I35W Bridge Collapsed in Minneapolis

[StangerBanger96]

6 Confirmed deaths so far

[civic91]

wonder what caused it to collapse.

[Guest]

apparently they were working on the bridge when it happened. One of the news clips I heard said that it was very near where a jackhammer was working, but this is 100% hearsay, so take it for what its worth.

[quik97GSX]

They are all over this on the new its going to be on CNN live for the next two hours they're saying. It will be interesting to see how this developes. They are saying that the bridge was "structurally sound". I'm curious to what the cause was.

[STiSchucky]

Ive read 10 now.

this is just the begining. it'll skyrocket when they reach the cars at the bottom of the river

[civic91]

wasnt there like 100 cars on the bridge?

[speed_ricer69]

It's some crazy stuff, Hate to see how they are goin to clean it all up, and rebuild. Long process.

[blindsp1]

my girlfriends staying at the U of M for cheerleading, luckely she is ok

[assasain]

ya i was eating at granite city when i saw it on the news, they even turned the music on and put the overhead audio to the tv... so everyone could hear it.

its truely tragic, does anyone have anymore updates on this?

[fanaticrockford]

I thought i heard that the bridge was to be closed tomorrow and that traffic would be re-routed so that they could finish there work. Anybody else hear this?

This is what i have found.

According to the Minnesota Department of Transportation, the eight lanes of I-35W crossing the river were supposed to be restricted to a much reduced flow beginning on Tuesday night for the northbound lanes and at 8 p.m. Wednesday for the southbound lanes, about two hours after the collapse. The reason stated on the agency's Web site was "overlay work," which refers to roadway resurfacing.

[assasain]

^^^^ ummm...........

"I thought i heard that the bridge was to be closed tomorrow" are you talking about the other bridge? or did you mean previous to this incedent they were going to close it for repair work?

hrm, i wonder what actually caused it though

[StangerBanger96]

One small crack that went unnoticed and then went through several Freeze/Thaw cycles could easily cause enough damage to take down a bridge. Otherwise I'd say it easily might have had something to do with the construction. Chuck we heard that too and the thought of a jackhammer being able to take down a bridge is absurd, it's just a bunch of idiots caught up in the moment. The people that reported it were on the bridge next to the place being hammered so of course the bridge would be shaking/vibrating close to that.

[Guest]

The jackhammer alone could not take down the bridge, this is 100% true, but IF the jackhammer where causing reverberation across the entire bridge at precisely the right frequency AND if the cars were traveling at the exact right speed to amplify/spread the vibration across the bridge there is about a 1 in a trillion chance that it could have AIDED in the falling of the bridge

[HandoEX]

The bridge isn't built by concrete though. Isn't it a steel bridge with concrete on top of it? How could cracks in the concrete cause the steel to give out?

[integra_gsr98]

The concrete ties the steel structure together. The steel itself is generally flimsy without the concrete and rebar that is above it.

[beachbum_jon]

thats really fucked up, i heard about this last night while i was at trap shooting. when i first heard about it my first thought was sizemic (sp) activity, then i heard it wasnt

[Jim]

If you guys haven't seen it, there are like 20-30 workers jack hammering, and then those big pile driving machines too everyday....

Not sure if that changes your opinion on what maybe could have happened... not to mention that it was bumper to bumper traffic.

[amicheze]

Jim;179180 wrote:
If you guys haven't seen it, there are like 20-30 workers jack hammering, and then those big pile driving machines too everyday....

Not sure if that changes your opinion on what maybe could have happened... not to mention that it was bumper to bumper traffic.

That's probably what it was. The traffic alone was probably a strain, and when you add that many jackhammers and everything else it probably just couldn't handle it.

[Goodnbuzzd]

they listed this bridge as a 50 out of 100 bridge and considered it sound, well apparently it wasnt very sound. the inspections showed it was deteriorated enough that it needed more inspections and possibly replacement in the future. i would immagine being a span that some cracks that went un noticed split and it dominoed.

[LivinLow]

The bridge was found in a report structurally unstable for heavy traffic and trains at the same time. a jack hammer will cause no harm to the structure of the bridge.(unless your doing it on supports or something) ive been watching the news off and on all day and there are only 4 deaths so far with 79 people in the hospital. the sad part about it is they havent started diving yet do to the settling debris.