I appreciate that Mallard…. OK, I’ll give you this bridge, but did you look at the link I posted above. We have a couple of trillion dollars worth of work to on bridges in this country. Perhaps many of them need to be replaced, these structures were never designed to last forever. We could not have got that far behind without the government being asleep at the wheel. Even if THIS bridge was not the governments fault, how do you explain the thousands of others.

The government does not have it’s priorities straight, they waste train loads of our money and it’s literally going to kill a bunch of us if they don’t get a good smackdown on this point. And that’s how I feel. We should not be so quick to let them off the hook.

And like I said before, if an accident of this magnitude would have happened at some private industry, somebody would be going to jail… or at the very least that plant would be shut down until it got it’s act together. The government is always so sanctimonious with their dozens of agencies devoted to hounding the rest of us on safety, but when they screw the pooch where is their penalty?

Minnesota needs to pay the survivors of this accident in full for what their lifetime of work would have been worth. No matter what, with the only exception being an of God, the Government of Minnesota is responsible for this accident.

Maxx on May 1, 2008 at 10:14 AM

Failure was due to the design of the bridge, the plate connection that you mentioned. It apparently calc-ed out at the time, though it was not a widely copied bridge design. There were engineers critical of the design approach in general and it fell out of use. In 40 years, there was no indication that there was a failure imminent. Corrosion of the members was not cited as the reason for the failure.

I believe that after the conclusions were published, one of the recommendations was to locate all other bridges that were designed similar to this one and have them inspected and retrofitted as necessary. It sounded like it is not a big number of bridges, but they are out there.

Bike paths were deemed a higher priority by Congress, however, including its powerful Minnesota Representatives.

hpb on May 1, 2008 at 2:16 PM

Ah yes… bike paths (obviously much more important than expressway bridges). I’m sure that got the environmentalist wack-o vote.

You see, doing something mundane like repairing bridges just doesn’t garner as many votes as doing something exciting like bike paths. Midnight basketball anyone?

The Wall Street Journal reports that: Minnesota spends $1.6 billion a year on transportation-but nearly $1 billion of that has been diverted from road and bridge repair to the state’s light rail network that has a negligible impact on traffic congestion.

And from the article linked above:

Minnesota’s transportation auditors warned as long ago as 1990 that there was a “backlog of bridges that are classified as having structural deficiencies.” In 1999 engineers declared that cracks found in the bridge that collapsed were “a major concern.” Bike paths were deemed a higher priority by Congress, however, including its powerful Minnesota Representatives.

Diogenes of Sinope on May 1, 2008 at 11:00 AM

Trolls are best ignored.

It’s not a matter of “engineering” Diogenes, its a matter of law.

typical maximum load allowed by law on most Federal highways weighs 40 tons (trucks with even heavier loads are allowed on some highways with approved permits).

— (see page 9 of link below (pdf))

A theoretical series of 40 ton trucks backed up on this bridge would have far exceeded the ten times rule of thumb maximum load I suggested. Yet, by law, bridges are suppose to handle far more than that.

And I’m babbling hun? OK, are these people babbling too?

AUDIT OF OVERSIGHT OF LOAD RATINGS AND POSTINGS ON STRUCTURALLY DEFICIENT BRIDGES
ON THE NATIONAL HIGHWAY SYSTEM

Federal Highway Administration
Report No. MH-2006-043
Date Issued: March 21, 2006

Make sure you take a look at the maps starting on page 24 that shows the percentages of structurally deficient bridges in the various states. The government is falling down in it duties to ensure reliable infrastructure and that’s because pet project buy more votes. But if you want to let the government off the hook on this, that’s fine with me, but don’t expect things to get any better.

A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day…so check back often….

“I think there is a long, long list of earmarks which went to unnecessary and unwanted projects that I think should have gone to the bridge in Minnesota,” McCain said.

This is proof that McCain is just as bad as the “rat” wannabes. Even if there not a long list of earmarks that went to unnecessary and unwanted projects; that bridge in Minnesota would not have gotten one more dollar in federal funding. McCain’s claim is not only ridiculous but it proves once again that he doesn’t respect the outside-the-beltway crowd enough to understand that we know when he is nothing but a big fat liar.

It’s really hard this year to be excited when a forced-on-the-base dirtbag like McCain thinks he can get away with this crap. Next thing we’ll be returning to his claims that he never was in favor of amnesty.

Thin plates in critical areas…. why was that? Were they trying to cut cost? Building material on the bridge contributing to the collapse? Are you kidding, these structures are suppose to be build to withstand ten times the maximum predicted load and still survive during an earthquake

Good lord, what school of engineering did you flunk out of?

Stop, you’re just babbling.

McCain’s problem is that he speaks before he thinks, and he tends to see everything through the prism of his own self-righteousness.

Heavy loads of construction materials on the bridge also contributed to the disaster

Thin plates in critical areas…. why was that? Were they trying to cut cost? Building material on the bridge contributing to the collapse? Are you kidding, these structures are suppose to be build to withstand ten times the maximum predicted load and still survive during an earthquake. The government didn’t have its priorities straight… save money on a bridge…. that’s nuts. How about inspections… why didn’t the inspectors find this problem over the years? How is it the undersized plates got approved? The entire design had to be approved at every phase…. who approved it? Who said the undersized plates were just fine…. and the price was right?

I’m with McCain on this one, the government wants to scrimp on its primary duties so they have money left over to buy votes with pet projects.

If this collapse would have happened in the private sector, somebody would be going to jail. But the government wolf is guarding the hen house on this one, and what a big surprise, they have decided to let themselves off easy.

pilamaye on May 1, 2008 at 10:03 AM

Or Israel.

John McCain needs to drop this anecdote from the anti-pork speech, as it both discredits the argument and disrespects the victims.

I couldn’t agree more Ed. But unfortunately I think asking for honesty from our politicians is asking for too much from our politicians. (See also Hillary’s hospital story and Obama’s associates).

Moreover, I haven’t yet heard what his present take on drilling in ANWR is – remember, his was the deciding vote against it. In other words, HE IS DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR US NOT DRILLING IN ANWR! Present damn stupid (and MSM-pandering) then, and absolutely insane now…

So does he still agree with Schumer in the outrageous lie that developing our single largest undeveloped domestic oil field would only help oil prices by “one cent” – an idiocy, by the way? And that additional 50 billion dollars per year of fewer US dollars being shipped out of our country every single year from that production, and the increase of our national oil production of 20-25% per day, and the additional kickup in jobs and economic growth..

Jabbering about porkbarrel spending at this juncture while the #1 issue is gas prices is kind of stupid. But how can he defend his “energy policy” up to this point? His gas tax holiday is a good idea, but he’s stuck in the Hard-Left’s anti-oil Global Warming crap and cannot seem to extricate himself.
A Republican? I think not…

That ain’t pork, that’s morons.