Aging Infrastructure at Heart of Minnesota Disaster

I have heard that the bridge had been inspected recently and had not exactly passed with flying colours. What I want to know is: - If a bridge this busy fails an inspection, even partially, why isn't it closed for repairs? Is it because it's so busy and someone has made a political decision?

Yup, is it that 'Just shut up, and launch the shuttle' mentality again?

Lucky it wasn't much worse...

Sympathies to all those families involved.

This one seems to be more serious then just putting a weight limit on it, thats the preferred method this side of the pond.

I think it was the first question I asked CR4 just over a year ago when one overpass collapsed over a highway crushing cars passing below (de la Concorde bridge collapse - Laval, Canada). Since that tragedy, 100s of bridges have been inspected and many are scheduled to be demolished and rebuilt (a few have been "put down" already). The Minnesota bridge was said to have been inspected last year and was deemed OK (no major faults, as was the one in Laval). If an inspected bridge (or any structure, for that matter) fails shortly after being deemed OK, maybe changing the inspection strategy/process is required?

My heart goes out to all those affected...

Or the inspectors...

Agreed

Although I'd tend to believe that while a few might need changing, I also believe that most must do their jobs with integrity to the best of their abilities with the tools/processes provided. The fact that "only" a few bridges collapsed doesn't mean that there is not a whole bunch on the verge of disaster....

I have no doubt about their integrity...maybe about their ability to resist political pressure...

Wouldn't that still reflect on their integrity though? I mean, if they detect a fault(s) and either ommit to report it or if the report suddenly gets "lost" or altered, I would think that they should speak-up with the truth, no? In today's world of communications, it'd be very easy to "publish" a copy of the report identifying the faults if one was so inclined....

Whether it's a bridge collapse, steampipe line burst, rock club fire it seems our culture has created a great threat to itself. We like to build new and often forget about maintaining what we already built.