Bridge Collapses In Downtown Minneapolis
August 1, 2007
Minneapolis, Minnesota - A major bridge over the Mississippi River in
Minneapolis, Minnesota collapsed this afternoon, dumping at least eight cars
and a truck into the water and land below.
| The center of the Interstate
Hwy. 35W bridge collapsed about 6:05 p.m. with nearly 100 cars on it
during rush hour. A tractor-trailer caught fire, and flame and black
smoke billowed into the sky. Local television stations captured video of
injured people being carried up the riverbank. There was no immediate
word on injuries, but dozens of rescue vehicles were there. Divers were
also in the water.
Cars and people were stranded on parts of the bridge that weren't
completely submerged and some vehicles were on fire.
Workers have been repairing the bridge surface as part of
improvements along that stretch of the Interstate.
Rescue workers were helping some people from cars in the river.
Witnesses at the scene said the entire bridge collapsed, leaving part
of the roadway submerged and part above water.
A number of people were walking around on the roadway that was not
submerged.
"It is just horrific," said witness Marilyn Franzen, who saw the
bridge collapse. Franzen said she saw a school bus that managed to stop
before the going over the edge of the bridge that she said was carrying
20-30 children.
It was not clear how many people might be hurt or killed. NBC News
reported that every Minneapolis ambulance has been requested to the
scene.
© AlaskaReport News
August 2, 2007 - 10:51AM
At least three people are dead after a massive
freeway bridge collapsed into the Mississippi River near Minneapolis
in the US.
Rescue officials told CNN there could be up to 50
to 100 cars in the river.
The bridge, the 35W four-lane state highway which
connects the University of Minnesota with downtown Minneapolis,
collapsed about 6.05pm, during the evening rush hour.
Tons of concrete have collapsed and people are
injured. Survivors are being carried up the riverbank.
Some people are stranded on parts of the bridge
that aren't completely in the water.
Over the past several months the bridge was being
repaired, with workers closing a lane or two at a time.
'I heard a huge roar'
Eyewitnesses said they heard a rumbling sound as
the bridge collapsed into the river. Local media reported 20 to 30
injuries.
"First I heard this huge roar," Leone Carstens, a
nearby resident, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "I was at my
computer. Initially I thought, 'Wow was that an airplane?'"
Television pictures showed sections of highway
leading to the bridge had also collapsed, in places crushing cars and
starting fires and trucks.
One witness said she saw people swimming in the
water seeking safety.
Huge chunks of the bridge stuck at odd angles out of the river, in
places surrounded by cars half submerged in the water.
A nursing supervisor at Hennepin county medical
center interviewed by local WCCO radio said: "We have multiple
patients. Some critical, some non-critical," he said. Asked if there
were any deaths, he said: "Not that I know of."
Truck sliced in half
The road was carrying bumper to bumper traffic
when the 500-foot (160 metre) steel arch bridge collapsed. The
bridge, built in 1967, was 64 feet above the river.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation told
local media that 200,000 cars a day use the bridge.
Local media said a school bus taking children
back to the city from a field trip was among the vehicles that were
involved.
Aerial footage of the collapse shows cars and
other vehicles strewn across the collapsed bridge.
At least three sections of the bridge have
collapsed into the river and a fourth section was in danger of
collapse
Cars hung over the edge of the collapsed bridge,
trucks were cut in two or on fire and other vehicles lay precariously
on collapsed sections of the structure.
Paramedics have set up a triage clinic near the
scene and at least 20 people have been taken to local hospitals.
There is no reason to think the collapse of a
freeway bridge in Minneapolis was terror-related, the Department of
Homeland Security said.
Agencies
~~~~
Jano Gibson, Dylan Welch and wires
August 2, 2007 - 12:07PM
Do you know more? Message 0424 SMS SMH (+61 424 767
764) or
email us with information or images.
Six people have been confirmed dead in the
collapse of a bridge over the Mississippi River in the US city
of Minneapolis, Minnesota Mayor R.T. Rybak says.
"We have confirmed six deaths and we are continuing the
search," Mr Rybak said at a press conference.
"At this point, we have searched approximately 50 cars ... we
have confirmed that this will be a very tragic night when it
is over."
Huge chunks of the bridge stuck at odd angles out of the
river, in places surrounded by cars half submerged in the
water.
The road was carrying bumper-to-bumper
traffic when the 160-metre steel arch bridge collapsed. The
bridge, built in 1967, was about 20 metres above the river.
The Minnesota Department of
Transportation told local media that 200,000 cars a day use
the bridge.
A truck driver told the Star Tribune
he was driving about 16kmh in bumper-to-bumper traffic when
the roadway fell away in front of him.
"I fell probably about 30 or 40 feet,
landed on the [inaudible] of the Mississippi. I'm so lucky to
be alive," the unnamed man said.
"On the way down I thought I was dead. I
literally thought I was dead. My truck was completely face
down, was pointing towards the ground, falling towards the
ground.
"My truck ripped in half. When I got out
of my truck it was folded in half. I can't believe I am
alive."
He said his seatbelt was the reason he
was alive.
"I had my seatbelt on and if I didn't I
probably would have went through the windshield. I only have a
cut on my face from the steering wheel.
"I saw a tanker go head first into the
water. There was only about five feet at the back end showing
out of the water."
He said he helped carry young children
and teenagers who had been in a school bus off the bridge.
According to CNN, a police officer told a
witness that he had seen at least seven people dead at the
scene. Rescue officials told CNN there could be up to 50 to
100 cars in the river.
Joseph Clinton, a doctor from Hennepin
County Medical Centre told a press conference that his
hospital had admitted 29 people as a result of the bridge
collapse.
"We're telling people who were in the
waiting room that if they weren't critically injured to come
back later," he said.
One person admitted had died, believed to be
from drowning, he said.
Twenty-two others were seriously injured and a further six
were critically injured, he said.
Tonnes of concrete on the bridge have
collapsed. Survivors were seen being carried up the riverbank.
The US Department of Homeland Security in
Washington said there was no indication of terrorism in the
disaster.
"There is no indication of a nexus to
terrorism at this time," department spokesman Russ Knocke
said.
The entire span of the 35W bridge
collapsed about 6.05pm [US time] where the freeway crosses the
river near University Avenue.
Some people were stranded on parts of the
bridge that were not completely in the water.
A large truck was on fire at the collapse
scene.
Earlier, local reports said at least 20
cars had gone into the water from the crowded peak hour
traffic.
Eyewitness accounts
"I saw them carrying up a body - I don't
know if he was alive or dead,'' said Andy Schwich, who arrived
at the scene on his bicycle a few minutes after the collapse.
A truck was exploding in fireballs, he
said, and there were numerous cars either on the remnants of
the bridge or in the river.
"It was the worst thing I ever saw," Mr
Schwich, 29, said.
The Star Tribune quoted a
witness, Ramon Houge, saying he heard a rumbling sound as he
was driving across the bridge.
He saw the ground collapse and cars go
down.
Other cars backed up as best they could,
he said.
He was able to park in a construction
zone and eventually drive off the bridge.
"It didn't seem like it was real," he
told the paper.
He said he saw children on a bus with
blood on their faces.
A nearby resident added: "First I heard
this huge roar. I was at my computer. Initially I thought, Wow
was that an airplane?''
Television pictures showed sections of
highway leading to the bridge had also collapsed, in places
crushing cars and starting fires.
One witness said she saw people swimming
in the water seeking safety.
Local media said a school bus taking
children back to the city from a field trip was among the
vehicles that were involved.
Witnesses told Fox News the bridge
started shaking and went down fast.
At least three sections of the bridge had
collapsed into the river and a fourth section was in danger of
collapse, reports said.
Photographs taken from an apartment
overlooking the bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota shown on CNN
showed a disastrous scene of people crouching on bent and
crumpled concrete with parts of the bridge submerged in the
brown river.
Rescue workers scrambled into the river
gorge to help people off the huge chunks of concrete roadway
as fire and smoke rose from the wreckage, the Star Tribune
reported.Bridge
undergoing repairs
According to reports, the 40-year-old
bridge was undergoing repairs at the time of the accident, and
there were reports that construction workers were using a
jackhammer at the time of the collapse.
Reports say that the bridge was inspected
three years ago and given a clean bill of health.
Sarah Fahnhorst, who lives in an
apartment a block away from the bridge, heard a huge thud and
then "the entire building shook. It shook the ground''.
Gregory Wernick snr drove over the bridge
shortly before the collapse.
He stopped to get a drink nearby and
heard commotion so he went back.
"I figure I crossed about 10 minutes
before it happened," he said. "That's just too close to call."
He was standing about 60 metres away on
top of a parking ramp with a large group of people.
"I've never seen anything like this," he
said.
- with agencies
Survivors
Recount Escape From Bridge
By JON KRAWCZYNSKI
08.01.07, 11:07 PM ET
MINNEAPOLIS -
Some dropped with the collapsing
bridge into the waters of the Mississippi River and swam
to safety, while others leaped from their cars over
yawning gaps of asphalt to solid ground.
Survivors and witnesses cried and
hugged each other as rescue crews tried to save who they
could and gauge the scope of the catastrophic collapse
of the eight-lane bridge. At least six people died.
Dennis Winegar of Houston, Texas,
said he felt the Interstate 35W bridge start to shake.
"I slammed on my brakes and saw something in front of me
disappear and then my car pointed straight down and we
fell." He estimated they dropped about 50 feet.
"I just reacted, put my foot on the
brakes and started praying we didn't flip over," he
said. "When I got out ... there was a car lodged
underneath me and one right next to me."
His wife, Jamie Winegar, said
everyone around them got out of their cars and tried to
help each other off the bridge. "There were a bunch of
people right around there helping everyone. Angels is
what I call them."
Peter Siddons was on his commute
home north when he heard "crunching" and saw the bridge
start to roll and then crumple, he told the Star
Tribune. "It kept collapsing, down, down, down until it
got to me."
His car dropped with the bridge but
stopped when his car rolled into the car in front of
him. He got out of his car, jumped over the crevice
between the highway lanes and crawled up the steeply
tilted section of broken bridge and jumped to the
ground.
"I thought I was dead," said the
senior vice president at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage.
"Honestly, I honestly did. I thought it was over."
Caught on the span was a school bus
filled with children on their way back from a day of
swimming, said Ryan Watkins, one of the children. He
said the bus bounced twice and stopped, its front door
wedged against a concrete traffic barrier. They fled
through the rear door.
A truck driver from Georgia,
Charles Flowers, saw the collapse from banks of the
river. Instantly, the water was filled with floating
cars and people - injured, dazed - asking for help, he
said.
He and several others ran down the
riverbank and he pulled a woman from the water. He said
he thought she did not survive. "I never thought I'd see
anything like this," he told the newspaper.
Catherine Yankelevich survived the
1994 earthquake in Northridge, Calif., and was on the
I-35W bridge when it began to shake. "Cars started
flying and I was falling and saw the water," she said.
Her car wound up in the river so she climbed out the
driver's side window and swam to shore uninjured.
"It seemed like a movie, it was
pretty scary," said Yankelevich. "I never expected
anything like this to happen here."
Copyright 2007 Associated Press.
All rights reserved.
|
Survivors, rescuers reflect on catastrophe
August 1, 2007
By Kevin Giles and Richard Meryhew
(Minneapolis) Star Tribune
MINNEAPOLIS
It looked as though an earthquake had hit.
From across the Twin Cities and from small towns
beyond, rescue workers, doctors, nurses and
construction workers flooded into downtown
Minneapolis early tonight, making their way past
Twins fans at the Metrodome, past thousands of
gawkers aiming their cell phone cameras at the
crumpled steel frame and a bridge deck sliced into
three pieces.
At 6:45 p.m. local time, more than a half-hour after
disaster struck, police yelled at the onlookers to
get back, off the north section of the bridge where
rescue workers below searched for survivors. They
feared that section could still collapse on them.
Rescue crews from North St. Paul, Vadnais Heights
and Maplewood blared their sirens, creeping through
the crowd of onlookers. But once inside the ring of
pandemonium, this catastrophe became an orderly
scene of grim determination and efficiency.
Ambulances queued up, police escorting them
one-by-one down into the bridge area. The rescue
teams had rehearsed for this kind of catastrophe.
There was little shouting, no chaos. A state command
center was quickly opened to coordinate the rescue.
“It looked like a terrorist attack, a complete
catastrophe,” said impromptu rescuer Ryan Murphey,
30, of Minneapolis. “But everyone there was very
calm and organized.”
Water cannons shot streams at smoldering vehicles.
The walking wounded, necks in braces, were guided
off the bridge and out of the area.
Overhead and across the river valley, the sound of
television helicopters and sirens cut through the
hot breeze. Rescue workers gingerly crept onto the
bridge, peering over cracked bridge sections looking
for survivors in the cars and trucks half-submerged
in the gray water of the Mississippi rippling
against this unexpected obstacle to its path south.
To the west, an ominous sky dropped cloud-to-ground
lightning and dime-size hail, threatening to make
the already horrific rescue scene even more
dangerous for workers
Across the Twin Cities, stunned families stared at
their televisions. Frantic calls to relatives
driving home in the tail-end of rush hour added to
the crush of emergency calls and cell phone circuits
jammed.
Melissa Hughes of Minneapolis was the driver of one
of six cars under the north end of the bridge.
“It seemed like people and things were in the air
that weren’t supposed to be there,” she said.
Four drivers and a 12-year-old boy were huddled
nearby, their cars in the water where they had slid
as the north end collapsed.
Boats pulled by emergency vehicles moved in quickly.
Nearby, a bridge immediately east of the collapsed
bridge was filled with emergency vehicles. A crane
was on one section of the bridge, too, attempting to
remove concrete barriers.
In office buildings on the riverbank near the
University of Minnesota, office workers felt the
collapsed and rushed to their windows.
“I thought an airplane flew too low over our
building. It just shook,” said Danielle Behling of
St. Paul. University students ran to the river.
Stephanie Bakkum was making dinner when she heard a
“huge explosion.” She and some friends rushed to the
site just as survivors began crawling up from the
collapsed freeway section.
Within seconds, another loud explosion shook the
ground as a tanker blew up.
As emergency crews worked, shaken bystanders stared.
Many said they had driven across the bridge minutes
before it collapsed.
One was Ken Savage, who drove an empty dump truck
across the bridge half an hour before it collapsed.
He said every time he drove across the bridge, with
all the construction going on, he wondered what
would happen if he was loaded with topsoil.
Joe Hughes, 18, of Lake Elmo was helping someone
move nearby when he heard the noise. He and a
friend, Jared Powers, 18, of Mahtomedi ran to the
bridge to help carry stretchers. They saw crushed
cars, a burning school bus and cars floating in the
water.
He said the people they carried out were mostly
silent or unconscious, except for the last man.
“He wanted to call his fiancee,” said Hughes.
(c) 2007, Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information
Services.
Hopes Dim in Minneapolis for Survivors
Aug
2, 9:01 AM (ET)
By JON KRAWCZYNSKI
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Divers
searched the Mississippi River
for bodies Thursday among the
submerged cars and twisted
steel left by deadly
interstate bridge collapse,
their hopes of finding
survivors having dimmed.
"This is not a rescue
operation any longer," said
Chief Jim Clack of the
Minneapolis Fire Department.
"It's a recovery operation,
which means we move slower and
more deliberately."
Authorities lowered the
death toll to four, but warned
the final number could change
as divers comb the wreckage
for as many as 30 people still
missing.
Police Lt. Amelia
Huffman said: "This morning,
the medical examiner's office
only has four sets of
remains." Initial reports of
seven people killed were based
on the best estimates
authorities had Wednesday
night, she said.
The eight-lane
Interstate 35W
bridge, a major
Minneapolis
artery, was in the
midst of being
repaired and two
lanes in each
direction were
closed when the
bridge buckled
during evening
rush hour
Wednesday, sending
dozens of cars
plummeting more
than 60 feet into
the Mississippi
River.
Authorities
were checking
license numbers of
the cars in the
water. Getting the
vehicles out of
the water will
involve moving
around very large,
heavy pieces of
bridge.
"The bridge
is still
shifting," said
Minneapolis Police
Chief Tim Dolan.
"We're dealing
with the
Mississippi River.
We're dealing with
currents. We're
going to have to
do it slowly and
safely."
Relatives of
some of the
missing gathered
in a hotel
ballroom early
Thursday, waiting
for word on loved
ones who couldn't
be located.
"I've never
wanted to see my
brother so much in
my life," said
Kristi Foster, who
went to an
information center
set up at a
Holiday Inn
looking for her
brother Kirk. She
hadn't had contact
with her brother
or his girlfriend,
Krystle Webb,
since the previous
night.
More than 60
people were
injured and as
many as 50
vehicles were in
the river, many of
their occupants
having scrambled
to shore. The
collapse did not
appear to be
terrorism-related.
Some injured
people were
carried up the
riverbank, while
emergency workers
tended to others
on the ground and
some jumped into
the water to look
for survivors.
Fire and black
smoke rose from
the wreckage.
Gov. Tim
Pawlenty said the
bridge was
inspected by the
Minnesota
Department of
Transportation in
2005 and 2006 and
that no immediate
structural
problems were
noted. "There were
some minor things
that needed
attention," he
said.
"They
notified us from
an engineering
standpoint the
deck might need to
be rehabilitated
or replaced in
2020 or beyond,"
Pawlenty said
Wednesday.
The
40-year-old bridge
was rated as
"structurally
deficient" two
years ago and
possibly in need
of replacement,
the Star Tribune
reported. The
newspaper said
that rating was
contained in the
U.S. Department of
Transportation's
National Bridge
Inventory
database.
"We've seen it,
and we are very
familiar with it,"
Jeanne Aamodt, a
spokeswoman for
the Minnesota
Department of
Transportation,
said of the 2005
assessment of the
bridge.
Aamodt noted
that many other
bridges around the
country carry the
same designation
that the I-35W
bridge received.
She declined to
say what the
agency was going
to do to address
the deficiencies
found in 2005.
Road crews
were working on
the bridge's
joints, guardrails
and lights this
week, with lane
closures overnight
on Tuesday and
Wednesday. The
bridge was fitted
in 2001 with a
computerized
anti-icing system
that sprayed
chemicals on the
surface during
winter weather,
according to
documents posted
on the Minnesota
Department of
Transportation's
Web site.
There were
18 construction
workers on the
bridge at the time
of the collapse,
said Tom Sloan,
head of the bridge
division for
Progressive
Contractors Inc.,
in St. Michael.
One of the workers
was unaccounted
for.
Sloan said
his crew was
placing concrete
finish on the
bridge for what he
called a routine
resurfacing
project. "It was
the final item on
this phase of the
project. Suddenly
the bridge gave
way," he said.
Sloan said his
workers described
a horrific scene.
"They said they
basically rode the
bridge down to the
water. They were
sliding into cars
and cars were
sliding into
them," he said.
The entire
span of Interstate
35W crumpled into
the river below.
Some injured
people were
carried up the
riverbank, while
emergency workers
tended to others
on the ground.
A school bus
had crossed the
bridge before it
collapsed. The bus
did not go into
the water, and
broadcast reports
indicated the
children on the
bus exited out the
back door.
Christine
Swift's
10-year-old
daughter, Kaleigh,
was on the bus,
returning from a
field trip to
Bunker Hills in
Blaine. She said
her daughter
called her about
6:10 p.m.
"She was
screaming, 'The
bridge
collapsed,'" Swift
said. All the kids
got off the bus
safely, but about
10 of the children
were injured,
officials said.
Sen. Norm
Coleman, R-Minn.,
said he spoke with
Transportation
Secretary Mary
Peters, and that
both of them along
with Sen. Amy
Klobuchar, D-Minn.,
will be flying to
the Twin Cities
early Thursday.
The
collapsed bridge
stood just blocks
from the heart of
Minneapolis, near
tourist
attractions like
the new Guthrie
Theater and the
Stone Arch Bridge.
As the steamy
night progressed
massive crowds of
onlookers
circulated in the
area on foot or
bicycle, some of
them wearing Twins
T-shirts and caps
after departing
Wednesday night's
game at the nearby
Metrodome early.
Thursday's
game between the
Twins and Kansas
City Royals was
called off, but
the Twins decided
to go ahead with
Wednesday's rather
than sending about
25,000 fans back
out onto the
congested
highways. Inside
the stadium, there
was a moment of
silence to honor
victims.
The
steel-arched
bridge, which was
built in 1967,
rose about 64 feet
above the river
and stretched
about 1,900 feet
across the water.
The bridge was
built with a
single
458-foot-long
steel arch to
avoid putting any
piers in the water
that might
interfere with
river navigation.
The river's
depth at the
bridge was not
immediately
available, but the
U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers
maintains a
channel depth of
at least 9 feet in
the Upper
Mississippi from
Minneapolis
southward to allow
for barge and
other river
traffic. The site
is just downstream
from the St.
Anthony Falls
locks and dams.
---
Associated
Press Writers
Brian Bakst and
Patrick Condon
contributed to
this report from
Minneapolis;
Martiga Lohn
contributed to
this report from
St. Paul.
++
MINNEAPOLIS,
Minnesota
(CNN)
--
As
many
as
50
vehicles
are
trapped
in
the
rubble
of
an
interstate
bridge
collapse,
and
officials
said
Thursday
it
could
take
five
days
or
longer
to
search
the
wreckage.
Four people were confirmed dead, and officials said at least 79 people were injured when the Interstate 35W bridge over the Mississippi River collapsed during the Wednesday evening rush-hour in Minneapolis.Twenty to 30 people were missing, Minneapolis police Chief Tim Dolan said Thursday. Thirty to 50 cars remain in the river, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
The water below the collapsed bridge is about 7 to 8 feet deep -- just covering the roofs of the dozens of cars that remain in the water, Dolan said.
The eight-lane bridge fell 60 feet, about six stories, into the river.
"This is going to take a long time, this recovery," Dolan said.
Hennepin County Sheriff Richard Stanek said conditions in the Mississippi River were treacherous, as the twisted steel and blocks of pavement were pushed around by river currents. He said the search could go on for five days or longer.The Hennepin County medical examiner on Thursday morning said the confirmed death toll was four, lower than the seven to nine deaths reported earlier.
But Dolan said there were more bodies to be recovered.
"We have a number of vehicles that are underneath big pieces of concrete, and we do know we have some people in those vehicles," The Associated Press quoted Dolan as saying. "We know we do have more casualties at the scene."
President Bush on Thursday pledged federal aid to rebuild the bridge.
Security camera video showed the Interstate 35W bridge's center section collapsing into the river in less than four seconds. The northern end of the span appeared to drop first and the southern end followed.
CNN obtained the video from a source who asked to remain unidentified because they were not authorized to distribute it publicly.  Watch bridge collapse video »
Gary Babineau was driving his truck across the bridge as it fell.
"I could see the whole bridge as it was going down and as I was falling, and it just gave a rumble real quick, and it all just gave way, and it just fell completely all the way to the ground," Babineau said. See photos of the disaster »
"This particular section or freeway was under repair," Minneapolis fire Chief Jim Clack said. "We don't know yet what caused the collapse. We do not believe at this point there was any terrorism or nefarious activity -- it was just a structural collapse."
A federal investigative team has been dispatched to the scene.
A school bus filled with more than 50 children who were returning from a summer field trip was among the vehicles on the bridge when it collapsed.
Kristy Jenkins credits staff member Jeremy Hernandez with saving her 12-year-old daughter, Nina Jenkins.
Hernandez "busted open the backdoor of the bus" and "told everyone to get out from the back of the door," the girl said. "We jumped on the highway and then jumped on the sidewalk."
"If it would have been a second later, any second before we would have been in the water or under the pavement," he said.
Tony Wagner, the president of a local nonprofit social services group that organized the trip, said eight of the kids, ages 5 to 14, were hospitalized.
More Information
How you can help: American Red Cross
Mark Lacroix, who lives on the 20th floor of an apartment building near the bridge, told CNN he saw the last seconds of the collapse.
"I heard this massive rumbling and shaking ... and looked out my window," Lacroix said. "It just fell right into the river." Watch Lacroix describe the collapse »
According to the Minneapolis Riverfront District Web site, the steel arch bridge was opened in 1967. Its longest span stretches 458 feet over the river, and it was constructed with no mid-river piers to facilitate river traffic.
The bridge was undergoing nonstructural re-decking work, U.S. Transportation Department spokesman Brian Turmail said.
There were eight construction workers on the bridge at the time of the collapse, and one of them is unaccounted for, said Mike McGray, president of Progressive Contractors, the company doing the repair work on the bridge.
A 2001 study conducted by the Minnesota Department of Transportation found "several fatigue problems" in the bridge's approach spans and "poor fatigue details" on the main truss.
The study suggested that the design of bridge's main truss could cause a collapse if one of two support planes were to become cracked, although it allowed that a collapse might not occur in that event. But, the study concluded, "fatigue cracking of the deck truss is not likely" and "replacement of the bridge ... may be deferred."
Two years ago, the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Bridge Inventory database said the bridge was "structurally deficient."
The Minneapolis Star Tribune quoted Jeanne Aamodt, a spokeswoman for the Minnesota Department of Transportation, as saying the department was aware of the 2005 assessment of the bridge.
The bridge received a rating of 4 on a scale of 1 to 10. A bridge receives a rating of 4 when there is "advanced section loss, deterioration."About 100,000 cars a day travel over the bridge, according to the Minnesota Department of Transportation.
Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved
Police: More Victims in
Submerged Cars
Aug 2 11:21 AM US/Eastern
By JON KRAWCZYNSKI
Associated Press Writers
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Divers
searched the Mississippi River
on Thursday for more bodies
entombed in cars trapped
beneath the twisted steel and
concrete slabs of a collapsed
bridge. As many as 30 people
were missing as the effort
shifted from rescue to
recovery.
The official death count
stood at four Thursday
morning, but Police Chief Tim
Dolan said more victims were
still in the water. Hospital
officials counted 79 others
injured.
"We have a number of
vehicles that are underneath
big pieces of concrete, and we
do know we have some people in
those vehicles," Dolan said.
"We know we do have more
casualties at the scene."
The eight-lane
Interstate 35W bridge, a major
Minneapolis artery, was in the
midst of repairs when the
bridge buckled during the
evening rush hour Wednesday.
Dozens of cars plummeted more
than 60 feet into the
Mississippi River, some
falling on top one of another.
A school bus sat on the angled
concrete.
Under water, divers were
taking down license plate
numbers for authorities to
track down the vehicles'
owners. Getting the vehicles
out was expected to take
several days and involve
moving around very large,
heavy pieces of bridge.
"The bridge is still
shifting," Dolan said. "We're
dealing with the Mississippi
River. We're dealing with
currents. We're going to have
to do it slowly and safely."
He said police estimate
that 20 to 30 people were
unaccounted for, though he
stressed that it was just an
estimate.
At Hennepin County
Medical Center, patients had
arrived in a steady stream
after the collapse, some
unconscious or moaning, some
barely breathing, others with
serious head and back
injuries, Dr. William Heegaard
said.
"There was blood
everywhere," he said.
Relatives who couldn't
find thei |
.
Slideshow: I-35W Bridge Collapse
