[lotrfan55345]

{thread merged by emersonbiggins}



"At least 60 were injured when part of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis gave way at 1805 (2305 GMT) on Wednesday."

200,000 cars each day use this bridge, main artery between west & east of the Mississippi in the MSP area.



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6927113.stm

[WildRose]

I was just watching this on the late-night news. What a nightmare! I understand there are believed to be about 50 cars under the water; I hope all of those people were able to get out of their cars to safety. What a shock, to have a huge structure like that break apart right out of the blue. My thoughts are with all those affected.

[TheDude]

Really messed up. Terrible tragedy, but luckily fatalities are pretty low so far:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')t least 7 die when bridge over Mississippi River collapses

August 2, 2007

ASSOCIATED PRESS

UPDATED AT 9:30 P.M.: MINNEAPOLIS — At least seven people were killed and an unknown number of others injured Wednesday when a four-lane bridge over the Mississippi River collapsed, sending cars, concrete and twisted metal plunging into the river below.

The four-lane Interstate 35W bridge, which spanned the river between Minneapolis and St. Paul, collapsed about 6:05 p.m., during evening rush hour. Minneapolis Fire Chief Jim Clack said in a news conference Wednesday night that at least seven people were dead.

It wasn't immediately clear how many people or vehicles were involved in the collapse, but officials and witnesses estimated that 50 vehicles were dumped into the water and onto the land below the bridge.

[MacG]

Terrible accident. I wonder if it will be rebuilt?

[Novus]

Unforunately I think we will see more bridge collapses in the future because most of these 1950s era bridges were built with a short shelf life of less than 60 years. Some are being replaced but many are just being left to rust because we just don't have the resources to replace them all. There was a study done in the state of New Jersey that surveyed all the bridges and concluded that over 600 brigdes would need to be replaced in the next 20 years to prevent a transportation apocalypse.

[frankthetank]

I know the bridge your talking about down there. I see a quote this morning of some official saying they don't have a "spare bridge" to take all the traffic. This will be a nightmare traffic wise. I'd really be thinking of alternate routes if i had to go anywhere near there. Around here by La Crosse we have 3 seperate bridges that span the Mississippi. Then you have to go 20 miles up or down river to find the next one.

Looks like 4 dead so far and 20 missing.

[eunos]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('frankthetank', 'A')nyone know how long something like this will take to get replaced??? Not that i use it, but it does look like a lot of others do. Does the state/city/county have to pick up the cost of all the damaged people/cars/trains/etc?

[Cloud9]

Two years is about right. Some of the bridges taken out by Katrina are still in the works.

[sailsunfurled]

This is I-10 after Ivan in the bay near Pensacola. All East and West traffic was halted by this. 2007 a new bridge was completed with traffic confined to that bridge while the other West bound bridge is being completed. Just to give you some time scale of how long this takes even with a FEMA fast track slush fund.

[FoxV]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'y')eah. we don't spend money on boring steel metal crap. We spend money on iphones and wine and fun stuff that makes us feel good right now. goddamnit. so why are you like harshing my mellow with this stuff?

[Eli]

My City is having relatively good times right now with good tax revenue.

But we cannot pay for more cops our crime rate is climbing, the roads were given a 60% rating around town. Many of them are falling apart right now and we have had a couple of overpasses drop huge slabs of concrete.

We are not an isolated case, this is and will become a massive problem.

[Eli]

double post, and site is running slow today.

[emersonbiggins]

Despite what we perceive the future will be, I'd almost guarantee the replacement for this failed 8-lane bridge will be a 12-lane bridge.
Hey, all the projections point to more traffic...

[Eli]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('emersonbiggins', 'D')espite what we perceive the future will be, I'd almost guarantee the replacement for this failed 8-lane bridge will be a 12-lane bridge.
Hey, all the projections point to more traffic...

[RonMN]

I know a girl who got her legg ripped up in this collapse...She's in HCMC now.

I am absolutely mortified over this!

[basil_hayden]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('IanC', 'S')o, what will it be: spend money to maintain largely automobile-based infrastructure (roads, bridges, viaducts, etc) or reallocate that money to more appropriate technology for a Post Peak future?

I hear (figuratively) a lot of posters on this site bemoaning the fact that we are not preparing for the future by retrofiting our car-based infrastructure ie. not building better infrastructure for bikes, trains, walkable communities. I'm one of those posters. However, we clearly have a choice to make regarding the vast amount of dollars it will take to maintain our current infrastructure. Should we maintain or highways or not? What makes sense for the future?

Be careful how you answer as both paths are frought with challenges!

-Ian

[Heineken]

It's a miracle more people weren't killed.

This is definitely a taste of things to come. Not just for bridges and roads but for the McMansions, Mickey Ds's, malls, bulldozers, office and industrial parks, warehouses, factories, and all the other crap. People build and buy things without grasping the extensive and regular maintenance that is required to stay a step ahead of entropy.

The larger our infrastructure becomes, the greater the maintenance "overhang," and the more rickety the whole structure becomes, especially in the face of PO and other resource constraints and soaring costs.

We're blowing all the money on Iraq while turning a blind eye to situations like our decaying bridges.

Entropy is the ultimate terrorist.

[vision-master]

It's gone? Just wondering what happened.

[perdition79]

it was merged with a similar thread in the "depletion economics" forum.

[azreal60]

Yeah, I lost it too, because I was going to show my wife it and all the sudden it disappeared. It got combined with an aging infrastructure thread, so it took me forever to find it. Kinda appropriate though, when you think about it.