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make light of a terrible situation but I guess I need to start wearing my Mae West when driving over any bridges spanning rivers or lakes[X(] .

ORIGINAL: captskillet

make light of a terrible situation but I guess I need to start wearing my Mae West when driving over any bridges spanning rivers or lakes[X(] .

oh, is that what you are doing in your avatar?? [:'(]

The sad thing is that the State may be immune from lawsuits over the whole thing. In NJ if your car is damaged by a pothole the town/county/state is not liable unless they were already informed about it and failed to take action. Failing to take action without being told first is not enough to make them liable.

In California, you have to get permission from the state in order to sue the state.  Talking about a conflict of interest.
 
And if there is a known design flaw in something the state builds, the state is immune from lawsuit from that flaw as long as the state knows about the flaw.  The idea is that it is impossible to build something completely perfect and that doing so would cost more than it is worth so the state only has to make things safe up to a point.  The only way around this is if the design flaw is grossly negligent or if it is a maintanence issue.

I've already heard reports that (in 2001 ?) an inspection revealed some flaws in the approach spans...........now I'm not an engineer by any means but if an approach span gave would that not tend to creat a domino effect...............evidently something was amiss and it would be hard not to assume that the current construction on the span didn't affect it somehow................. anyways its sad and scary to think what was going thru those folks mind that were on it when it gave way[:(]!

My understanding was that the bridge was having repairs done to it when it fell. Some worker probably removed the "god-nut".

That can certainly happen. Occurred (on a much smaller scale) in my town a few years ago. A building was being renovated, and then the entire front just suddenly fell off for no apparent reason.

Sovereign immunity is a beautiful thing . . . if you're the sovereign.

Edited for crimes against spelling.

Public Works Project build by the lowest bidder.

I live in Minneapolis. They put some sort of electric de-icing thing into that bridge back in 2001. I wouldnt be at all surprised if that has something to do with it.

A few years back (15? +/-) a bridge not far from there also "fell down" while under repair. Was on Lake street going over a rail road line.

There are only a handful of bridges over the Mississippi (and only a few more over the Minnesota river). 6 lane 694 in the far north, Lowry ave (2 lanes), Broadway (2 lanes), the one by the post office (I forget the name 4 lanes), 35W (MIA now, was 8 lanes), 10th street (which is actually for the U of M not intended for heavy traffic 4 lanes) and 94 (6 lanes). We just lost 25% of the available traffic flow from east to west. And of the remainder, only 694 and 94 are intended for high speed traffic. The rest is through basically resadentual areas.

Yamato, I lived in Rochester for 5 years and I've probably crossed that bridge a dozen times.  My second thought, right after those injured or killed, was how a "bad" commute into and out of downtown Minneapolis will become a "nightmare" for more than the next year. 
 
The new recommended commuter car for the Twin Cities:   

Yamato and some of you guys from up that way educate me.................all the bridges over the river down this way are huge pilings and massive steel upperstructure (Vicksburg I-20, Baton Rouge & New Orleans I-10) ................I noticed there were no pilings in the river bed on that one.....is it because of the narrowness of the river (compared to down here) and possibly blocking barge traffic????

My prayers are for the people (and their families) who were killed[:(]

By the way, hi Cap.[:)]

is it because of the narrowness of the river (compared to down here) and possibly blocking barge traffic????

Wouldn't have anything to do with barges I don't think. One of the photos of the bridge shows a small dam about 300yds north(?) of the bridge.

Chez

St Anthony falls lock and dam is just north of that bridge, and yes, silly as it sounds, they didnt put pilings in the river because of barge traffic. Barges used to hit the old bridge all the time.

St Anthony falls lock and dam is just north of that bridge

So the dam was built after the bridge was built?

Chez

No, that dam has been there forever. Thats actually a waterfall they made into a dam. Was part of the original grain mills back in 1851 or thereabouts.

ORIGINAL: Yamato hugger

St Anthony falls lock and dam is just north of that bridge, and yes, silly as it sounds, they didnt put pilings in the river because of barge traffic. Barges used to hit the old bridge all the time.

Bridge designers worry about barges (they keep going in things like fog). It was a barge that took out the Sunshine Skyway bridge over the entrance to Tampa Bay in the 1980's killing a lot of people.

thats why I assumed that.......by the time you get to Vicksburg & points south the river is a mile wide (or more) so there's room for pilings w/steel overhead supports (seems to my feeble mind much more stout) and room for barges (and from Baton Rouge south ocean going ships...that bridge in BR is way high over the river) to pass.

PS.............whats up Mr Peabody????? where we goin tonite????? [;)] [:D]