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Friday, August 3, 2007

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Your disturbing sentences of the day

From today's New York Times story on the Minneapolis bridge collapse:

[O]fficials said the bridge’s design had been considered outmoded for decades because a single failure of a structural part could bring down the whole bridge. About 11 percent of the nation’s steel bridges, mostly from the 1950s and 1960s, lack the redundant protection to reduce these failures, federal officials said.

Over all, the bridge was rated 4 on a scale of zero to 9, with 9 being perfect and zero requiring a shutdown. An inspection report last year said the supporting structure was in “poor condition,” far from the lowest category. Hundreds of other working bridges are in similar shape, but the report did indicate that the bridge had possible issues that needed to be regularly inspected.

The bridge has been inspected annually since 1993, but independent engineers acknowledged yesterday that there are well-known limits to how useful an inspection can be. Bridges, they said, are prone to a variety of problems, and some are hard to spot. At the Minnesota Department of Transportation, shaken engineers made it clear that they knew something crucial had somehow been overlooked.

“We thought we had done all we could,” said Daniel L. Dorgan, bridge engineer at the department’s bridges division. “Obviously something went terribly wrong.” (emphasis added)

What on God's green earth would be lower than a "poor" rating? A "Jeebus, we're lucky we got off the bridge in time to file this report" rating?

posted by Dan on 08.03.07 at 08:55 AM

Comments:

The lower ratings are:

3 Serious
2 Critical
1 Imminent Failure
0 Failed

(Cribbed from a report on Utah bridges that Google handed to me)

posted by: Appalled Moderate on 08.03.07 at 08:55 AM [permalink]

So somebody seriously gets out a form and dutifully notes a "0" for the benefit of his superiors at Public Works?

I'm glad they have these inspections.

posted by: Wilson on 08.03.07 at 08:55 AM [permalink]

FWIW, it looks like infrastructure funding is going to be a major theme in the upcoming elections. As a habitue of left blogs, I have seen the term 'tax cut death count' starting to percolate up through to leftosphere.

posted by: Xenos on 08.03.07 at 08:55 AM [permalink]

One of the Bush legacies will be neglect of infrastructure, from ports to bridges to...... you name it.

Not to mention that the water system in Baghdad is not working yet. But what can we expect for $12B a month?

posted by: save_the_rustbelt on 08.03.07 at 08:55 AM [permalink]

I don't know about you, but if the bridge that failed was rated a 4 then I'd like to know if there are any bridges rated 4 (or lower) in the areas I frequent.

In the meantime, I will be telecommuting and avoiding all bridges.

posted by: too many steves on 08.03.07 at 08:55 AM [permalink]

is there a web site that provides a listing of all bridges that i could easily search for all bridges with ratings less than 4 for a given state or region? if so would appreciate a commentor posting.

posted by: tarylcabot on 08.03.07 at 08:55 AM [permalink]

is there a web site that provides a listing of all bridges that i could easily search for all bridges with ratings less than 4 for a given state or region? if so would appreciate a commentor posting.

posted by: tarylcabot on 08.03.07 at 08:55 AM [permalink]