Fox News Sunday Comments Re: Minneapolis Bridge Failure 10

[JeffLester]

All,

Watching Foxs News Sunday with Mike Wallace this morning, I found myself bothered by comments made by two guests. In essence, they stated the bridge failure was an engineering problem. Without benefit of investigation, they knew what the problem was. Amazing.

What bothered me more was their simplistic judgement of what I'm sure is not a simple problem. I work in an environment, as many of you I'm sure, where the technical judgement of an engineer is pitted against the economic realities of business. Risk management has become a legitimate vocation for some. Although I believe this is not a bad thing necessarily, it bothers me that people with a bigger voice than mine are more interested in being quoted than being correct.

I don't believe it was any one thing that brought the Minneapolis bridge down. It was most likely a combination of things, unfortunately for those who died or were hurt that day.

Unfortunately for engineers and our profession, two more insults went unanswered. I apologize for this rant, but I've heard these types of comments all to often.

Stepping off the soapbox now...

Jeff Lester, P.E.

 

[bridgebuster]

davefitz - don't you know everything is caused by GLOBAL WARMING.

 

[kenvlach]

Pre-global warming, bridge standing (note ice in river):

Aug. 1, 2007, air temperature in 80's F, bridge collapsed.

Ipso facto.

 

[davefitz]

bridgebuster:
Just checking to see if you are following the party line.

 

[JAE]

That's not ice flows, it's froth from the water boiling in the hot sun.

 

[daubery]

^ Or pollution...

Des Aubery...
(adTherm Technology -

http://www.adthermtech.com

)

 

[Comcokid]

There is a dam immediately up-river from the bridge. Some of the gates must be open, foaming the river, and reveiling the presence of some phosphate/soap pollution.

In the bottom-corner of the photo, you can see the beginning of the pier into the boat lock of the dam.