OT-Minnesota bridge collapse

[platypus2020]

I've been watching on CNN about the tragic bridge collapse in Minnesota. According to CNN, this bridge was inspected twice in the last 3 years, this raises the question, of what an inspection entails. How do you inspect a solid concrete structure?, large steel structures, with no visible cracks or faults? It will be very interesting to hear what caused the failure, when the final analysis is done. This must make people very nervous, that have to travel over large bridge spans on a daily basis. Something of this nature must be crippling to a city, loosing a major traffic artery, no just for a day, but for the near future.

Hopefully, the country and our goverment will step up and help the victims, their families, and the whole Minnieapolis-St Paul area. Our prayers go out to these people.

[PTSideshow]

First off you can't believe CNN,MSNBC, CNN headline news or Fox. The talking heads last night and this morning where so full of SH*T they couldn't see straight They all wanted A) everybody to be dead or dieing, B)It to be a terrorist attack. And for you to think according to Nancy Grace last night the women and children plus a couple men where swimming in the Raging Mississippi River for hours with little or no hope for rescue. Greta was going to be up there today and get to the bottom of it tonight. Depending on how much crap you could take from all the talking head bimbo's (male/female).
It is sad that the news reporting has sunk to a new low. And they never let the so called experts finish their statements. If the expert doesn't want to go along with the guessing about well it might, could be possible a series of bombings. They still are hoping that the 20 or 30 people that still might be missing
Are all dead, I guess that what happens when most of the news readers on cable are attorneys
You can take the lawyer out of court but ya can't take the ambulance chaser out of the lawyer!
In 6 months it will come down to the bridge support closest to the dams outflow had undermined the support over the last 40 years.As some of the pictures they should the cement pier bent out from the 90degree up right position. at the end they claim it started from. And all the weight fro the stopped donut semi (Tastee) along with the construction equipment cars ect was just to much static load for the supports to take.
If you do listen to what they say some times, you know that they aren't even watching the same vid feed that is going out.
But they are good for some laffs, with some of their comments.

[tattoomike68]

The scarry part is the news is saying 50,000 bridges in the US are "structurally deficient".

It makes me want to park the car and just swim the river.

[PTSideshow]

Latest is 80,000 have some form of structurally deficient rating. They are any number of old bridges in this county that are now blocked off and you have to go around. Not enough traffic, no money! And I bet it goes around most counties in the country.

[Your Old Dog]

The scarry part is the news is saying 50,000 bridges in the US are "structurally deficient".

It makes me want to park the car and just swim the river.

The figure I heard was 70,000. What they aren't saying I don't believe is how minor of problems might be included in that count. If you have one pothole on a bridge carrying 300,000 cars per day is it considered an unsafe bridge? If the signage on the bridge was painted over 6 months ago does that qualify to make the list. These numbers can be made to lie. No doubt there are other unsafe bridges but I doubt its to the extent they would have you believe.

[John Stevenson]

First off my sympathies over the tragedy.

I don't watch much TV and try to read the relevant part in the more serious paper or our internet news.
The BBC whilst making some blunders does tend to remain stable over this sort of thing to the extent they'd sooner say nothing that waffle.

If ever I get to see news like this from a US channel it's obvious they have gone OTT and don't have a clue. Why do people put up with this ?

One thing I do notice now in the news reports is how soon into the report do they get the phrase "It's not thought to be terrorist linked" like a tornado in Florida could be Bin Laden

Even the BBC are at it:-
"US emergency teams are searching for bodies a day after a bridge over the Mississippi river collapsed, killing a number of people. At least four people are confirmed dead with up to 30 missing. US officials are not linking the collapse to terrorism."


First paragraph, third sentence.




.

[pcarpenter]

I think the problem is that non-techinal people get hold of a word like "structurally deficient" and think they know what it means. From what I have heard, it is one of many categories used to classify these things after their inspection. My best guess is (and its only my conjecture) that structurally deficient may adequately define so many bridges because many, like this one, were built decades ago and do not meet current standards. This may or may not render them unusable.

We use old machine tools that are most certainly "safeguard deficient" by todays standard and such a term would render the unknowing panic stricken. They may, however, be no more or less safe or unsafe than thew were when they were used safely for decades. You get the idea.

The real trouble is that talking heads have to talk on a subject for endless days and hours without a lot of new, real information. It leads to a lot of what is really idle chatter.

Paul

[topct]

The people responsible for inspecting this bridge are the ones at fault. A massive structural failure like this has a most definate cause.

Why didn't they see it? Or did they?

Why wasn't it reported? Or was it?

I suspect economic reasons. Probably traceable to the cities government.

[PTSideshow]

On all the 4 cable news channels it was in the first sentence first word
I was in Radio and TV journalism in the late 60's in the first class a professor stated Never but never let the facts get in the way of a good story! No matter how hard I want to believe it isn't true they always prove me wrong!
The point about that dizz Nancy Grace they were showing the school bus on the side of one of the sections that had fallen on land but at an angle. The had talked to a guy who helped the kids get out and down some minor injury's and kids being kids not knowing what is happening ect upset. Across the screen the crawl stating that women and children in the water from the school bus taking a dive. Nancy comes on saying OH my women and children swimming for their life, in the raging River. The only wet on the kids was from their day trip to the water park

"Why do people put up with this ?" Because then they couldn't get coverage of what the spears and hiltons are doing

[tattoomike68]

Some idiot is on TV is saying that there was cracked welds, but the bridge was stable.

MSNBC is saying that structural failure was the cause of the bridge collapse.

Gee.... ya think?

The fools talking on the news makes me sick.