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OT: Minneapolis Bridge
hit_ny:
..and how long till it slips under the radar, for the next crisis.
i'm still trying to figure out who's fault this is..from the looks of it no one seems to have made a mistake.
Broken bridge, no who dunnit
KingSparta:
I am betting the new construction on the bridge may have been part of the problem.
if you take a marshmallow and put a ton of cement on it something is going to give.
IlPadrino:
--- Quote from: KingSparta on August 03, 2007, 04:29:35 pm ---I am betting the new construction on the bridge may have been part of the problem.
if you take a marshmallow and put a ton of cement on it something is going to give.
--- End quote ---
Pure sensationalism.
I'll gladly take your bet. It is *highly* unlikely that dead loads played the contributing role in the failure. It seems probable that fatigue (caused by cyclic loading) or corrosion was responsible for the failure... at which point, of course, the live and dead loads on the bridge made it "fall down". So, what will I win (or lose)?
Again - it's too early to make conclusions.
JimH:
Yes, it's too early, but I think they had removed the surface, and the surface could act as a compression layer on the top of the deck.
IlPadrino:
--- Quote from: JimH on August 03, 2007, 08:09:36 pm ---Yes, it's too early, but I think they had removed the surface, and the surface could act as a compression layer on the top of the deck.
--- End quote ---
The deck truss doesn't need the deck for structural stability. I think I read that over half the lanes were not being used, so loads were lower than normal anyway.
It's incredible this wasn't a greater tragedy - though certainly even one death is unacceptable.
I'm writing to this topic because I think it's easy to draw quick conclusions and expect knee-jerk reactions. The bottom line here is that this bridge was inspected recently and determined to be acceptable for continued use. We *CANNOT* afford to fix every deficiency immediately so we depend on DOTs to prioritize. Was there a failure in the prioritization process? Maybe... or maybe the testing failed to uncover something it should have.
Also remember new bridges aren't designed like this for good reason... bridges should not fail catastrophically.
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