo kills around 100 and injures more than 200. Where there are NO emergency services and the injured had to walk, or were carried by bicycle, 12 kms to the nearest hospital hardly gets a mention after the first day!.

There's definitely something wrong with the world here!

Easy. They don’t speak English, and Rupert doesn’t know where The Congo is.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by Full Noise

Easy. They don’t speak English, and Rupert doesn’t know where The Congo is.

Bugger, I forgot about that

[big_pete]

theres also more relevance to the US, as our society and way of living etc is similar, so its like something that 'could' happen here.

but i do get your point GasOlane