Bridge collapses in Minnesota

[Catty1]

I heard a very interesting comment from an engineer here in Calgary(or Canada somewhere) - he said that when a car dealership sells a car, you get a maintenance manual to go with it, with a schedule in it.

However, millions of dollars go into bridges - and there is NO manual or maintenance standards provided by the designers and manufacturers! He said it was like, "Build it and forget about it."

He thought that attitude just WRONG - and I agree.

[Catlady711]

I feel for anyone that was injured in that collapse, and pray for the families affected by it.

Apparently this particular bridge had been noted twice during inspections of being 'structurally deficient" in some manner, at least so CNN says whatever that's worth.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/08/02/bri...rss_topstories


As far as terrorism goes... I'm not going to live my life in fear everytime something happens whether by nature or by human means. When God calls my number then it's time for me to go, nothing I can do about it so why worry about what I can't control? Fear just kills the joy of life and life is too short to worry about all the potential 'what if's' we can't control. For all I know an airplane will have an engine failure and fall out of the sky on my house after I post this. Does that mean I should fear every airplane that flies overhead? No, I just go on with life and leave my future in God's hands.

I think the media is quick to point a finger at anything that will gain hype and viewers. Believe only half of what you hear and be suspect of the rest.

[lizbud]

I heard a very interesting comment from an engineer here in Calgary(or Canada somewhere) - he said that when a car dealership sells a car, you get a maintenance manual to go with it, with a schedule in it.

However, millions of dollars go into bridges - and there is NO manual or maintenance standards provided by the designers and manufacturers! He said it was like, "Build it and forget about it."

He thought that attitude just WRONG - and I agree.

If that guy is an engineer, he should know that city & state engineers
always have a blueprint of the structure & have available to them, other
info on building materials & maintinence schudules based on lifspan of the
bridge.The city & state personel should be able to maintain it safely.

It's only when the politics get involved & money to fund proper inspections
and rebuilding ,is spent elsewhere.

[crow_noir]

I thought this was really horrible when i first read about it. I feel sorry for all those people.

I was terrified of that happening when i was younger. Just this spring i remembered that when i was little i was TERRIFIED (phobia) of crossing bridges for that exact reason. My hometown has four bridges. (and there's an overpass that i crossed under on my bike when i was a little older... that thing looked like it would crumble at any moment. A few years later it was shut down and was closed for many years while they did repairs.

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Not to make light of this, but that bridge collapsing happened just one day after i started again in on book six of Harry Potter. I wonder if anyone else was thinking of the similarity?

[Freckles]

This is the National Transportation Safety Board website.
Toward the bottom of the middle section, click on NTSB Most Wanted Safety Improvements. NONE of the improvements concern bridges.