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| World Home » Current Affairs » | Fri. Aug 29, 2008 |
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Safety history of Minnesota Brigde draws scrutiny MIL/Agencies, Aug 3, 2007. Minneapolis, August 03, 2007 - It was 1990 when the federal government first issued an ominous label for Minnesota’s busiest bridge: “structurally deficient.” In the ensuing years, inspectors found cracks and corrosion on the Interstate-35W bridge. They stepped up inspections from once every two years to every year, and made what they thought were the necessary repairs. They were convinced that the bridge had no safety issues at all. Their actions have come under intense scrutiny since the 40-year-old bridge plummeted into the Mississippi River on Wednesday, killing at least four and injuring another 79. Police said the death count would surely grow because bodies had been spotted in the fast-moving currents. As many as 30 people were still reported missing. “We have a number of vehicles that are underneath big pieces of concrete, and we do know we have some people in those vehicles,” Police chief Tim Dolan said on Thursday. “We know we do have more casualties at the scene.” The eight-lane I-35W bridge, which carried 141 000 vehicles a day, was in the midst of mostly resurfacing repairs when it buckled during the Wednesday evening rush hour. Dozens of cars plummeted more than 18m into the Mississippi River, some falling on top of one another. A school bus sat on the angled concrete. National Transportation Safety Board chairman Mark Rosenker said his investigators got two big breaks on Thursday with a surveillance video showing the collapse and a computer program that would analyze how the bridge failed. Those two things would speed their work and allow them to do a smaller reconstruction of part of the bridge span, rather than the whole thing. Full Story: http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/topstories.aspx?ID=BD4A531648
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