Minnesota Bridge Round-Up »
Posted by: Dakota 1 year agoA round-up of the latest news from Minnesota.
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Nixon71 year ago
The US Secretaries of Transportation, Vice Presidents and Presidents (current and previous) have committed murder here, just as they did in New Orleans.
They should be judged, convicted, and executed.
Since both the Democrats and Republicans are complicit in preventing this, the trial and executions need to be carried out by a people's tribunal and a people's militia.
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xxxr776671 year ago
I hope he's trying to be funny at a bad time, still creapy. On a chearier note as I turned on the radio I was happy to hear that those who live on the banks helped. After the stories of people taking pics with their cell phone as a gas station clerk bleed to death never calling 911, I started to complete faith in those of us in the Twin Cities (St.PaulMinneapolis area). My Dad was atthe airport trying to get a Taxi to get home which takes him across the 35-W bridge. I hope that somthing good comes from this, like repairing the 30% ofthe bridges here in MN that are rated the same or worse.
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Nixon71 year ago
Most definitely NOT trying to be funny. There is nothing funny about this.
The lack of repairs over the course of 17 years was part of a conscious government policy on the part of the federal government over the course of both Democratic and Republican administrations to privatize the US infrastructure, in particular the interstate highway system. The gist of the effort is to manufacture disasters by under-funding maintenance, as a pretext for privatization.
The inevitable result is that Americans die in these disasters. This is then used to commit another act of treason: selling our infrastructure to multinational corporations.
See:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/0...
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blainegarrett1 year ago
As of 11AM CST, CNN reports 5 fatalities up from 4 yesterday. Also, 8 still unaccounted for down from 30 yesterday. No word if the 22 people were found alive or if the estimated unaccounted for was merely estimated less. Yesterday 78 were reported injured.
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Webreader1 year ago
You know those ("ancient") Romans, whatever you think of them, built bridges that still stand to this day, having survived world wars, vibrating modern machinery, earthquakes, etc. !!
Why can't we with presumeably state-of-the-art tools for design and construction, and metalurgical knowledge built up thru the ages, build a bridge to last more than 40 years? Actually, we have. Look at the 'oft sold' and very famous Brooklyn Bridge! And others.
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blainegarrett1 year ago
I agree, but I would add the Brooklyn bridge is classified as "structurally deficient" (from recent news reports) same as the I35 bridge was. Again that is a maintenance classification not a safety classification, but either way, bridges and such don't last "long" without proper maintenance. I can't speak for all ancient structures, but I'm sure a lot of things built long ago by the Romans' etc get more maintenance since they are historic than the structures like modern bridges that we use daily.
As an aside, the I35 bridge had a lesser environmental impact of surrounding bridges since it didn't have pile ons in the river. Just a trade off to think of. I have not heard anyone mention this while talking of the bridge nor do I know if this was a consideration while building the bridge. Minneapolis is historically pretty environmentally friendly, but it sucks to trade safety for for environmental protection.
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froggy721 year ago
Yeah me too...Well I know of tons of people in Canada & Michigan area that are still praying for everyone in MN!
God Bless you !
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TheAttacks1 year ago
The footage on CNN is crazy. I couldn't imagine being on the bridge at the time of the collapse.
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Webreader1 year ago
This is crazy. My heart goes out to the unfortunate. Seeing this, and the many old rusty bridges large and small all over the USA, I wonder why we can't build bridges, if we must use metal, out of stainless steel or some alloy which will not corrode as steel does and that will last longer. Of course it would cost more, but in the long run would save much more than it would cost both in time and money, and oh yes, lives!
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blainegarrett1 year ago
One more thing, bridges in areas that have extreme winters (such s MN) are worse off because of de-icing chemicals that ultimately corrode the metal structures moreso that just environmental things alone (rain, temp shifts, etc). Stupid cold weather. In spite of it, I would still rather live here than most anywhere else.
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sezwho1 year ago
This country's infrastructure has been going to hell in a handbasket for decades. The government - both state and federal - has been lax to do anything about it due to spending priorities, juristiction conflicts and citizen pressure for less big government and cheap gas. We all know that taxes at the pump help to fund road repairs.
Our infrastructure includes not only the interstate highway system and bridges, but our seaports, airports, energy delivery, railroads, and a whole host of other "systems" needed to keep this country running.
Think for a moment the critical importance of keeping our seaports dredged and open for products from overseas suppliers; or the need to maintain the highways, railways, and airports used to deliver these goods and services to the nation.
In a nutshell, any country's lifeblood depends on its infrastructure to sell its goods and services to the world and deliver goods and services to the country.
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sezwho1 year ago
We will see more and more of this type of tragedy as more and more of our infrastructure fails due to lack of maintenance, repair and replacement.
Before we push the "Blame the Government" button, we need to examine our roll in all of this. And that starts with the demand for lower gas prices. How many times have you heard the cry for less big government?, Or more money in our pockets and less for the government?
As a citizenry how often in the past five years have you thought of the need to get our bridges repaired, or make it easier for our seaports to load and unload cargo?
While we fight and bicker amongst ourselves and with the government, we're neglecting our own life support system. If the government doesn't do it who will?, we the people? Good luck. Maybe we should redefine our values and priorities to include what we do best and what our government can do best.
Hopefully those unlucky souls in Minneapolis will serve as a wakeup call. I think we really need one.
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denbenenki1 year ago
bush will appear 3 days later.
it still takes that long for them to program him and rehearse him.
when he makes planned public appearances and speaks, his thoughts and words are remotely controlled.
its a medical engineering feat that was designed from research on people with hearing, talking problems.
rush limbaw is the premier recipient of the device. he claims he cannot hear without it.
the device works sort of like a thesauras, dictionary and speech corrector.
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