Bridge Repair on the Cheap

Photo by Jim Gehrz, Star Tribune

Divers continued recovery efforts Friday at the scene where the I-35W bridge collapsed.


Minneapolis Star Tribune: MnDOT chose 'most cost efficient' of 3 options

In lay terms, they picked the cheapest fix. Bridge fell down. You get what you pay for.

Blogtopia* Roundup, Saturday, August 4, 2007

From the Mel Kelly Life List

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
The Starry Night
Senate Democrats cave to Smirky McEavesdropper, give him even more power to wiretap, and unbelievably, put Serial Liar Alberto Gonzales in charge of oversight. 16 Democratic fools voted for this: thank heavens my Senators are more sane than these:

Evan Bayh (Indiana); Tom Carper (Delaware); Bob Casey (Pennsylvania); Kent Conrad (North Dakota); Dianne Feinstein (California); Daniel Inouye (Hawai‘i); Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota); Nancy Mary Landrieu (Louisiana); Blanche Lincoln (Arkansas); Claire McCaskill (Missouri); Barbara Mikulski (Maryland); Bill Nelson (Florida); Ben Nelson (Nebraska); Mark Pryor (Arkansas); Ken Salazar (Colorado); Jim Webb (Virginia).

Were they that desperate to go on vacation?

Wish you were at YearlyKos? (I do! Maybe next year.) TPM has videos of interviews with some of the attendees.

The Jose Padilla trial plods on; the government's evidence is so very weak that Padilla's attorneys put on no case. Not surprising since Bush's DOJ has a 29% conviction rate on terrorism prosecutions, compared to 93% elsewhere; they're all smoke and mirrors. Kind of like the entire Bush Administration. As Will S. said, all sound and fury, signifying nothing.

The Bush Administration killed a 4 cents a gallon gasoline tax in 2004 that would have gone to fixing the country's decaying roads and bridges. Heckuva job, George.

Speaking of Heckuva Job George, Monday is the 6th anniversary of the PDB that George ignored: "Bin Laden Determined To Strike In US". There'll be a blogswarm on the topic.

Main St. USA News, from BoingBoing: Bubblegum rocker Bobby Sherman has built a replica of Disney's Main St. USA in his backyard.

Since Congress, George W. Bush, and the Iraqi Parliament are all on vacation, I'm gong too. Posting will be rare for the next two weeks.

How Many Bridges in Your State Are 'Structurally Deficient'?

ABC News: Minn. Bridge Collapse: Survivors' Photos
A side view of the I35 W after it buckled into chunks.
(Kimberly Brown and Kelly Kahle)

MSNBC has posted a chart that shows bridges that are "structurally deficient" for all 50 states:

MSNBC: State by state: 'Deficient' and 'Obsolete' Bridges

Massachusetts and Pennsylvania are the worst with over 50% of bridges "structurally deficient" or "functionally obsolete".

For Massachusetts, that's what 20 years of tax-cutting Republican governors gets you.

Security Camera Records Minneapolis Bridge Collapse

Bush Politicizes Minneapolis Bridge Collapse [Updated, below; Update Two]

The Chimperor is using his free cable time commenting on the Minneapolis bridge collapse to criticize Congress for not passing spending bills. He barely spoke on the bridge collapse. Of course, he doesn't really care about anyone. Psychopath.

Politicizing the bridge collapse less than 24 hours after happened. He is shameless.

Impeach his cold, lying ass.

UPDATE: RenaF at dailykos is far more eloquent than I: The Utter F---ing NERVE. She has a transcript of his absurd statements.

UPDATE 2: Somebody was counting: Bush used 139 words to address Minneapolis, then spent 509 words blaming the Democrats.

Minnesota Bridge Collapse

The collapse left vehicles scattered along the rubble of the bridge.

Photo: Heather Munro/Star Tribune, via Associated Press


CNN interviewed the Minnesota governor this morning, and he said well, this bridge did show structural issues in an inspection last year, but there are 80,000 other bridges in the country with the same level of deterioration; and that's not the worst ranking. Apparently there's a list of tens of thousands of other bridges that are even more structurally deficient.

ABC News says that more than a quarter -- 27% -- of the country's 600,000 bridges are structurally deficient:

According to the Center for International and Strategic Studies, more than a quarter of the country's bridges are structurally unstable. A federal report in 2005 said Minnesota's Interstate 35W bridge was structurally deficient and may need to be repaired.

Ron Beasley at Middle Earth Journal puts it this way:

[W]e should be looking at the revenue starved collapsing infrastructure of the United States. A much greater threat than al-Qaeda could ever be.

And why is our infrastructure revenue starved? It's the crazy Republican fetish for tax cuts. And the absolutely insane Iraq war, where we will spend more than a trillion dollars according to the Congressional Budget Office. Imagine if we had used that money to repair our crumbling infrastructure. Some people in Minneapolis might be alive today.

Massive Bridge Collapse in Minneapolis

This video frame grab taken from KMSP television shows the scene of a freeway bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2007. The entire span of the 35W bridge collapsed about 6:05 p.m. where the freeway crosses the river near University Avenue. (AP Photo/KMSP-TV)

WaPo (AP): Bridge Falls Into Mississippi River

MINNEAPOLIS -- The entire span of an interstate bridge collapsed into the Mississippi River during evening rush hour Wednesday, sending vehicles, tons of concrete and twisted metal crashing into the water.

The Interstate 35W bridge, a major link between Minneapolis and St. Paul, was in the midst of being repaired when it broke into several huge sections.

"There were two lanes of traffic, bumper to bumper, at the point of the collapse. Those cars did go into the river," Minneapolis Police Lt. Amelia Huffman. "At this point there is nothing to suggest that this was anything other than a structural collapse."

I heard a Minnesota-based Foxbot talking to Shepard Smith about the bridge collapse. She said, in essence, that she didn't know if this was a factor, but Minneapolis has been in the grip of a heatwave all summer. They quickly took her off the air!

The collapse is much more likely due to the fact that it's a 40 year old bridge (opened in 1967) which, when inspected in 2006, was found to have "cracks in bridge superstructure that needed attention."

Best comment on the bridge collapse, from commenter xxdr zombiexx at dailykos:

Things crumbling was a hallmark of Soviet-era incompetence and dereliction of duty.