Shot in the Dark

A Pox On Those Who Let The Infrastructure Crumble!

According to the Strib, the NTSB has found some new evidence about the 35W Bridge collapse – and it’s not all about the gussets:

The National Transportation Safety Board has not ruled out the possibility that Minnesota transportation officials missed a potential clue to the impending failure of the Interstate 35W bridge, NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker said Monday.

One year after the structure collapsed, killing 13 people, the federal agency is still studying whether photos of critical gusset plate connections taken by inspectors in 1999 should have prompted MnDOT to take action, Rosenker said. The photos showed bowing or warping of the plates.

Damn you, Carol Molnau!  A Pox upon you, Tim Pawlenty!  Curse you, David Strom and all you tax hawks, for letting the bridge collapse to save a buck!

CORRECTION:  I’m informed that none of the above were in office in  1999.

In 1999, MNDoT was run by this currently DFL-endorsed candidate for Congress; the one that was on WCCO as the last cars were settling into the river, blaming…

…well, see above.

I regret the confusion.

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Mitch Berg

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8 responses to “A Pox On Those Who Let The Infrastructure Crumble!”

  1. penigma2 Avatar
    penigma2

    Normally, photos inspire immediate action, I mean, it never takes ANY time to get movement on a subject in the legislature or for that matter, in government.

    And normally, once taken, photos are ignored from that point forward, are never retaken to confirm a problem, and bridges never studied again, normally.

    Except of course, in this case.

  2. Jeff Rosenberg Avatar
    Jeff Rosenberg

    There is plenty of blame to go around. The fact is that MnDOT is a disaster all the way through, form its political leadership to its career technocrats.

    MnDOT missed evidence about I-35W under Tinklenberg; then under Molnau, it chose the cheap route of “frequent” inspections over shoring up the bridge’s structure as recommended by engineering contractors.

    And, of course, MnDOT received an inspection about the Winona bridge two months before the collapse of the I-35W bridge that they then proceeded to ignore for months, until A DIFFERENT INVESTIGATION caused them to shut down the Winona bridge.

    Fixing MnDOT should be a bipartisan issue, and it should be done immediately.

  3. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    There is plenty of blame to go around.

    Which has been my point for years, back before people were talking about bridges at all.

    I remember talking with engineers 15 and 20 years ago, and listening to them laugh about MNDoT’s huge traffic-engineering mistakes; it was a bit of a national joke. This was when Perpich was governor, but the problems went back into the sixties.

    Fixing MNDoT should be a bipartisan issue, indeed. We’ve known this for several administrations, now. It’d involve overcoming the impulse to turn transportation infrastructure into a monument to the sitting administration – which is some tough inertia to overcome.

  4. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    And normally, once taken, photos are ignored from that point forward, are never retaken to confirm a problem, and bridges never studied again, normally.

    Except of course, in this case.

    The file cabinet – the enemy of all bureaucrats.

  5. Master of None Avatar
    Master of None

    “it chose the cheap route of “frequent” inspections over shoring up the bridge’s structure as recommended by engineering contractors.”

    The gusset plates that failed, were the same gusset plates identified by the NTSB as being underdesigned. These gusset plates were never identified as needing reinforcing or “shoring up”, and had no pre-identified cracks or any corrosion issues.

    None of the proposed “shoring up” would have touched the gusset plates in question.

    http://ntsb.gov/dockets/Highway/HWY07MH024/default.htm

  6. nerdbert Avatar
    nerdbert

    Anybody following the progress of the Wakota Bridge would be ready to fire most of MnDOT. It’s now in the top 10 list of boondoggle construction projects in the country.

  7. Bike Bubba Avatar
    Bike Bubba

    Does MNDOT,or anybody, do actual robustness models of bridges to see what the margin of safety might be in various states of decay? It’s certainly nothing that’s ever come up, as far as I can tell.

  8. Terry Avatar
    Terry

    I remember talking with engineers 15 and 20 years ago, and listening to them laugh about MNDoT’s huge traffic-engineering mistakes;
    Let me give you different perspective on incompetence.
    Here’s the Hilo Bayfront Bridge:
    View Larger Map
    Doesn’t look like much but it took longer to build than the Golden Gate.

    And here’s Hina Lani St. in Kailua-Kona:
    http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Kailua-kona+HI&ie=UTF8&ll=19.694072,-156.003585&spn=0.020566,0.03828&t=h&z=15&iwloc=addr
    The County screwed up and built it on land they didn’t own.
    Last but not least there’s Henry St. in Kailua-Kona. One team started building at the top. One team started at the bottom. They missed one another by 30′ in a road that’s just a quarter mile long.
    http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Kailua-kona+HI+Henry+Street&sll=19.694072,-156.003585&sspn=0.020566,0.03828&ie=UTF8&ll=19.642486,-155.989788&spn=0.005143,0.00957&t=h&z=17&iwloc=addr

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