Bridge Collapse

[triedit]

Horrific. A similar event happened down home in 1967.

As of this morning, 7 confirmed dead and 20 missing, although one source says 9 dead. This was an interstate bridge over the Mississippi river in Minneapolis.

This is the aftermath in Point Pleasant, WV in 1967

46 people died. You may be familiar with this from the movie "Mothman Prophecies"

 

[gopher]

Instead of investing taxpayer dollars on infratructural improvements, Minnesota wastes our money on a new baseball stadium for billionaire KKKarl Pohlad. This is why the disaster happened and more are sure to come.

 

[ottawabill]

what the hell does it all have to do with a baseball stadium...except that you want to us it as optics??

This is a terrible tragic scene..is this the time to play politics....

damn..like the state is trying to kill people aargghhh!!!

 

[Avro]

Peoples desire for tax cuts and a lack of investment in infastructure have lead to this disaster which many have warned us about for years. People can't have it all in the way of low taxes and safe bridges.

It's the politics of the right that have caused this and the greed of those who want a few extra nickles in their pocket.

It will happen here.....I'm surprised it already hasn't.

 

[missile]

As of two years ago, that bridge was declared to be structurally deficient,so those in charge knew there could be problems.

 

[Curiosity]

So - at the time the bridge was declared structurally 'deficient' or 'unsound' why wasn't the money funded for repair? I think they were already doing work on one portion of the structure when it collapsed.... why don't they build a newer structure farther down the river and save the old one for
a time when they can repair it properly ?? Money? It's gonna cost more now - with all the lawsuits...

Nice planning! Doncha just love local government agencies? It's the 'let's wait until someone really dies before we fund a project'....

 

[tamarin]

How many bridges across the US and Canada have been labelled "structurally deficient" in the last twenty years? I would think every town and city has one. It's a fairly innocuous term and has little to do with the safety of the bridge. Things happen...we're lucky they don't happen more often.

 

[Curiosity]

Tamarin

Many smaller structures in the bridge/highway system in the US were constructed by the WPA during the depression era.

They get patched but some day - some time - they are gonna give it up to wear. Cars are heavier - traffic is more pronounced - interstate cargo of manufactured goods is using these structures and
nobody seems to give a rat's rear.

Until someone dies - then there are mea culpa's floating all over the tube - everyone speaks of warnings and reports..... bs!

 

[tamarin]

C, if you were to fix something every time someone complained you'd better be prepared for a gigantic hike in taxes. What they need to do is prioritize and then make sure their budgets have lard enough to meet work orders.

 

[Toro]

I was listening on the NPR this morning someone saying there are something like 87,000 bridges in America - about a fifth of the total - that are "structurally deficient." That doesn't mean they're about to collapse, just that they're worn.

Minnesota spends more than most states on infrastructure.

Bridges in Minnesota are inspected every two years. Structurally deficient bridges are inspected every year. This one has been inspected every year since, if I recall correctly, 1990.

 

[#juan]

what the hell does it all have to do with a baseball stadium...except that you want to us it as optics??

This is a terrible tragic scene..is this the time to play politics....

damn..like the state is trying to kill people aargghhh!!!

In hindsight, fixing bridges might have been better than building a stadium. The thing is, that the government could have spent all kinds of money doing infrastructural improvements, missed this one, and they would still be blamed.

 

[tamarin]

Looking at various articles today you get an idea of the confusion. As low as 13% of America's bridges are "structurally deficient" to a high of 27%. Now there's a spread that might have you licking in your chops in a different milieu.

 

[lone wolf]

Better get used to it. All that "brine" (actually calcium chloride) they use here in Ontario to make salt "work" at lower temperatures is an extreme corrosive. Salt spalds the concrete allowing chloride to eat the rebar. What is the least expensive option ... brooming winter sand (which DOES aid in traction) from a road or replacing all the concrete and steel structures along Ontario's highways>

Wolf

 

[#juan]

Better get used to it. All that "brine" (actually calcium chloride) they use here in Ontario to make salt "work" at lower temperatures is an extreme corrosive. Salt spalds the concrete allowing chloride to eat the rebar. What is the least expensive option ... brooming winter sand (which DOES aid in traction) from a road or replacing all the concrete and steel structures along Ontario's highways>

Wolf

As always, we want the quick fix. Whether it eats the rebar or rusts out our fenders and suspension bits and pieces, we want to drive asap after a snowfall. For the life of me I don't know why. Usually only the main roads are salted and sanded and all we do is add to the problem by joining the crowd.

 

[Walter]

It's the politics of the right that have caused this

Hogwash. Bridges didn't fall in Ontario when Mike Harris was in power but they do fall in Quebec which is very socialist.

 

[BitWhys]

suddenly Bob Rae is a distant memory. ;-)

left. right. whatever. short-sighted and tight-fisted sums it up for me.

 

[lone wolf]

The only bridges Mike Harris built were those he burned behind him. It was more Harris cutbacks and Toronto politics that made it politically incorrect to use sand on roads. Part of his "living legacy" will be the dehydrated wildlife that licked up chloride with roadside salt.

Wolf

Edit: http://www.thekingshighway.ca/latchford.html

 

[gopher]

what the hell does it all have to do with a baseball stadium...except that you want to us it as optics??

This is a terrible tragic scene..is this the time to play politics....

damn..like the state is trying to kill people aargghhh!!!

Hey, wait a goddamn second buddy. I don't tell you sh*t about Canadian politics so do yourself a favor by not telling me about Minnesota political sh*t.

For years we have discussed locally the need for infrastructural improvements in these parts. But no action is ever taken because the pols are too busy giving away our tax dollars to those wealthy SOBs who run the state with the azzholes in the news media distracting us from the real issues. We have said for years that some sh*t like this was going to happen if something wasn't done about the continued degeneration of our bridges and motorways. And now it happened.

Meantime, billionaire Pohlad now has another half-billion-dollar-plus corporate welfare gift when he sure as hell doesn't need one. As always, it's let the wealthy prosper at our expense and the public be damned.

Had you lived here it's what you would be saying as well.

 

[Toro]

It's the politics of the right that have caused this and the greed of those who want a few extra nickles in their pocket.

Minnesota is a Democrat state.

Actually, its a Democrat/Farmer/Labor state. Is that correct, Gopher?

 

[Walter]

It's the politics of the right that have caused this

Minnesota is a lefty state. The only state to vote for Mondale.