I hate bridges now...

I saw that shit on the news last night man, you all right? I don't know anyone involved, but thats some weak shit.
 
Yeah, i'm monsterously lucky. My car didn't even get damaged. I got a little scratch, but i was able to get away with a bruise from my seatbelt. Just had to stay at the hospital for observation.
 
Glad to hear you made it out man. Yeesh...

Someone was looking out for you that day.
 
Can you feed my curiosity and give us details? Im glad you made it out i kind would like to hear how if i may ask.
 
Roads in Minnesota are cracked and scary looking as it is. I don't know if I can go over a bridge in the midwest now without fearing for my life :(.

So much (Rock Salt) on the road... and cracks. I'd hate to be the engineers that were in charge of maintaining that bridge.
 
exodusamphi said:
Can you feed my curiosity and give us details? Im glad you made it out i kind would like to hear how if i may ask.
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if you watch the news, you'd have learned that the bridge was a poor design, and that there are over 100k structurally unsound bridges in the US..

So yeah, suspension bridges 4tw.
 
Eilistrae said:
if you watch the news, you'd have learned that the bridge was a poor design, and that there are over 100k structurally unsound bridges in the US..

So yeah, suspension bridges 4tw.
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It's all the "lowest bidder" crap, and then they skimp on materials, sometimes using less than they should. Doubleplus ungood.
 
I smell lawsuits... Glad you're ok Makelith =)
 
Garvin said:
It's all the "lowest bidder" crap, and then they skimp on materials, sometimes using less than they should. Doubleplus ungood.
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It's not like that. The lowest bidder is common sense, because they are all offering the same thing. The only sensible alternative is to set a price for the project, and choose from the contractors willing to meet that price. The problem with that is that the contractors will still do the job for the same costs, the only difference is that the company will make more money from the project. The plus side is that you can choose a more reputable contractor.

They don't skimp on materials, that's where lawsuits come from. They skimp on labor costs, and build a bridge that barely meets the minimum standards set forth. If they are asked to build a bridge that will support 2 tons, they don't make one that will support 3.

Capitalism isn't perfect, but neither are the alternatives. It's not pure capitalism now, and as tragic as the event was, it will lead to an improvement to the current system in more than just Minnesota.
 
Glad to hear you're alright Makelith. I remember driving over that bridge daily when I lived in Minneapolis. Again, glad to hear you are ok.

Peace,
Shmed
 
Stouter said:
It's not like that. The lowest bidder is common sense, because they are all offering the same thing. The only sensible alternative is to set a price for the project, and choose from the contractors willing to meet that price. The problem with that is that the contractors will still do the job for the same costs, the only difference is that the company will make more money from the project. The plus side is that you can choose a more reputable contractor.

They don't skimp on materials, that's where lawsuits come from. They skimp on labor costs, and build a bridge that barely meets the minimum standards set forth. If they are asked to build a bridge that will support 2 tons, they don't make one that will support 3.

Capitalism isn't perfect, but neither are the alternatives. It's not pure capitalism now, and as tragic as the event was, it will lead to an improvement to the current system in more than just Minnesota.
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Can't say I remember offhand where, but I remember reading about a smaller collapse, and the contractors who'd built it in the first place hadn't used enough reinforcement in the concrete, I guess they were hoping to just get away with it.

At any rate, it seems like the problem here was that they'd ignored warnings... Inspections gave the bridge a lolsuck grade, but nobody did anything. :/
 
Makelith said:
For those of you in Minnesota, and those of you that aren't. I was on the bridge when it happened and i wouldn't wish anything like this on my worst enemies.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aCSCDPBXaCJ4&refer=home
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Holy shit dude, your the first person I know that was involved. Well I know you thru here, lol, but still.. It was very scary stuff though. Luckily I live in the SW Metro, and hardly ever drive over that bridge.. A friend of my moms had passed under it about 20mins before it fell. Also, a dude I work with had driven over it at 5:35 that night, it went down at 6:05..

Good to hear you made it without much injury! My thoughts and prayers go out to the ppl who lost loved ones.. Very sad time in MN..
 
I saw the footage of the actual collapse on LiveLeak. Man, those folks didn't have a chance. ; ;

"Structurally deficient" doesn't mean a collapse is imminent. Redundancy and fault tolerance all come into play when deciding if a bridge is or isn't safe. In my region alone, there's 15 bridges that sit in the same category as the one in Minnesota (source: http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=129653&ran=175425 ). It's too bad funds can't be raised to fix these problems without some kind of disaster happening.
 
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Garvin said:
At any rate, it seems like the problem here was that they'd ignored warnings... Inspections gave the bridge a lolsuck grade, but nobody did anything. :/
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Because bridges are federal money and bridges cost a shitton of money to do anything with, MNdot said that there were stress cracks, but it still had a good 15 years before they would have to do anything at least. They didn't want to have to prematurely do something that massive.
 
Its starting to amaze me that in such a large community it seems everything that happens thats big news some how effects at least one of us. Sure probably people in the city but to have someone who was there and made it out with a bruise and a scratch is amazing.

Glad to hear you are ok. I don't wanna think about how scary that would be and it doesn't help that I don't like bridges over water as it is.
 
Glad you're okay Make.

Amazing how it only takes a catastrophe to make people say "oh yeah, we were totally about to start working on this..."
 
Anaeran said:
Glad you're okay Make.

Amazing how it only takes a catastrophe to make people say "oh yeah, we were totally about to start working on this..."
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Usually MN has been good about stuff like this. They were doing construction work on the bridge at the time of the collapse. In one of the videos you can see the workers falling (not sure which, it was on the news). They were using a jackhammer on it at the time and they said that the construction had nothing to do with the collapse, which i personally believe. One of our senators said it best, "A bridge shouldn't just fall down, we want answers and we want them now."

/wave Ana and Jedi. Nice to see some old CK people around!
 
Glad your ok

Wow that was some crazy shit. I watched it on the news. Im glad your ok^^
 
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