Bridge collapses in Minnesota

[Joe Tall]

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joe, can u define abutment failure for us?

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Pretty simple really, if you pull the rug out from underneath your feet, you are going to fall.

This link on scour will help though.

ADDED: MN Bridge Inspection Statute

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as previous posts pointed out, the bridge was built so no support was placed in the center of the river - it's a steel span bridge with it's support on both bank sides -

don't see how scour is a possibility here

rb

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The abutments or peirs on each side of the bridge were in the river then.

[whiskeytown]

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joe, can u define abutment failure for us?

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Pretty simple really, if you pull the rug out from underneath your feet, you are going to fall.

This link on scour will help though.

ADDED: MN Bridge Inspection Statute

[/ QUOTE ]

as previous posts pointed out, the bridge was built so no support was placed in the center of the river - it's a steel span bridge with it's support on both bank sides -

don't see how scour is a possibility here

rb

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The abutments or peirs on each side of the bridge were in the river then.

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judging by the pictures I've seen, one is right on the edge of the riverbank - the other is most definately a few feet away from the riverbank because a fence is running in front of it in the picture -

it does sound like it started at one end and went to the other - and I'm hearing things on local coverage like cracks found in steel a couple years before - who knows where it will lead.

when i go to vegas next week, I'm not telling folks I came from Minneapolis - I'll have to talk about this for 3 days if I do -

rb

[MitchL]

I saw everyone I knew from 2p2 @ Canterbury tonight so after this happened so that is good.

[whiskeytown]

I crossed that bridge 5 days a week for two years in the 90's - it was my favorite part of the commute incidently because it had a stellar view of Minneapolis from the North.

rb

[efficacy]

video of the collapse: wow.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/....collapse.kare

you can see the portion on the far side of the river just kind of balanced there before finally tipping over.

edit: after following the link, click the thumbnail with the caption 'video captures bridge collapse'.

[efficacy]

This is easier: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4B7gZQ18snE

[SL__72]

[ACG2x]

Another fellow MN 2+2'er here. I live in a St. Paul suburb, about 20-25 min. from the 35W bridge. I've ridden across that bridge numerous times and last year when my wife, brother and I were going to the Twins playoff game (afternoon one) against Oakland, we parked right by it. In fact, we walked right under it.

My wife attended the U of M when I first met her and she used to jog in that area all the time. Actually, when we were walking to the Metrodome for the game and walked under the 35W bridge, we both remembered last night joking about how rusty some of the support beams were and how crappy the underneath looked when you combined the rust with graffiti.

Those jokes seem beyond unfunny right now. Horrible tragedy. One of the players in my regular ring game attends the U of M but I would have heard something by now if he wasn't OK so I am assuming everything is.

[4_2_it]

This bride was rated "Structurally Deficient" 2 years ago.


Link to Star Trib article

[secretprankster]

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I was in a bar with my dad watching this. This is a huge huge story. We put the o/u on deaths at 50 and likely 300+ injuries.

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lolll