On a lighter note, all of the children on the school bus that was crossing the bridge when it collapsed are safely evacuated.
Holee Crap! Dangerosa, you OK?
CNN reporter on the scene just relayed a report from a police officer on rescue duty that had counted seven bodies so far … Toll may well keep rising, that looks just awful.
From my one visit to the Twin Cities, I think that weir on the left of your picture is the head of navigation of the Mississippi River (i.e., the furthest you can navigate up river from the Gulf of Mexico). So, it’s a big bridge because it’s a big river.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed and praying that the toll doesn’t rise any higher. God, the footage on CNN looks awful. 
No, it’s not closing the stable door - investigating this is the only way they’ll be able to prevent similar bridge collapses from happening in the future. It’s tragic but so many safety rules come about because of things learned through failure. For an excellent read on the topic, check out To Engineer is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design, by Henry Petroski.
The engineers are coming based on the assumption that the road work was being done in accordance with known safety rules. Which means that something that is currently unknown was going on with the bridge. They have to find out what happened. Before the next bridge goes down, maybe this time with the schoolbus still on it.
I grant that it’s damned cold comfort to anyone wounded in this collapse or who lost a loved one.
What freaky shit. I used to take that stretch to work every day. I-35 is THE highway in the state. Traffic is going to be a nightmare for a long time.
Someone’s ass is going get sued off.
There’s a construction guy (unrelated to the current construction) on the Fox stream I linked, and he’s saying a MODOT investigation in 2006 saw fatigue fractures on some steel beams on the bridge.
He also said it was undergoing a deck rehabilitation, but that shouldn’t cause weakness.
We’re OK. My husband crossed that bridge at 4:30 this afternoon. Fucking scary.
I am trying to get ahold of my friends to make sure they’re all OK.
I heard they were pouring concrete. Wet concrete is heavier than dry. They were planning on closing down the road this weekend to do more work.
Heads will roll about this. Civil engineers and contractors, probably.
Just got a call from my one brother who lives locally telling me to turn on the TV.
One of our other brothers, who lives in Minneapolis, can’t get a hold of his wife. That’s the route she takes to and from work.
Fuck.
I just got hold of the last person on my checklist. Everyones ok. Cellphone lines are next to impossible to get right now.
Hal, keep us updated, please.
They’re saying cell phone networks are jammed, with everyone (including 20,000 people at the Twins game) trying to get a hold of people to find out what’s going on and if everything’s ok.
Good wishes…keep us updated.
My gut reaction was that this was fatigue-related. Certain details can propagate cracks and in a non-redundant load path bridge one crack in the wrong place will do this. I don’t believe the jack hammering or the placement of concrete would have anything to do with it.
Texting is working better for me than making cell calls. Hopefully it’s less intensive on the system.
I’m about 12 blocks from this bridge, but it’sthe opposite direction from where I make my commute.
SIL got a cell signal…she’s in the mother of all traffic jams, but she’s safe, thank God.
Glad to hear all the MinneDopers checking in safely.
Man, I think back to when I was a kid, and how terrified I was of bridges. When we’d drive over them, I’d be huddled up in a ball on the floor (heh…obviously predating mandatory car seats for kids). Then, one day, I just decided “know what? This is silly. It’s a bridge. It’s not going to fall down or anything”. Since then I’ve been fine on them, but there’s always that little twinge in the back of my mind.
That must’ve been one unfathomably terrifying scene for anyone there.
Garfield, apparently there were two piers on either side, holding a truss which had the road way on top: pic.
From the damage photos, it appears that the truss rolled or twisted off of the pier. My preliminary suggestion is that the connection between the pier and the truss failed in some way, which allowed the truss to rotate out from under the roadway.
toll up to 10.
I’m okay.
Me & a friend were at an asian food store and all the lights went out. We walked to the local co-op and heard the news. It was surreal, and still is.