I don’t know if those of you in the area will be coming to tumbledry for updates, but here’s what I can gather about the bridge collapse so far. I’ll try to keep this updated with facts as they roll in.

Today, August 1, between 6 and 6:15pm, the north and southbound lanes of 35W collapsed at the bridge over the Mississippi River. Here is a Google Map of the location. The bridge, built in 1967, was undergoing routine repairs to the bridge deck this summer, but not to the underlying structural girders. Crews working to repair the bridge were on site at the time of the collapse; their status is currently unknown. A school bus full of children was on the bridge during the collapse; they were all evacuated safely from the back of the bus. At least one casualty has been confirmed, though I have heard reports of up to 3 dead. At around 7:30pm, I heard reports of 16+ injured.

Here’s what I saw on the news: aerial footage by helicopters showed a center section of the bridge essentially flat in the water, with some cars upended in the river and others still on the pavement. Despite the debris in the water, law enforcement boats were able to get to the cars, which I believe aided water rescue. At the edges, near the banks of the river, part of the bridge deck on the east bank was at an extreme (60+ degree) angle, apparently still resting on the east bank base. However, on the west bank, part of the bridge collapsed onto another part, trapping cars in a sandwich between pieces of bridge deck.

Coverage around the web is as follows:

• The Associated Press Report on Newsvine
• Kare 11, the local NBC affiliate
• 4 Eyewitness, the local CBS affiliate
• Local Paper 1: Minneapolis Star Tribune article - provides an updated casualty count (6 at the time of this writing), along with a helpful history of the construction of the bridge
• Local Paper 2: Saint Paul Pioneer Press - information about the canceled Twins game and a photo slide show of pictures from the disaster
• International News: The BBC is leading with an article about this - “The US Department of Homeland Security said there was no reason to suspect the fall of the bridge, which had been undergoing repairs, was terror-related.”

Here is my comment attached to the Newsvine article:

I live in the area, and I’m following the coverage on the local CBS affiliate. The school bus occupants are all confirmed to be safe.

Of interest to those commuting in the area: as of right now, northbound 35W traffic has been rerouted to 280, using a detour running for a bit on I94. 94 is the one of the main east/west arteries through the Twin Cities area, so it is possible that rush hour tomorrow morning could be particularly bad on 94, in addition to the expected problems on 35W itself. However, I would check early in the morning for traffic reports to see how the detours are being handled at that point.

Another note: airspace has been under certain limitations in the area, due both to severe weather and local emergency hospital helicopters. I am unsure if this effects air travel into and out of the MSP international airport nearby. Check on flight times if you are expecting to leave or arrive in the next 12 hours.

The New York Times just published it’s article “Bridge Collapse in Minneapolis Kills at Least 6”; it has some more information on the condition of the bridge:

A 2001 evaluation of the bridge, prepared for the state transportation department by the University of Minnesota Civil Engineering Department, reported that there were preliminary signs of fatigue on the steel truss section under the roadway, but no cracking. It said there was no need for the transportation department to replace the bridge because of fatigue cracking.

Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota told CNN that the bridge had received a “clean bill of health” three years ago. He said the construction work occurring on the bridge was a resurfacing project, not uncommon in Minnesota during the summer months.

This entire situation is just shocking: after putting in all the voicemails to Mykala that I could, I stared at the news coverage for a couple of hours, as more details trickled in. One reporter said that, in his entire career, he had never seen so many law enforcement and emergency vehicles in one place. Additionally, the area seemed difficult to access: firefighters had to string hoses for over a mile in order to get water to the burning Tastee bread truck that was sending huge plumes of black smoke into the sky around 6:30pm.

UPDATE, 10:38pm : 7 fatalities confirmed. 50 cars on the bridge at the time of collapse. Search off for tonight, rescue efforts resume at sunrise tomorrow. Information on donating needed blood is available at this website, or at 1-888-GIVE-BLD.

Twenty-five additional buses from north metro Park and Ride lots are being run by Metro Transit.

The chairman from The National Transportation Safety Board is flying in to oversee the recovery efforts.

One of the 18 bridge workers on the bridge at the time of the collapse remains unaccounted for.

UPDATE, 11:19pm : HCMC is the epicenter for treatment; thankfully, they are a Level 1 trauma center, meaning they are very well equipped to deal with exactly this type of situation (surgeons, etc. on call 24 hours per day). Four of the six critically injured patients have already undergone surgery.

UPDATE, 11:28pm : Minimum 60 people have been reported injured. It is believed that all who were in cars have been rescued. The bridge passed routine inspections as recently as 2005; thus, the cause of this collapse remains unknown. As stated before, there is currently thought to be no link to terrorism.

I believe that this picture by Brian Peterson from the Star Tribune’s gallery, gives a very good perspective on what exactly happened:

UPDATE, 11:36pm : From WCCO: “The Minnesota State Patrol believes that 20 people are still missing.”

UPDATE, 11:55pm : In an excellent example of citizen journalism, Flickr user “Mordac” has put together a gallery of photographs he took of the bridge collapse area before law enforcement cordoned the area off.

UPDATE, August 2, 9:25am : Casualty count dropped to 4, but since there are 20 people missing, I can’t see this staying the case. It turns out the Twins game at the Metrodome last night was still played, partially because releasing the entire crowd onto the roads would’ve caused countless logistical problems. Also, CNN has a security camera video of the bridge collapsing.

UPDATE, 10:15am : The Saint Paul Pioneer Press, in an article entitled “Inspections, reports raise questions about bridge’s safety,” outlines some possible warning signs in the past inspections of the bridge.

Inspectors gave the bridge a sufficiency rating of 50 percent on a scale of 0 to 100 percent. A rating of 50 percent or lower means the bridge might need to be replaced.

The condition of I-beams, girders and other components called “structural members” was rated four on a scale of 0 to nine. A rating of 0 means failed, nine means excellent. Inspectors look at these for signs of distress such as cracking, deterioration, section loss and malfunction and misalignment of bearings. The deck received a rating of five and the substructure rating was six.

The article continues with some interesting details about the bridge construction, including the fact that it was not built with redundancy in the main span… as I read it, this can create a “house of cards” effect, where if one critical piece collapses, the whole thing goes down:

Still, engineers said the fatigue cracking was a serious issue due to the lack of redundancy in the main truss system. Only two planes supported eight lanes of traffic, they wrote.

“The truss is determinate and the joints are theoretically pinned,” the report states. “Therefore, if one member were severed by a fatigue crack, the plane of the main truss would, theoretically, collapse.”

Furthermore, the morning rush hour has been manageable for many commuters; interestingly enough, “With suggested detours, Highway 280 is becoming the new 35W. Traffic lights on streets near 280 have been turned off to accommodate the detour.” Let me tell you something: 35W is a mess; with the construction a few miles north of this catastrophe at 35W and 694 (the unweave the weave project), traffic was already goofy enough. However, with the new change of 280 being the chief detour for 35W… things are going to be jammed up. 280 is a narrow connecting highway that was clearly designed to be low volume (short entrance ramps, narrow lanes); hopefully it can manage the increased demand.

UPDATE, 2:32pm : As suspected, and confirmed during a 30 second viewing earlier today: Fox ‘news’ sucks just as much, if not more, than ever.

• News
• Bridges
• Disaster

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