Interstate 35W Bridge Collapse in Minnesota

lindal

Involved In Discussions
#1
I know there are a few of us here from Minnesota (Dean Fredrickson for sure) and a lot of people that post to the medical devices forums. Are we all okay? Was anyone downtown for the Twins game?

I'm pretty sure you've seen this everywhere, but here's a link if you need one:

http://www.startribune.com

Thanks,
Linda
 
Elsmar Forum Sponsor

GStough

Staff member
Super Moderator
#2
Wow, Linda, it's amazing that more people weren't killed, injured, missing. What a horrific tragedy. I'm glad you're ok, and hope to see Dean and others post today, too, letting us know they're ok.

My thoughts are with you and our other Minnesotans. :(
 

BradM

Staff member
Admin
#3
Thanks for the post. Yes, all friends and family will be in our thoughts and prayers.

After driving back from Louisiana on I10, it became apparent to me how our interstate systems are so reliant on effective bridges.
 
D

Dean Frederickson

#4
I'm O.K. . I am waiting to here from a very good freind of mine whose wife works at the Mall of America. I called him last night but haven't heard back from him. His wife uses that stretch of 35W at that time of day on her way home from work. Keeping my fingers crossed and hoping to hear from him tonight.
 

Wes Bucey

Quite Involved in Discussions
#5
My quality manager brain took over as I heard the bridge story unfold.
We heard there were recent inspections which disclosed no faults, which begs the question:
Was the inspection plan sufficient to disclose a fault?
Plan would/should include features or characteristics checked PLUS the frequency of inspection.
I do NOT suspect a "fudged" inspection to be disclosed.
 

lindal

Involved In Discussions
#6
I'm O.K. . I am waiting to here from a very good freind of mine whose wife works at the Mall of America. I called him last night but haven't heard back from him. His wife uses that stretch of 35W at that time of day on her way home from work. Keeping my fingers crossed and hoping to hear from him tonight.
I'm so glad you are okay. Hopefully you will hear from your friend soon. :cfingers: One of the intern's at my friend's work was walking on the bridge when it collapsed, he was released from HCMC around midnight last night. You were one of the people I thought of first, although Corcoran is pretty far from downtown.

Wes,

I was going to try to post links to everything that's out there on the safety and inspection issue, but I'm not up to it. A good resource for this discussion is at http://www.buzzmn.com, you can read about these and related issues in the comments.

L
 

Steve Prevette

Deming Disciple
Staff member
Super Moderator
#7
Thankfully the bridge appears to have dropped in a level manner and a lot of folks were able to ride the bridge down. If one side had failed before the other and the bridge collapsed with a twist it could have pitched everyone off the bridge and into the water.

My undergraduate degree was Civil Engineering with an emphasis on structures - I figured I'd be building bridges when I "grew up", not crunching statistics. I guess I can be glad I wasn't the last person who inspected the bridge.
 
D

Dean Frederickson

#10
Quote from Linda: I'm so glad you are okay. Hopefully you will hear from your friend soon. One of the intern's at my friend's work was walking on the bridge when it collapsed, he was released from HCMC around midnight last night. You were one of the people I thought of first, although Corcoran is pretty far from downtown.

Linda and Cari thank you for your concern, I talked to my freind last night, his wife crossed over the bridge half an hour befor it went down.
Dean
 
Top Bottom