Comments on: Anniversary of the Collapse of the I 35W Bridge https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/01/anniversary-of-the-collapse-of/ Sun, 02 Aug 2009 18:06:36 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.6 By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/01/anniversary-of-the-collapse-of/#comment-540918 Sun, 02 Aug 2009 18:06:36 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/01/anniversary-of-the-collapse-of/#comment-540918 there was a major inquiry. The reason the bridge fell is clear; The gusset plate were underspecified, too thin. I guess the idea of th current lawsuit is that ad the gusset plates been inspected directly and tested (rather than their stability and integrety inferred) the problems would have been found.

The real reason, of course, is because Tim Pawlenty screwed up. He’s governor, his bridge, he’s responsible, and he has not taken even a cursory level of blame for this. Damn Republicans .

]]> By: Monado, FCD https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/01/anniversary-of-the-collapse-of/#comment-540917 Sun, 02 Aug 2009 15:30:00 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/01/anniversary-of-the-collapse-of/#comment-540917 Was there any enquiry? Any conclusions?

]]> By: James https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/01/anniversary-of-the-collapse-of/#comment-540916 Sun, 02 Aug 2009 09:24:54 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/01/anniversary-of-the-collapse-of/#comment-540916 The next days after the collapse, people in our office traded stories about how close they’d come to being on the bridge when it collapsed. Several people spoke of “I would have been on that bridge” but had tickets for a show downtown, or left work early, and so on.

One DBA I work with was on the on-ramp from Washington Ave, waiting to cross 35W, when traffic stopped. Another had just turned right from 13th Ave, on W River Parkway (which passes under 35W), and the bridge collapsed in front of her.

But the winner of “closest” goes to the son-in-law of one of the sysadmins I worked with. Driving over the bridge in the south-bound lane, had a Tastee truck behind him. Then suddenly the Tastee truck wasn’t there anymore, suddenly vanished. He made it across, but the Tastee truck didn’t.

]]> By: James https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/08/01/anniversary-of-the-collapse-of/#comment-540915 Sun, 02 Aug 2009 09:02:01 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/08/01/anniversary-of-the-collapse-of/#comment-540915 I imagine we’ll see lots of “my story” comments, so here’s mine:

I usually take the bus to/from work, passing over the Washington Ave bridge (by U of M.) That day, a friend of mine offered a ride, saying she was going to be working late, and could drive me home. So she picked me up shortly before 6:00PM.

We crossed over the 10th Ave bridge, avoiding rush-hour traffic on the adjacent 35W bridge. The 35W bridge collapsed at 6:05PM, which means we would have just turned right from 10th Ave onto University Ave. So we completely missed the event.

I didn’t even know about it until 20 minutes later, when I got home and a friend at work (still at the office!) called me. Our office building looks directly over the 35W bridge, but he has an internal office (no windows). The sirens drew his attention.

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