Bridge collapses in Minnesota

[AceLuby]

I live in MN as well. My grandparents w/ my aunt, uncle, cousins and siblings drove over that bridge a half hour before it collapsed.

[Edge34]

I left Eagan yesterday at about 8:30 central. I'm at my brother's apartment in Bloomington, IN right now and jus got internet working. Cell lines were hell last night, but thankfully my friends at the Twins game weren't near this. People were calling me last night saying they had to try 5 or 6 times to get through just to make sure everything was ok with me.

Just wanted to pop in and see this thread...I'm still in shock over how quick everything went to hell up there. My prayers are with all those who have lost loved ones. Good to see support from the 2p2 community. Sadly, though, the news is probably going to get a good bit worse before it gets better. I couldn't tell you how many times I've taken that bridge to Minny...

[Edge34]

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


Link to Star Trib article

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Reports say as many as 80k others have that rating, and about 80k more are worse. This is clearly a problem that needs attention and quick. I'm sure almost 175k or 200k cars per day doesn't help...who knows though?

[icepick]

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Cell lines were hell last night

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We did our best. Broke every usage record we bother to keep track of. T-Mobile Minneapolis processed in excess of 24 million minutes of usage last night.

We had techs rolling to the scene by 6:30 with extra equipment to soak up the load around the bridge. Unfortunately, the network was spiking everywhere.

[scotchnrocks]

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I'm hearing things on local coverage like cracks found in steel a couple years before

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I was reading about that too. FWIW, I work as a junior structural engineer at a bridge design office and we discussed this a little this morning. There are a number of reasons it could have collapsed. Could have been fatigue, maybe related to the ongoing construction (jackhammers could cause fatigue cracks to propagate). Without having all of the drawings and inspection and maintenance reports it's really just a guessing game because there are several possibilities. It will likely end up being the result of a well documented engineering phenomenon that was underestimated/overlooked in this case.

[Edge34]

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Cell lines were hell last night

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We did our best. Broke every usage record we bother to keep track of. T-Mobile Minneapolis processed in excess of 24 million minutes of usage last night.

We had techs rolling to the scene by 6:30 with extra equipment to soak up the load around the bridge. Unfortunately, the network was spiking everywhere.

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Icepick,

Damn. Just a statement of fact, that it was up at all was impressive. 24 million minutes, that's beyond amazing. Thanks for helping everyone stay in touch.

[Stellastarr]

I cross that bridge almost everyday. Good thing yesterday wasnt one of them.

[Badger]

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Cell lines were hell last night

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We did our best. Broke every usage record we bother to keep track of. T-Mobile Minneapolis processed in excess of 24 million minutes of usage last night.

We had techs rolling to the scene by 6:30 with extra equipment to soak up the load around the bridge. Unfortunately, the network was spiking everywhere.

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Thanks for working on that. I don't live in Minneapolis anymore, but I still carry my cell phone number from when I did. I was having some usage problems, and couldn't call any of my MN friend's cells.

Were there any notices to not talk on your cell phones? I'm not sure if my phone would tax the system at all since I live in Texas now, but I stayed off it anyways.

I called my folk's house and nobody picked up, then I tried both their cell phones to no avail. I talked myself out of worrying about it even though a lot of my friends and family use that bridge daily. The chances of them being on it at any one instant are really, really small. I finally talked to my parents around 8:30PM (an hour after I heard about it). They live in the Twin Cities and it sounded like things were pretty crazy there. All things considered, I expected it to be a lot worse when I heard 35W fell into the Mississippi during rush hour.

I noticed I was getting a bunch of phone calls, but figured that it was people calling because it was my birthday. (I didn't answer because I was at dinner with friends, not because I ignore my friends).

It was kind of frustrating thinking about how many people were clogging up the phone lines, when I just wanted to make a 30 second phone call to make sure my family was alright. I understand how a lot of people panic in a situation like this, call their families and then want to chat for an hour.

[tippy]

or they figure out that at some point in the past a barge hit it on the way down the river, although that water really doesn't look deep enough for that kind of traffic.

[kiemo]

My work building is right off 35w and Stinson, a few miles north of the bridge. Cube window overlooks 35w and its weird seeing almost 0 traffic (there are a few cars still getting on /off at Stinson).

2 direct coworkers live in South Mpls and travel that way daily and left the building here last night at ~6:05.

One of them took 280 home because he thought the entrance ramps on Johnson and Stinson were closed because of the bridge work, but had he realized they were open he most likely would've been very near if not on the bridge when it collapsed.

The other coworker was on 35w driving south and got off at 4th street (last exit prior to the bridge, maybe 1/3 mile north) because as he approached the bridge he noticed all the traffic in front of him was completely stopped and he saw all smoke and figured there was accident of some sort, but didnt have his radio on.

Learned through the grapevine that another worker at my company was on the bridge when it collapsed, but she is fine.


Kinda spooky.