Bush admin no longer to blame for MN bridge collapse - pigeon poop is!

[AwakeAtLast]

Foul Play?
Officials investigating the deadly Minneapolis bridge collapse are looking at an unlikely culprit: pigeons.

WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Eve Conant
Newsweek
Updated: 3:13 p.m. ET Aug 25, 2007
Aug. 25, 2007 - Of all the possible causes of the deadly collapse of Minnesota's Interstate 35W bridge earlier this month—uneven traffic patterns, de-icing salts, faulty construction—the latest is the most surprising: Pigeons. Or more precisely, the waste the birds leave behind. "Pigeon dung can be a serious issue—it's acidic and will easily eat away almost any metal," explains engineer William Schutt, president of Matcor, a corrosion-protection firm in Doylestown, Pa. “It can wash into and then rust the bolts and rivets of bridges if they’re not cleaned and checked properly.”

The build-up of pigeon excrement on the I-35W bridge was substantial enough to be noted in several Minnesota Department of Transportation inspections over the years, pointing to the steel box sections of the bridge as a popular nesting spot. Those sections are crucial to supporting the structure, and in 1999 bridge workers placed plastic screens over openings in the beams in an effort to repel the birds. But the dung continued to pile up. A 2006 inspection of the bridge still reported "severe pigeon debris" on its steel deck truss.

Corrosive pigeon dung also made it hard for bridge inspectors to do their work. Three experts familiar with the I-35W bridge told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that some of the impediments to inspections of the collapsed bridge included piles of pigeon dung, poor lighting, road rage (commuters upset with delays were known to insult inspectors and even occasionally throw objects at them) and spider webs that could resemble metal cracks.

link... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20439533/site/newsweek/?GT1=10252

***ALSO*** Check out the comments. Some of them are really interesting.

[global1]

1. So What's The Difference?.......nt

[AwakeAtLast]

3. ROFL!

:rofl:

Good point!

[MADem]

7. Indeed, they are both fetid, foul, acidic and destructive. NT

[Bjorn Against]

17. There is a big difference

I would much rather see a big pile of pigeon shit elected President than I would see George Bush elected President. I honestly believe that pigeon shit could do a better job governing this country than this administration could.

[wordpix]

2. gawd, what a full-of-shit article

:rofl:

[AwakeAtLast]

4. Where's the Diaper Guy when you need him?

:rofl:

[valerief]

12. LOL. Bridge diapers. Sexy! nt

[rodeodance]

5. a bird pooped on Bush during the last press conference---so it equals out Bush is Poop

[valerief]

6. No one could ever have predicted pigeon poop would land on a bridge. nt

[AwakeAtLast]

8. So then doesn't that mean that all of our bridges are in fear of collapse?

:shrug:

Kinda :scared: to think about!

[valerief]

11. Well, the engineers can't seem to predict that pigeons will poop on the bridges

and I'm no engineer, so how can we ever possibly anticipate our bridges are in need of repair? I mean, it's like predicting like a plane will hit a U.S. skyscraper because terrorists said they would or like weakened levees breaking after a bad storm because engineers have warned they'd collapse. You can't make predictions with facts and logic. Apparently nowadays you can only make predictions with divine intervention.
:crazy:

[WhiteTara]

19. all of New York's bridges should be down...think of

how many pigeons live there! I'm sorry, I'm having trouble with this.

[Lex]

15. *sigh*

Exactly.

And how is it that the Romans could make bridges that are still in use today?

[Liberal Veteran]

9. Where's Sigourney Weaver when you need her to take care of creatures with corrosive bodily fluids?

[bahrbearian]

10. Pressure wash , Paint,, every 4 years.

For christ sakes they paint the Golden Gate every year.

[backscatter712]

13. Exactly.

The pigeon shit excuse is just that - shit.

Engineers have known about the corrosive effects of dung, saltwater, car exhaust, etc. for decades. They know how to deal with that stuff.

What we have here is piss-poor maintenance. If the bridge was cleaned, inspected and fixed in the way that civil engineers are taught, the bridge would not have collapsed.

[CrispyQ]

14. People would throw objects at the bridge inspectors?

:grr:


Our standards of behavior are in as bad a state as our infrastructure.

[valerief]

16. That's such a lame excuse for them not doing their job. How much of

a problem was that really?

[CrispyQ]

25. I agree it's not an excuse, but it doesn't let the motorists off the hook either.

There is plenty of bad behavior going round, these days. It's sad to see that we've lowered our standards of conduct to such a degree. If you can get away with behaving poorly, then do so! :grr:

I sound like an old fart. ;)

[WhiteTara]

18. and trees are more responsible for carbon dioxide

than cars! These things (can't call them people) are sooooo funny. They come up with such absurdities and say them with a straight face.

[riona]

20. Those birds are part of an elite terrorist group -

The al-Qaeda Pooping Pigeons.

[SOS]

21. It's the new Republican way

Make an absurd accusation, deflect responsibility.

Iraq is a failure? It's Maliki's fault!
Bridge failure? It's the pigeons fault!

(And why is the Brooklyn Bridge still standing after 120 years?)

[valerief]

22. The only answer to your last question is that god must have willed it. nt

[karlrschneider]

23. The writer couldn't even get the damn PUN right. Should have been "Fowl play"

:eyes:

However, the fact that bird droppings are very corrosive to metal is widely known by anyone who parks under a tree.

[Hidden Stillness]

24. This Story is Outrageous!

This whole article is a complete outrage, and yet another example of the way the media will not stand up against Republicans and corporate owners, no matter how ridiculous the lines and stories now are. As soon as the Bush Administration invented the "bird shit" routine, I knew that this meant that any investigations of the bridge's commercial maintenance firm was now going to be killed, and not reopened, and that the Democratic area of Minneapolis and all of Minnisota can fuck off and go to hell. This is their way of saying, We are so rich and powerful, we own everything, and we are not even going to bother pretending to think up plausible stories anymore, as if we worry about you and your reactions.

The story doesn't even make any sense: as others have noted, why then aren't all bridges, (and flat-roofed buildings, etc.) collapsing, as this is an ordinary condition? The article makes a claim, then immediately goes to a commercial corrosion-cleaning mouthpiece for an advertising slogan? It doesn't even make any sense--that is their "proof"? Where are the Minneapolis bridge experts and inspectors, for their comments? It then ends with the phrase, "...if they’re not cleaned and checked properly.” Well of course, asshole--then the problem is not "pigeon poop," it is back to being bridge maintenance again. The article later brings up a slanderous attack on "Minnesota Democrats" that I have never heard before and for which there is not even any pretended proof or support; it claims "commuters upset with delays were known to insult inspectors and even occasionally throw objects at them"--what?? They can continously manage the upkeep of the BROOKLYN Bridge with no incidents, and yet the hoodlums known as "Minnesota Nice" are attacking them? Where the fuck is this coming from? Not to mention the priceless little gem at the end: "spider webs that could resemble metal cracks." More often, metal cracks, noted in many reports over the years and uncorrected, resemble metal cracks. If left untreated, the whole bridge might even come crashing down, unlike with "spider webs." Where the hell is the entire media on this?