8-1-07 Minneapolis Bridge Collapse
NOTE: I am going to reign in the frequent updating on this topic. If something of note comes my way I will post the update to this page but I think all the major sites are doing a fine job keeping everyone updated at this point. Thanks for reading.
8-13-07
11:48am
Incredible collapse photo collection
8-9-07
11:13pm
Two graphics from the Strib:
Construction zone in the hours before the collapse
MnDOT video of the bridge collapse.
8-8-07
11:25pm
NYT:
Investigators have found what may be a design flaw in the bridge that collapsed here a week ago, in the steel parts that connect girders, raising safety concerns for other bridges around the country, federal officials said today.
The Federal Highway Administration swiftly responded by urging all states to take extra care with how much weight they place on bridges when sending construction crews to work on bridges. Crews were doing work on the deck of the Interstate 35W bridge when it gave way, hurling rush-hour traffic into the Mississippi River and killing at least five people.
11:17pm
Andy Blair writes about his experiences being one of the first at the scene of the collapse.
12:11pm
Strib:
State bridge inspectors warned for nearly a decade before its collapse that the Interstate 35W bridge had “severe” and “extensive” corrosion of its beams and trusses, “widespread cracking” in spans and missing or broken bolts.
Not only was the superstructure in poor condition, but certain components were “beyond tolerable limits,” and one of the bridge’s piers had “tilted to the north,” they reported.
8-7-07
10:00pm
Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak said this afternoon that the new Interstate Hwy. 35 bridge will have five lanes in each direction, including a mass transit option of some sort.
8-6-07
11:22pm
Strib:
The parts of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis considered most susceptible to fatigue cracking were located in the toughest places for inspectors to see, according to a consultant’s report to the Minnesota Department of Transportation.
The consultant told the department in June 2006 that it couldn’t discount the possibility of a critical part of the steel superstructure cracking and failing because inspection access was very limited. The report also warned that “a timely discovery is unlikely to happen should a crack occur from some unusual causes.”
The view from the bridge video.
8-5-07
8:09pm
$15 million to clean up the bridge wreckage.
The state declared it intends to start work in October on a replacement bridge and complete it by the end of 2008.
The Stone Arch Bridge across the Mississippi River, just upstream from the collapsed Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis, was reopened to pedestrians and bicyclists this afternoon.
11:15am
Strib:
Structural deficiencies in the Interstate 35W bridge that collapsed Wednesday were so serious that the Minnesota Department of Transportation last winter considered bolting steel plates to its supports to prevent cracking in fatigued metal, according to documents and interviews with agency officials
…
A construction industry official who met with MnDOT about shortcomings on the I-35W bridge told the Star Tribune that there have been ongoing concerns among some MnDOT employees about the safety of this and other similar bridges.
“There were people over there that were deathly afraid that this kind of tragedy was going to be visited on us,” the industry official said. “There were people in the department that were screaming to have these replaced.”MnDOT has been trying to move these ‘fracture critical’ bridges up in their [budget] sequencing so something like this wouldn’t happen,” the source said.
8-4-07
10:34pm
KARE-11 TV news reported the cost to replace the bridge at $300+ million.
9:33pm
A life saving bike ride.
9:30pm
View from the bottom of the bridge immediatly following the collapse.
9:26pm
In a 2001 Federal Highway Administration test, only 4 percent of inspectors were able to detect a hidden flaw on two bridges.
8-3-07
8:52pm
$200+ million to replace the bridge.
NTSB investigators looking into the cause of the Interstate 35W bridge collapse are focusing their attention on the southern end of the bridge. The bridge shifted 50 feet to the east on the southern end.
4:13pm
No significant traffic problems despite 140,000 cars per day being routed to other roads.
Tom Heininger, a spokesman for MnDOT’s Regional Transportation Management Center in Roseville, reports that Highway 280 will be under significant stress during the State Fair.
10:14am
5 confirmed dead.
A bridge in trouble graphic from the Star-Tribune.
Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek:
Conditions on the river are even more treacherous today than yesterday
8:15am
Noah Kunin lives near the bridge and took these photos immediately following the collapse.
8-2-07
11:20pm
Structural deficiencies in the Interstate 35W bridge that collapsed Wednesday were so serious that the Minnesota Department of Transportation last winter considered bolting steel plates to its supports to prevent cracking in fatigued metal, according to documents and interviews with agency officials.
3:09pm
Recovery has been suspended for the day, Gov. Tim Pawlenty ordered an immediate inspection of all Minnesota bridges that have a design like the one that collapsed Wednesday in Minneapolis.
3:06pm
Fox news and WCCO radio are reporting that at least two victims trapped underwater or in the debris could not be freed before they drowned or expired and expressed their goodbye’s to the emergency workers trying to rescue them - reader JRoosh
3:05pm
Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan:
The recovery involving those vehicles and the people who may be in those vehicles is going to take a long time. We’re dealing with the Mississippi River. We’re dealing with currents, and we’re going to have to do it slowly and safely.
3:03pm
No hazardous materials in crushed train cars.
2:29pm
13% of all bridges nationally over 20 feet in length are considered “structurally deficient”
2:26pm
Inspectors estimated that the bridge would last until the year 2020 without modification.
2:15pm
Because of the drought across much of Minnesota, the Mississippi is flowing at only about 15 percent of normal
2:12pm
Some amazing video from the first few minutes after the collapse.
1:44pm
AP:
“The bridge is still shifting,” said Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan. “We’re dealing with the Mississippi River. We’re dealing with currents. We’re going to have to do it slowly and safely.”
1:16pm
One of the bright spots of this disaster is the timing. The collapse occurred during a period of summer road construction which kept two of the four lanes closed to traffic and had already forced numerous commuters to find alternate routes, in late afternoon of one of the longest days of the year, during a period of very warm weather and during a drought which is keeping the river level low.
Imagine the scope of the disaster if it had occurred in the winter. The road would have been completely open and packed full of traffic, the outside air temperature could have been well below 0° F, the sun would have set 2 hours prior, the river would have been frozen over and icy conditions would have made rescue nearly impossible.
1:02pm
Star-Tribune quotes former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board Jim Burnett:
“A structurally deficient bridge might be one not adequate for the traffic it takes, but not necessarily dangerous,” Burnett said. “But a lot of structurally deficient bridges are dangerous.”
He also said he was intrigued by a 2001 University of Minnesota study that found signs of “fatigue cracking” in the bridge supports, though he noted that a later report apparently concluded that the bridge was in no immediate danger and did not need major repairs.
“I think that decision is going to come under new scrutiny,” he said.
You can be sure that a number of bridges throughout the country are going to be scrutinized closely over the next few months.
12:57pm
Local cyclist and blogger (dis) spencer had a friend on the infamous school bus.
12:29pm
Collapse video analysis:
The “video” is more a series of still images captured at a rate of less than one per second, so it is difficult to see what might be happening between the shown images.
00:42 It could just be the poor quality of the image, but something looks wrong with the bridge half way across. One of the green steel beams already out of place?
00:41 Center section of the bridge span has failed and is on the way down to the river
00:39 Bridge makes first contact with the river
00:37 Center section of bridge has made complete contact with the river
00:36 Remainder of span on far side of the bridge breaks away towards the river
00:35 Remainder of span makes contact with the river
00:30 Spray of water from river has cleared. Center section of bridge is completely in the river
00:29 The section of bridge that appears to be held by the support on the far side of the river is still in place
00:28 This section of the bridge fails and falls towards the river
11:52am
YouTube video of the collapse.
11:02am
John A. Weeks’ page detailing the bridge. Of note:
The National Bridge Inventory contains a report on this bridge from 2003. It reports the following items:
- Deck Condition: Fair. (5 out of 9, Smithers)
- Superstructure Condition: Poor. (4 out of 9, Smithers)
- Substructure Condition: Satisfactory. (6 out of 9, Smithers)
- Scour: Foundations determined to be stable.
- Bridge Railings: Meets currently acceptable standards.
- Structural Evaluation: Meets minimum tolerable limits to be left in place as-is.
- Water Adequacy Evaluation: Superior to present desirable criteria.
- Bridge Sufficiency Rating: 50%
A University of Minnesota Civil Engineer in a report to MN-DOT recently noted that this bridge is considered to be a non-redundant structure. That is, if any one member fails, the entire bridge can collapse. A key factor is that there are only four pylons holding up the arch. Any damage to any one pylon would be catastropic. The textbook example of a non-redundant bridge is the Silver Bridge over the Ohio River. It failed shortly before Christmas in 1967 resulting in 46 deaths. A single piece of hardware failed due to a tiny manufacturing defect. But that piece was non-redundant, and the entire bridge collapsed into the icy river. Today, bridge engineers design bridges so that any single piece of the bridge can fail without causing the entire bridge to collapse. It is tragic that the I-35W bridge was built a few years too early to benefit from that lesson.
(all above bold and italics mine)
Thanks to JRoosh for his tips on this item as well as the CNN video. Any other tips like this are welcomed.
11:00am
St. Anthony Falls area of Minneapolis, bridges from the bottom up: Stone Arch, 3rd Avenue, Hennepin Avenue, Nicollet Island rail road bridge
I heard an interview on MPR this morning with a bridge engineer who reported that the 35W bridge was unique in it’s design in that neither support for the bridge was actually in the water of the river. He referred to it as a “dry bridge” since the two supports were on either side of the bank of the river and were thus unaffected by river currents or flooding. He did mention that this part of the river has some unique geological features and the Saint Anthony Falls area has undergone some recent geological changes. Whether or not this affected the bridge is still open to speculation but this engineer did state that anything that might cause the arch of the bridge to “open” would certainly cause the bridge to collapse.
10:20am
CNN has video of the collapse. (video moved here)
7:08am
Star-Tribune reports 9 dead, 60 injured, 20 missing as of this morning.
6:57am
Raw video here.
11:00pm
More tomorrow, and the days to come…
10:30pm
Star-Tribune snapshot of a disaster.
10:22pm
7 confirmed fatalities
10:20pm
KARE-11 interviewed the construction company working on the bridge.
PCI was the prime contractor for the bridge repair. They were toward the end of the repair. It was a routine concrete resurfacing job, no structural steel work was being done by the contractor.
18 workers were on the bridge at the time, 1 is not accounted for.
3 workers are in hospital, 4 were treated for minor injury
The project manager has 25 years experience in working on bridges and has no idea why this happened. He was on the bridge at the time of collapse and road the bridge 30 feet down to the river.
PCI had their lawyer on hand and understandable would not allow any detailed questions about the work on the bridge to be answered.
10:18pm
KARE-11 reports the bridge will take two years to get back up and running.
10:10pm
Poor Michelle Malkin seems depressed that terrorism was quickly ruled out.
DHS issued a statement that the collapse “does not appear to be an act of terrorism.” Isn’t it too early to say anything meaningful about what it “appears” to be? Couldn’t they maybe, I dunno, say nothing until they actually know something?
10:01pm
MnDOT has shut off all traffic cameras focused on the bridge area.
9:46pm
I am not an engineer, but it seems to me that it is going to take a very long time to get this bridge replaced. Clean up will take a few months. I don’t know if they are going to be doing any work on this during the winter. It could be a year or more before this bridge is back up and running.
9:42pm
No longer a rescue event, now a recovery event. All vehicles left on the bridge have been searched.
9:40pm
StevenCX has one of the first local on the scene blog reports of the bridge collapse including two pictures.
9:33pm
Construction of the bridge in 1967
9:29pm
Dayna Wolfe, who lives near the Stone Arch Bridge, heard the collapse and came out on her bicycle to see what had happened. Wolfe, a physician and physical therapist, said she is certain that many people had been killed or were trapped in their cars. She said the scene was worse than any of the many earthquakes she had survived in California.
9:18pm
Star-Tribune reports at least 6 dead.
9:05pm
Dark now in Minneapolis. Looks like the rain is going to hold off.
8:54pm
View of the north side of the bridge.
8:47pm
Here is the area affected on Google Maps.
8:40pm
before
after
8:35pm
Three are confirmed dead at this point.
8:29pm
MnDOT is reporting that at least 50 cars plunged into the river when the bridge collapsed. That bridge would have had numerous traffic cameras recording the action and that is probably what MnDOT used to determine the number of cars that went in. I am sure that we will see this traffic camera footage at some point.
8:17pm
I am now hearing the thunder from the storm moving in from the north. One of our typical Minnesota thunderstorms will make rescue much more difficult.
7:54pm
FOX9 News is streaming live coverage of the bridge collapse.
7:49pm
Sunset is at 8:40pm in Minneapolis tonight. I am sure that EMT crews are franticly trying to get systems set up for night rescue.
7:39pm
