The Minnesota I-35W bridge nearly one year later

[malaise]

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/06/13/bridge_update/
<snip>

MnDOT is taking a highly cautious approach to building the 35W bridge. Inspectors are checking every aspect of the bridge's construction multiple times against the original plans of the bridge. That meticulous approach is also being used during inspections of the state's bridges, which has resulted in several bridge closures since the collapse of the 35W bridge.

Minneapolis, Minn. — At the moment, the new I-35W bridge consists of two halves jutting into the Mississippi River and leaning toward the other.

I stand on a catwalk along the edge of one half and look down. The river froths around barges loaded with construction equipment.
Larger view
Construction over the Mississippi River

"If you look in the barge in the back, you'll see a segment sitting there. That segment has a bracket on top," said MnDOT's Kevin Gutknecht. "When they are installing it, the crane will reach over and pick up that segment, and lift it up to the bridge and install it in place."

The bridge is like an ant farm, crawling with construction workers in the girders, the deck and the approach spans. Construction crews are on schedule to complete the bridge by mid- September.
-
Looks like it won't be finished in time for the Rethug convention.

[malaise]

1. No doubt Coleman will use it for the election

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/05/08/bridgefund/

Pawlenty signs bill to pay bridge collapse victims
<snip>
A close-knit coalition of Minneapolis bridge collapse victims -- some in wheelchairs and others still wearing casts -- looked on Thursday as Gov. Tim Pawlenty signed a $38 million package to compensate them for their injuries and losses.

"Things will never be the same, but it will be a good start," said Mercedes Gorden, who was bedridden for four months, has endured nine surgeries and faces at least one more to fix bones that were crushed. "Every day I think about the bridge. I feel it when I walk and when I stand."
Larger view
35W victims

Ron Engebretsen, who lost his wife Sherry in the tragedy, said the state assistance will help in his own emotional recovery.

"By going through the process we have over the past few months, it really reinforces our belief in the state of Minnesota that we do the right thing here," he said.

Everyone who was on the bridge when it fell would qualify for up to $400,000. People whose injuries and losses were more severe could get additional money from a pool of $12.6 million. A panel of lawyers will determine the exact amount for each victim.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators are working to assign a cause of the collapse. A final report is expected later this year.


Victims who take a settlement must give up the right to sue the state and other units of government in Minnesota, but they don't waive the right to sue others. The state isn't admitting any liability.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

2. Fuck the little people! Bush only cares about the 2%ers

And they all have Lear jets and don't need no stinkin bridge.

[lonestarnot]

3. 1%ers!

The own more than 90% of us combined. Guess they don't need anything else. They can fly over it in their helicopters and jets.

[malaise]

4. How many bridges collapsed since Bush was selected

in 2000?

[Blue_Tires]

5. i'm impressed...

i have a poster of the bridge in my office, and got a chance to talk with one of the designers...it was fascinating to read what goes into a durable, long-lasting design

[malaise]

6. I'll be impressed when

the money being spent in Iraq for the benefit of oil companies is used to repair some of the 70,000 structurally deficient bridges. This is reactive not pro-active.
----------
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/02/america/NA-GEN-US-Bridge-Safety.php

<snip>
More than 70,000 bridges across America are rated structurally deficient like the span that collapsed in Minneapolis, and engineers estimate repairing them all would take at least a generation and cost more than $188 billion (€137.59 billion).
"We're not doing what the engineers are saying we need to be doing," said Gregory Cohen, president of the American Highway Users Alliance, an advocacy group representing a wide range of motorists.

"Unfortunately when you consistently underinvest in roads and bridges ... this is the dangerous consequence," Cohen said of Wednesday's deadly Mississippi River bridge collapse in Minneapolis. He said engineers have estimated $75 billion (€54.89 billion) a year is needed just to keep highways and bridges from further deterioration, but that only around $60 billion (€43.91 billion) a year is being provided.

As 2007 began, at least 73,694 of America's 596,808 bridges, or about 12 percent, were classified as "structurally deficient," Federal Highway Administration figures show. They include 816 built as recently as the early 1990s and 3,871 that are nearly a century old...

-------------
How is the swollen Mississippi affecting the rebuilding of the I-35W bridge?

[B Calm]

7. Along with Sen Craig's famous bathroom, this will be another point of

interest for republicans attending their convention.