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Massive Bridge Collapse in Minneapolis


wolverine

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Since half the lanes were blocked for construction, probably sparsely populated with construction equipment, I doubt the weight limit is much in play for the collapse. Had the bridge been completely opened when this happened, it could be a different story.
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I am not sure what you mean by this. You say that it isn't related to design specifics, yet it the ground conditions would have definately been a consideration during the specification phase of the bridge design and during the actual engineering detailed design. Incompetent engineers are rarely the problem but it's the system they operate in that can lead to failure. An interesting example of this is the failure of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City in the early 1980s. 114 people were killed and 200 more seriously injured due to small engineering change that occurred during the process that nobody caught.

My guess is that it wasn't a failure in the design given the bridge has been standing there for 40 years as design problems usually don't take this long to show up. Something either changed, such as nearby construction affecting the ground, or it was a failure in maintenance including making changes to the original design that lead to failure. 1960s civil and mechanical engineering technology was fairly mature at this point and they should have been able to design a bridge to cross this river that would last indefinitely.

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