Bridge Collapse Resulted Mainly from Design Flaw
It turns out that bridge in Minnesota, which was designed and constructed in the early 1960s, collapsed mainly because of a design flaw:
Sixteen fractured gusset plates in the center span on Interstate 35W were a main cause of the deadly bridge collapse in Minneapolis last August, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said on Tuesday. The plates, which connected steel beams in the truss bridge, were roughly half the thickness they should have been because of a design error. How that flaw made it into the bridge is unclear; according to NTSB chairman Mark Rosenker, investigators couldn’t find the original design calculations. Extra weight from construction was also a factor in the tragedy, which killed 13 people and injured 100.
I blame George W. Bush.
(Link via Instapundit.)
If only the Minnesota National Guard had be able to form a human support pyramid underneath…..
Techie (ed20d9) — 1/17/2008 @ 7:24 amYes, but the Democrats need more taxes to spend, not that a penny will go to road and bridge maintenance.
Same thing happened in Connecticut when the I-95, Mianus Bridge, collaped. Governors Ella T. Grasso and William “Gov. Who?” O’Neill both regularly raped the highway and toll funds to prop up Democratic regimes in Hartford, New Haven, and Bridgeport.
In fact, after the Toll road bonds for I-95 were paid off, O’Neill kept the tolls up until the Stratford Toll Plaza crash that killed 7 including a toll taker. The publicity forced O’Neill to take down the tolls.
PCD (5c49b0) — 1/17/2008 @ 7:28 amNo doubt global warming and/or cooling is to blame.
Old Coot (2f24dd) — 1/17/2008 @ 7:33 amAnthropogenic climate change = collapsing bridges! Our children are in the crosshairs! It’s the first time in history that gusset plates have collapsed steel! GOOGLE IT, PEOPLE!
PCachu (e072b7) — 1/17/2008 @ 7:46 amWell at least one fellow, a “Kevin Hoffman” in the Minneapolis St. Paul link you gave us claimed that Bush “politicized the collapse even before the bodies were counted”. He also claimed that New Orleans drowned whilst Bush was ‘strumming his guitar”.
That Bush feller sure gets around!
Mike Myers (31af82) — 1/17/2008 @ 8:20 amNow we know what Bush was doing during his “absence” from the TNG: he was thinning the steel plates on the bridge.
Steverino (e00589) — 1/17/2008 @ 8:41 amYou people are so quick to absolve Bush of everything.
Everybody knows Prescott Bush, who was a friend of Hitler’s and a Republican, was in the Senate when that Bridge was built, not only that, but he served on the Senate Committee on Public Works, which funded roads, airports, and ****BRIDGES****. Don’t you get it? Clearly, Bush was to blame.
The links are clear. Follow the money. How you hacks can be so quick to absolve Bush absolutely sickens me. One thing I know for certain, a bridge like that would never be built under a Democratic administration…
Al Maviva (89d0b6) — 1/17/2008 @ 8:53 amThat last post could use a /sarc tag…
H2U (81b7bd) — 1/17/2008 @ 9:00 amYeah, well H2U, I’d do that, but if I do that, who is going to go back and apply sarcasm tags retroactively to the left bloggers who all but placed Bush at the bridge footings with a bundle of dynamite, a plunger, a pick and a mining helmet? Where do I go to get their lie and conclusory truthy arguments un-told?
Al Maviva (89d0b6) — 1/17/2008 @ 9:08 amOn the subject of bridges, I saw a headline today that read,”Remains of one-ton ratlike animal found”. And I wondered whether anyone had seen Ted Kennedy lately….
Steverino (e00589) — 1/17/2008 @ 9:21 amHey, what about the chappaquiddick bridge?
PCD (5c49b0) — 1/17/2008 @ 9:45 amThe 60’s are clearly to blame! The Demon Decade — climaxed by that Annis Horribilus 1968, when, as Mike Huckabee reminds us, homosexuality was invented.
David Ehrenstein (3734da) — 1/17/2008 @ 10:03 amSlow news day, Patterico? I don’t recall anyone sane blaming Bush for the bridge collapse. That last line sounds stupid.
Leviticus (a1be6a) — 1/17/2008 @ 10:12 amDon’t jump the gun, Patterico. NTSB:
What I was talking about back then real issue here is the neglect of public works. Is that totally George Bush’s fault? Of course not. But he’s not blameless either.
I think the larger issue is that in 2001, a University of Minnesota study found cracking in the cross girders at the end of the approach spans, and in 2005, government inspections noted obvious structural problems. The bridge was rated a 50/100 by federal inspectors, indicating a possible need for replacement. To sum up, the whole disaster was eminently preventable. That’s the real problem.
Russell (9a3a14) — 1/17/2008 @ 10:13 amSlow news day, Patterico? I don’t recall anyone sane blaming Bush for the bridge collapse. That last line sounds stupid.
Bush is from Texas. Texas grows cattle. The cattle become Big Macs. People eat Big Macs with fries and high calorie drinks. They get fat and when they get on a bridge their weight causes it to collapse. What’s so hard to understand about that?
nk (95162d) — 1/17/2008 @ 10:30 amActually Leviticus, there were claims at the time that the administration had been neglecting infrastructure spending. If by “anyone sane”, you are excluding Democratic leadership, well suit yourself.
SPQR (26be8b) — 1/17/2008 @ 10:53 amLeviticus,
See for example here and here.
aunursa (1b5bad) — 1/17/2008 @ 12:20 pmYou could not make this stuff up.
JD (75f5c3) — 1/17/2008 @ 12:56 pm13 people died so you could talk this shit.
assistant devil's advocate (650c58) — 1/17/2008 @ 1:18 pmlol @ i blame George W Bush, dead funny
james conrad (7cd809) — 1/17/2008 @ 1:32 pmYou have advocated the killing of more than thirteen in the history of your commenting here, ada. Are you growing new sensibilities?
nk (95162d) — 1/17/2008 @ 1:34 pmI kinda thought that went without saying…
Scott Jacobs (425810) — 1/17/2008 @ 1:46 pmThe things you learn, decades later. Long, long, ago, I had a student job called “drawing grader”; I sat at a huge glass topped drafting table and compared student drawings to the original that was on the table under them, marking any differences. One of the features of the originals was that they would sometimes have a series of almost identical parts with slightly different dimensions. I remember one of my bosses commenting on a drawing where the student had marked a bunch of these dimensions wrong; the instructor pointed out to me that the student had — again! — marked the first part correctly, and then copied the dimensions from that part to the others, instead of coping the dimensions of each part to its corresponding part. This whole thing could be such a transcription error, uncaught in the checking process.
htom (412a17) — 1/17/2008 @ 2:10 pmThe GOP Convention in 2008 will be held in Minneapolis, so the bridge collapse was obviously engineered by the Bush/Cheney/Haliburton Chimpy McHitler/Darth Vader/Haliburdensome axis so that they could suspend the Constitution, declare martial law in Minnesota, and use it as the basis for extend their reign indefinitely. Notice how no clear favorite for the Republican (um, sorry, that’s supposed to be Rethuglican or Repugnanthan or whatever) Presidential nomination has emerged yet? All part of the master plan, my friends.
[/left wing lunancy]
JVW (13af87) — 1/17/2008 @ 3:39 pm13 people died so you could talk this shit.
Because of human error and fate. Two concepts that have bedeviled man since he first rubbed two sticks together.
But Bush failed to prevent both; so he’s to blame.
Lunacy, just lunacy.
SteveMG (97d589) — 1/17/2008 @ 3:41 pmada, you’ve confused yourself.
SPQR (26be8b) — 1/17/2008 @ 6:50 pm#19 13 people died so you could talk this shit.
Actually, enraged liberals talked shit about Bush after 13 people died due to no fault of Bush’s. Apologies have not been forthcoming.
Perfect Sense (b6ec8c) — 1/17/2008 @ 7:12 pmThe demon Rove did it to get somothing in the news so Slick’s foray with a dog wouldn’t make the paper. Was that a 4 legged dog or was it Peeeeloshi? Da** Bush mind control project is taking over. Guess i’ll end up in one of the re-education camps as soon as ‘Monica’s X Boyfriend’s wife becomes president’.
Scrapiron (c36902) — 1/17/2008 @ 9:09 pmBush created global warming and Katrina and has his hand in 9/11 and is responsible for most earthquakes and my leaky roof.
Alta Bob (15dc2c) — 1/17/2008 @ 9:55 pmhave you ever watched ENIREERING DISATERS from THE HISTORY CHANNEL? this looks like one of them AND THE LIBERALS CANT BLAME IT ON GLOBAL WARMING
krazy kagu (956b5b) — 1/17/2008 @ 10:17 pmLBJ,
Only good bridge designs were allowed in TX! He needed all the steel plate he could find to cover his A$$!!
TC (1cf350) — 1/17/2008 @ 11:35 pmLeviticus,
See here.
Oh, wait. You said anyone “sane”. So progressives don’t count. My bad.
Pablo (99243e) — 1/18/2008 @ 2:26 am“If by “anyone sane”, you are excluding Democratic leadership, well suit yourself.”
///
“I kinda thought that went without saying…”
– Scott Jacobs
So did I.
Pablo – anyone who blamed Bush for that bridge collapse is an idiot.
I have no problem calling Progressives “idiots”.
Leviticus (14b3a1) — 1/21/2008 @ 7:47 pm