Bridge collapse in Minneapolis

Good lord. Is this the biggest bridge/heaviest traffic in the city?

To give some perspective on the scope of this:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-35W_Bridge

xpost: Generally a huge amount of traffic. Also during the late part of rush hour.

Probably a bit early for this, but check-ins from MPLS/STPL ilxors would be nice.

oh god :(

holy FUCK

i drive on that bridge a couple times a week

I was already scared of bridges...this isn't helping. Terrifying.

"cars were on fire" WTF?

Terrifying. Going to turn on tv now.

Wasn't there a highway collapse in CA the other day?

"bumper-to-bumper traffic"

the wreckage is absolutely insane

cars absolutely everywhere laying in every which way

Wasn't there a highway collapse in CA the other day?

Yes: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,291544,00.html

"every minneapolis ambulance has been dispatched to the scene"

http://wcco.com/topstories/local_story_213191448.html

http://www.kare11.com/assetpool/images/0781193245_bridge_down_hd.jpg

i'm ok.

freaked as fuck right now

olbermann's covering this right now. terrifying.

Glad you're okay; I am completely freaked out. Trying to call friends in the area, but I think some of the phone coverage and cell coverage has been overwhelmed.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/08/01/bridge.collapse.ap/index.html

looks like some people survived the fall in their cars and are now stranded on the pieces

This shit is horrific.

http://wcco.com/slideshows/local_slideshow_213194533/view?slide=0

oh no fanon just left for there!!!!

jesus christ

wtf wtf wtf

Yeah this is just the most terrible thing. What a complete nightmare.

oh my god :( :( crazy

some geographic context:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=minneapolis&ie=UTF8&om=1&ll=44.978992,-93.244314&spn=0.028475,0.058708&t=h&z=14&iwloc=addr

Incomprehensible.

absolutely fucking nuts

phone call to mom not going thru

ok everyone in the country is apparently calling whoever they know in minneapolis right now

I've gotten a couple of emails from people saying they are okay, but phone appears to be a no go for the moment.

yeah i better call my dad, we have some cousins around there

Wow, it would be amazing if there are in fact no fatalities, as news reports say. An infrastructure clusterfuck forever, though, with that bridge gone. Jeez Louise.

Oh my fucking god, this is horrible. Like Lucy I was already scared of bridges for this reason too. Oh god.

CNN's reporting at least one confirmed fatality.

Oh, too bad.
I LOVE bridges. So beautiful, and such a thrill to drive over.

storm blowing in now, too

Number of vehicles in the water: anywhere from 8 - 50

Now 3 confirmed fatalities. From what I can tell from my phone, cel phones are nearly unusable here right now.

OK I got through to my mom. But the 8,000 other fam and friends I have there...

How can this happen? It's FUCKING 35W?!?!

Got through to Jeff (fluffy bear) and he's OK.

No fatalities on school bus.

That looks terrifying. wtf

There was a school bus on the bridge? Ach.

Cell phones are "inoperable" right now according to NBC.

FB managed to send a text message via landline (whatever the hell that means) to me saying "everyone okay." I assume he meant himself and... yeah I don't know who else.

Jesus, this is scary.

jesus christ :(

ok, mom was on the bridge 20 fucking minutes before it collapsed. says traffic was terrible.

Holy shit GR :( She must be a mess.

Unfortunately, I the text from FB was "Everyone OK?", so that's really all we know. Trying to reach a few other people, but it's basically impossible.

xpost: Yeah, I just realized that there was also a twins game today. Apparently the traffic was bumper to bumper.

mom answered the phone "we're alive!"

Okay, maybe I misinterpreted the inflection, but obviously FB is okay at least if he's figuring out how to get around cell phone outages. I'm assuming Caledonia is okay at least (please say yes)?

ghost rider, I love your mother.

twins game going on as planned, because to cancel it would "impede the rescue effort"

According to the Strib, Red Cross calling for blood donors.

my thoughts are with minneapolis and all those involved in this crazy disaster.

(but i also love bridges. walking across them is especially fantastic.)

What's this about "and onto businesses beneath the bridge"?

Refresh my memory, what's underneath there?

Yeah, Sarah, but they called for blood donors after the WTC, too, even though realistically few people involved could have been in a position to need nothing more than some extra bodily fluids. I think they know people will respond in crisis and build up their banks for later! Which is fair play, I think.

This is horrible. I used to drive across this bridge every time I went to Dinkytown.

It also reminds me of a few years ago when a barge hit and collapsed the I-40 bridge in Oklahoma. Vehicles kept ramping into the Arkansas River, one after the other.

I agree; I think it's absolutely fair play, regardless of immediate need. (I say that as a person who has received blood myself.)

(xpost, obviously)

train tracks under there -- KARE showed a couple crushed cars -- but otherwise it's just park and the river road (xpost to jon)

OK I was like "wait are there stores and stuff under there?" I didn't think so.

Wolf Blitzer just asked the Sen. Klobuchar if there were trains on the bridge. He also just asked a witness if he had been walking across the bridge.

Has Blitzer ever seen an interstate bridge?

http://www.startribune.com/10136/gallery/1338445.html

un-fucking-real

oh jesus local tv coverage is bad enough i can't imagine watching the cable nets cover this

My wife got an email (finally!) from one of her friends who moved back to Minneapolis last year, who is OK. They both used to work for the Red Cross, so this is kind of weird for her friend, being right there but not being part of help effort. :(

Red Cross is always low on blood supply -- they're required by law to have a 3-day supply of nearly all blood types and almost never do -- so yeah, if they can get people to donate, good on them.

Best wishes Minneapolis.

Holy shit, a friend called me about this a couple of hours ago and I haven't been able to check up on it until now. I haven't heard from my friends yet but it's kind of amazing (and a relief) that there were only 3 deaths?

holy fuck I've been on that bridge a million times.

Well, that didn't take long:

"Oo, Wolf, you know what they say: Only two seasons in Minnesota - 'Winter' and 'Construction'."

Also,
WOLF: "This bridge is known in the region as the 35W. Is it a state-run bridge?"
WITNESS: "It's an interstate bridge."
WOLF: "So the state operates it."
WITNESS: "No, the interstate goes all the way down to Texas, Wolf."

My wife had two close calls with this! Both coming home from work and then immediately taking off to the Twins game with my in-laws. Both times she just happened to choose a different route despite 35W being the most direct path.
I go over or under this bridge like an average of twice a day. wtf.

Probably insensitive gallows humor alert: just a few days ago when I was frustrated about the University Avenue exit to SB 35W still being closed and being forced to use the adjacent Cedar Ave bridge, I vented something like "this 35W construction will be the death of me."

This is wholly devastating, but I'm glad I canceled my plans to go to the U campus for dinner and drinks tonight.

holy shit

ps my mom cannot stop talking

6 fatalities confirmed.

...

Fatalities will likely be horrifying regardless of the number, but I'm almost positive MnDOT said they were closing down traffic to a single lane in both directions beginning at 5 p.m. If that is true, this could've been much much worse.

Wow that is so lucky.

According to local news, 6 dead, 41 injured (by their count - I think this is KSTP).

College roommate: okay.

Yeah my buddy just told me the same thing, when it collapsed it was only running one lane in each direction as opposed to the usual four each way. Could've been many more cars.

Mike S. (subgenius) OK.

everyone I got in touch with there is fine. this is really horrifying.

Glad Mike and Dan's roommate and others are okay. I'm still waiting to hear from three different friends, but hopefully they were just not in that area at all. I just don't know. Also I don't know where a lot of my nursing school classmates even live; I guess I'll find out about them tomorrow night since we have a meeting.

No idea if Kyle is okay.

Have you tried emailing him? I just heard from one of my nursing school friends - she's fine.

(Also, now panicking that Kyle could EVER not be okay. I can't remember where he works...)

I don't have his email, just his phone number; obv. I can't reach him due to infrastructure nonsense.

Huh, does your Dad have his email maybe? I dimly remember seeing it on one of the clambake emails last summer. I wonder if I have one of those somewhere in my email clutter.

Home number or cel? Landline to landline seems to be OK, from what I hear. (Which doesn't help if you only have a cel phone. First time I've ever regretted that decision.)

Also, text messages are going through much better, presumably because of the minimal data transfer required, so you might want to try that.

Trying to hang w/the optimistic side for the moment, but unfortunately reading between the lines makes it pretty clear that the casualty count is going to increase dramatically as the recovery effort proceeds.

Dan, I just dug up an email address for Kyle and sent it to you. In case it might actually be of use.

According to KSTP current counts: 7 dead, 60 injured.

josh k is ok

Good to hear good news about people being okay.

Anyone know about M@tt H3lg3son?

I live six blocks from there. I was out all evening and am just now getting the news. Fucking hell. Glad Mpls ILXors are OK.

I hope all loved ones are OK, for everyone.
I tried to watch the cable news, but it's SO STUPID!
Like they are disappointed at the number of horrible fatalities.

I hope you all have had some connection with family and friends.
(I have two friends in the area, but they are likely ok.)

Local news reporting that rescue efforts are now recovery efforts (meaning they don't expect to find anyone else alive, I guess). It's obviously very dark now and recovery efforts are suspended until 6 a.m. local time.

GOD FORBID THE CORPS OF ENGINEERS OR STATE DOTS GET MONEY FOR INFRASTRUCTURE WHEN WE'RE AT WAR WITH TERROR ITSELF

thanks, markos, for your sensitivity at a time like this

Jesus Christ. I hope folks make it thru okay, and that people actually understand the need to fund shit like critical infrastructure(says the guys living in a city with 10 large bridges)

Alright, I'm going to bed. Not looking forward to the news updates in the morning though.

A good break from all of this, something I just discovered indirectly from following news and checking up with friends and family, is The Hold Steady on their MySpace page doing "Take Me Out To The Ball Game".

OK, courtesy of myspace bulletins, a bunch of people I didn't have contact info for have been confirmed to be alright. A grudging nod to Rupert Murdoch for that, I suppose. Goodnight all.

35-W is the major North/South artery through Minneapolis. Estimates are that it will take at least a couple years to replace it.

This involuntarily reminded me of something that happened in Belgium yesterday: 106 people from a retirement home had to be evacuated because a construction company caused a gas leak. Company boss, angrily, at a journalist: "yes, we knew that gas line was there. We didn't have time to wait for the gas company to come and cut off the gas."

Ok, maybe something completely different was going on there and construction workers actually have time to do things safely, but here, roadwork companies get fined if they're not ready on time and they even get bonuses for being ready before the deadline. The country's economy would suffer too much if their work took any longer than necessary. Money > safety.

and then I see this article, that doesn't mention the casualties:

http://uk.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUKN0140697320070802?src=080107_2317_TOPSTORY_u.s._bridge_collapses

Yeah it does:

"At least six people were killed and dozens injured when the 40-year-old bridge packed with vehicles in rush-hour traffic buckled and collapsed into the Mississippi River."

But that said what an odd article, focussing on the grain movements on the river!?

Oh. I was too focused on the "Billions Of Dollars" tone that I didn't even see that.

Estimates are that it will take at least a couple years to replace it.

To be fair though, snap estimates are usually ultra-long. The Santa Monica freeway and Bay Bridge were rebuilt pronto after their collapses.

Yay Fluffy Bear!
(First we heard from him and such.)
FB (and all of the hastings thread) - are you drinking? I would be, in a very nervous and upset way.
I'm glad you all are fine - and your moms!

Not drinking; sleeping very poorly. But waking up to find a few emails from friends who are okay, so I'm not going to complain.

Christ what a fucking disaster... hope all Minneapolis ILXers, friends and families are okay.

I'd gone to bed before the news broke but woke up in the middle of the night to a real World Service WTF? moment. I have to check on a friend who uses that bridge.

My mom: 'I knew you'd call.'

The bridge was rated "structurally deficient" in 2005:
http://www.startribune.com/10204/story/1338970.html

vs.

"Gov. Tim Pawlenty said Wednesday night that the bridge was inspected in 2005 and 2006, and that no structural deficiencies were identified."

isn't nate in mnpls? has anyone heard from him?

CNN.com confirming 4 dead (but expect more), 60 injured, 20-30 missing.

From the current CNN.com article:

A 2001 study conducted by the Minnesota Department of Transportation found "several fatigue problems" in the bridge's approach spans and "poor fatigue details" on the main truss.

The study suggested that the design of bridge's main truss could cause a collapse if one of two support planes were to become cracked, although it allowed that a collapse might not occur in that event. But, the study concluded, "fatigue cracking of the deck truss is not likely" and "replacement of the bridge ... may be deferred."

Two years ago, the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Bridge Inventory database said the bridge was "structurally deficient."

The Minneapolis Star Tribune quoted Jeanne Aamodt, a spokeswoman for the Minnesota Department of Transportation, as saying the department was aware of the 2005 assessment of the bridge.

The bridge received a rating of 4 on a scale of 1 to 10. A bridge receives a rating of 4 when there is "advanced section loss, deterioration, spalling, or scour."

My parents didn't even know about this until their siblings/kids started calling them to see if they were okay.

Two years ago, the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Bridge Inventory database said the bridge was "structurally deficient."

Some people need to go to jail, for life.

I still can't wrap my head around this, probably because when I lived in the Cities I hardly ever drove on that stretch of road.

When I think of this bridge (I grew up and lived in Mpls. for 25 years), I don't think of any kind of view, as opposed to the I-94, Lake/Marshall, and High Bridges -- am I just forgetting, or was it laid out in a way that there wasn't much of a view? And the bridge that's in tact that I see in those aerial photos -- that's the bridge that goes north from Seven Corners?

yeah, that's the 10th st bridge (or the "cedar ave bridge" according to google maps, which is rong), from 7 corners to just east of Dinkytown. if you drove up 35 past the 94 junction, this would've been right after the U of M exits.

Not to wax nostalgic here, but in following the coverage I've been seeing all these newscasters who are doing what they were doing 20 years ago: Don Shelby, Cindy Brucato. NPR just had on Rusty who used to be this redhead kid weatherman on channel 5.

don shelby was kind of losing it last night.

Note to HSTNGS people: just got an email from M3liss@ G00dm@n; she's okay. She was on the River Road under it about 10 minutes before it collapsed but is really, really lucky I guess.

kind of alarmed to hear the death toll has gone down this am. i heard on the radio but no reason was given; i'm assuming people did not get up off the table.

hey y'all i'm okay.

this this is crazy scary. my friend holly missed being on the bridge when it collapse by about 5 minutes, she went over right before...

very sad.

Glad you AND your friend are okay. What a close call for her...

isn't nate in mnpls? has anyone heard from him?

-- ^@^, Thursday, 2 August 2007 10:42 (2 hours ago) Link

he posted on forums.yiff.com about 3 hours after the collapse

my wife works at a coffee shop and one of her regular's husband is a mpls police sgt....she said they are trying to keep a lid on it for the time being, but they suspect they are looking at at least 30 dead that are still the in the water. : (

yeah, there are cars trapped under there. it's just inevitable. so so sad.

Oh god those DOT reports. There's gonna be politics made out of this real fast, isn't there? And maybe rightly so...

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/transportation/4219981.html

</kingfish>

we just went out & snuck up the parking ramp to see the bridge. it's wild. my office is right next to the h0liday inn where families are to meet up & it's really sad seeing so many people milling about.

Shelby lost it? Whaddamean?

Glad to hear all are OK.

he was just overtalking everything and tripping over words, trying really hard to show some gravitas but really sounding like he needed to throw some water on his face and take a walk around the block

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2007/08/02/vosli.mn.i35w.bridge.collapse.side.view.cnn

Jesus christ. Almost looked like controlled demolition. Terrifying.

Shit.

That 2001 bridge survey thing, and the subsequent disregard of it by state and feds., is reminiscent of the N.O. levee deal. How the fuck does this shit get ignored?

Aerial satellite view (before, not after) from google maps: http://maps.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&ll=44.978764,-93.244872&spn=0.011293,0.020084&t=k&z=16&om=1

Bridge on the left. From what I understand everything that appears elevated fell.

From the Ny Times "Lede" blog:

The Department of Transportation’s 2005 judgment that the bridge was “structurally deficient” has emerged as one of the most prominent signs of a missed signal of an impending disaster. But there are many, many more bridges with that rating, according to a 2006 count by The Federal Highway Administration. Minnesota alone has 1,135 bridges on the list of “Deficient Bridges,” and other states have thousands more. Check your state against the “SD” column on this spreadsheet.

I don't know whether to be reassured or terrified by this.

Now I'm wondering about the bridges I drive over every day - how would I know if they've been rated "Structurally Deficient"?

Jesus christ. Almost looked like controlled demolition.

be careful when you say this :/

It's really easy to cherry pick a sentence or two out of old bridge inspections and say people ignored the findings, but before doing so it would be good to see the reports as a whole and as part of a national and statewide plan for infrastructure repair. At this point only the bridges in most dire need of repair/replacement are getting it - in this case it just seems like the urgency with which the bridge need to be repaired/replaced was misjudged.

search your own!

http://www.nationalbridges.com/

So, we got like, what, 65-70K "structurally deficient" bridges in America? Remember, taxes are theft!

Coming only a couple of weeks after the steam tunnel explosion in Manhattan, this seems to confirm the scandalously dilapidated state of public infrastructure in this country.

I'm glad when I pointed these things out last night I caught shit for it. Oh, tact.

guess i missed that, not knowing who bobby bedelia is. or 'markos' for that matter.

You caught shit for it? Shit, man, that was my first idea.

Oh great, now Thom Hartmann has some douchebag from the Heartland Foundation or some other Nordquist thinktank.

xp yeah, which markos? Moulitsas?

(maybe we need a new thread for the meta-policy stuff?)

xp ah yes moulitsas, now it get it

Apparently Bush held a press conference giving his condolences, but . . . then he turned to dissing the democrats? I'm not sure. I haven't checked into this. Apparently MPR just started fading him out when the tide turned.

ugh.

rather, Thom Hartmann had the guy on the show. He's gone now, off to another show to complain about how private business could have handled building infrastructure better, citing the "alaskan bridge to nowhere" but not really pointing out the fact that the douche(currently under investigation) who proposed that bridge is of the same "gubmint = bad, so let's all get rich while we fly it straight into the ground" mindset.

xp

Yeah, I heard that, he transitioned from praying for the suffering directly into his dissappointment over the lack of progress on the spending bills.

xpost

Repairing bridges costs money. Money that simply isn't there, because someone has to inspire, fund and fight terrorists all over the world. US taxes will have to be raised, unfortunately.

xpost to Caledonia and John - wow, and I thought Bush was a craven, cynical politician before...

I, for one, would probably appreciate it if the infrastructure political argument could be put in another thread. Not going to get up in arms about it either way, though.

Well, I think his advisers are at least happy he didn't do a "heck of a job" shout out to the administration's bridge czar.

YOU GUYS

SARAH S IS NOT ONLY OKAY, SHE IS NOW MARRIED AND HAS AN EVEN LONGER, MORE LUDICROUS LAST NAME (maybe this shd be on the HSTNGS thread)

Bush: "Sorry 'bout your bridge. No new taxes!"

WAHT? (no one can out-ludicrous my last name, though).

(and yes, let's talk about this on the HSTNGS thread)

I fucking knew he (GWB) was going to do that but I'm still boiling.

Fucking vampire.

So do we have confirmation that no ILXors or ILXors' families or friends were harmed? Not that that would make this any less terrible, of course, but you know.

US Federal Budget:

Department of Transportation: $67 billion

Department of Defense: $639 billion

That's why someone should send an undetectably fake "Yes, we did it! Take that, you American infidels!" video. It's the only way enough funds will be used for public safety.

Just kidding, hahahahahahahahaha!

(that ok?)

secretly brilliant

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-08/02/xinsrc_16208040209065152836211.jpghttp://i11.tinypic.com/53ucxtl.gif

(sorry)

uh . . .

Just trying to run with Stan's idea. Now I kinda wish I hadn't. I'll just be in the back, hiding.

Yes, I'm ashamed too, but fools (like us) sometimes manage to point at the awful truth...

Hey, if we could hold off on jokes and snappy patter until they finish pulling the rest of the bodies out of the wreckage, that would be awesome.

xposts: Sorry, still kind of touchy about this. It's going to apparently be at least three more days before they can recover the remaining bodies, and then identify them. I'm feeling pretty confident that I don't have a direct personal connection to this, but until I know, jokes are going to piss me off.

You're right - should we ask for admin intervention?

It doesn't matter to me, and to clarify, I'm not angry at anyone...just kind of touchy (just looked at the missing person photos that started showing up on one of the network sites in town, so a little shaken up, I guess.)

I feel bad for those poor people waiting around the hotel to hear what they already pretty much know...

I asked for a cleanup on the mod board - and I do apologize.

i didn't think it was that offensive... just pointing out a failure in the system that would let something like this happen. I mean, it's not really a joke, is it?

No, but this is too soon.

It's not that it was horrificaly offensive. Everyone is just really tense in the Twin Cities right now. I just keep thinking about the families. Later on, we can delve into ways our goverment is failing us.

Yes please to delete my dumb joke.

I'm with you, Jon Lewis. I don't want to go back outside because there are just too many people milling about & I only need to cross the street to see folks around the hotel. They have roped off every way one could go to try & see the collapse, which I actually find comforting. There are still tons & tons of people wandering near my office, though. some with cameras acting like tourists - taking self portraits with the bridge in the background.

ick.

Yeah, people coming into the shop are getting progressively weirder...I think the delay in any information is leaving everyone in some sort of limbo where despite all logic they can't be absolutely sure that the people they know are OK. I think I've heard about 20 words total out of customers today, and normally these people are really chatty.

which shop are you at if you don't mind me asking...

Buns & Roses

Is that a strip club or a bakery?

restaurant/bar, right?

An out of business strip club, thus ruining Dan's inside joke.

I work in W. St. Paul at a guitar store (Eclipse Music).

Sad defunct businesses are a good way to distract oneself at a time like this (OMG FLAMEBURGER ON LARPENTEUR)

Jon that sounds like two wrestlers getting it on.

It's a great name!

I am sure the lovely ladies of Buns & Roses have all finished their MBAs by now, anyway.

Over the past day and a half, they have been able to lower the river by two feet in order to slow down currents so divers could resume the search this afternoon. At least MN locks and dams are still functioning.

God, it hasn't even been a day and a half . . . not even a whole day . . .

There is some kind of weird time thing, I think, for absorbing this. I haven't quite gotten it. Which is maybe a self-preservation thing. It's just so easy to think that it could have been any one of us or anyone that we knew.

it could have been any one of us or anyone that we knew

For god's sake, could I be any more banal and obvious? (And yet still be thinking that?)

I think the thing that's really fucking with me is that is one of the three areas of the Twin Cities I can think of that I would automatically look to live in/near, therefore had my life been different and I'd come back THAT COULD HAVE BEEN ME.

This concludes the ridiculously narcissistic coping mechanism portion of the thread.

It is so true though!! So many people, myself included, have been saying how normally we would've gone that way yesterday or ran an errand that would have taken us there, etc.

No, that's exactly what's rattling about it, obvious though it may be. The seeming randomness of it.

Past tragedies show it's not a banal thing to think or say, Sara.

The television in the waiting room was on Fox News. They went live to Bush in the Rose Garden who said something like:

"The bridge collapsed. It collapsed in Minneapolis. I've talked to Governor Pawlenty and told him that, that, we are roburst, robustly behind the people in Minneapolis. Not only did I offer federal assistance... I offered him our prayers. The bridge collapsed.

NOW THE DEMOCRATS WON'T SIGN THE FUNDING BILL FOR THE FISCAL YEAR THAT ENDS ON SEPT. 3O. I HOLD THAT THE DEMOCRATS ARE..."

I mean, we were sitting there going, is he really seguing from the bridge to the Democrats holding up his spending bill on national television?

Past tragedies prove that I am not as banal as I think I am... I kind of like that. I think.

Also, I'm never going to listen to anything this President says again. Not that I was before, but still - CRASS.

god i hate bush.

this whole thing still seems unreal. i can't even imagine that bridge not being there.

i didn't know flameburger was closed : (

I don't even know where to begin with that Bush quote. Roburst?????????????

Holy shit, this administration is like a bad dream.

Yeah, it is weird how almost all my friends in Mpls reported that normally would have taken that route at that time, but randomly decided to change plans, go out, not go out, etc.

A lot of the traffic was reduced because of construction, but I have to assume that planners are scrambling to find a way to re-route traffic without overloading other bridges and roads.

The Twin Cities is kind of the World Capitol of alternate routes, though.

I went to college just south of the Twin Cities. My ex-girlfriend lives in Minneapolis (Calhoun area, I think), and I should check in with her. The problem is that I decided a couple years ago to stop corresponding, because it seemed like the healthy thing to do at the time. Hmm... this is kind of silly.

reading 'buns n roses' on here put a much needed hop in my step.. thanks for that

So the good news is that the fatality count didn't go up today.

The bad news is that due to conditions, recovery workers were only able to reach approx. 4 cars.

Brooklyn Bridge is in an even worse state than the bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis yesterday:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007/08/03/2007-08-03_brooklyn_bridge_rated_worse_than_doomed_.html

"It is in poor condition but it is also in our reconstruction program," said first Deputy Commissioner Lori Ardito. "For 2010."

brooklyn_bridge_rated_worse_than_doomed_.html

Made me wonder for a minute about the rating system. "DOOMED!" "WORSE THAN DOOMED!" Which would be what, exactly?

5 dead, 8 missing, 70+ injured

holy shit you guys, i've been in the desert for the last week, and the first voicemail i got was from my sister "hey, just so you know, i'm alright, but i'm still waiting to hear from XXX"

me: !!!! wtf is going on

sis goes to the law school, which is basically right next to the bridge, so they were all very very freaked out about the possibility that their friends and classmates were on it

totally mindblowing

your sis goes to law school where i work!!

!!!

and where my husband goes to school! he's a 3L . . . they probably know each other, huh?

Half of my friends are UM law school grads.

mine too, now that i work here anyway.

as far as I know, there haven't been any law school folks that were on the bridge.

xpost to John: someone has to bail you out, you know.

5 dead, 8 missing, 70+ injured

All things considered, this seems miraculously low. I really hope it doesn't get any worse.

wait, yeah, she just finished her third year! took the bar just a bit ago

small world!

small town, too!

That it is!

Wait RW so one of her friends is actually among the missing?

no, no, she and her friends were just really freaked out initially since they all drive over the bridge on the regular.

guess who's at the site:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3445882&page=1

Oh. I expected the Westboro Baptist Church, somehow. THANK GOD FOR FAGGOT BRIDGES etc

I think this lot are just as bad.

KYLE = OKAY

THANK YOU DAN! That's fantastic news.

Took him long enough

Not surprised, but that doesn't mean this doesn't fill me with murderous rage.

The word "reprehensible" doesn't even begin to cover it.

too bad there isn't a hell for these people to end up in... pretty sure minnesota will give them the cold shoulder, which is the best we can ask for. short of a firing squad.

oh, the folks who don angel wings will probably be there. They don the wings to protect funerals that Phelps and his minions actively protest.

it is so disgusting - I find comfort in the angel wings response.

The angel wings started after Matthew Shephard's brutal murder. people literally wear gigantic wings and stand between Phelps (or anyone else) to protect the sanctity of the funeral.

It's horrific that it is even neccesary - but it's the only response that works at highly publicized funerals.

the wiki entry on phelps is really interesting. Apparently even without the church stuff, he'd still be a totally vile human being.

I know there's a biker troop up here that travels around defending military funerals from these fucks. I imagine they'll do their best to make this uncomfortable for them, which is a small comfort, I suppose.

I like how if I fuck something up, like a bridge, it would not fail if we were all righteous. Think of how care free we could be, God's hand holding everything up.

Doctor, his heart stopped.
Don't worry, I'll just patch it with this piece of chewing gum.
But will that work?
God's hands, nurse. God's hands.

Yup, Patriot Guard. They started up a few years back after the Phelps group started showing up at funeral for fallen servicemen in Iraq. Now the Phelps gang shows up at any horrible event with a bodycount that's received an amount of publicity: the Virginia Tech massacre, mine collapsings, etc.

xp

I knew about "g0dh4tesfags.com", but until reading the wiki, I had no idea he had also started up "g0dh4tessweden.com, g0dh4tesireland.com, and g0dh4tescanda.com".

Hasn't had time in his busy gay-bashing schedule to start g0dh4tesminnesota.com, but I'm sure he's working on it.

I swear, I was just kidding when I mentioned them. :-/

g0dh4tessweden

is he a nutbag preacher or Bergman?

THE BRIDGE IS BACK!!!!

opened today : )

getting around in the twin cities just got a whole lot easier.

damn they got that done fast....

http://stmedia.startribune.com/images/746*500/M4286837.JPG

Holy crap that white bridge is modern and magical. Does it go to fairyland?

nice bridge

Lookin' good, Lake City.

lol diametric opposite of Boston

northeast minneapolis is not an island anymore : )

lol diametric opposite of Boston

― i am the small cat (HI DERE), Thursday, September 18, 2008 8:48 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

? how so?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Dig_(Boston,_Massachusetts)

Bah. Add the closing paranthesis to that link.

fixed via admin magicitude

nope, nevermind, now it justs links to a missing wiki article. so much for magic.

this was ridic fast though.

lol yr admin-fu is lacking, young grasshopper

The Big Dig has been the most expensive highway project in the U.S.[5] Although the project was estimated at $2.8 billion in 1985 (in 1982 dollars, US$6.0 billion adjusted for inflation as of 2006),[6] over $14.6 billion ($8.08 billion in 1982 dollars)[6] had been spent in federal and state tax dollars as of 2006.[7] At the beginning of the project, Congressman Barney Frank asked, "Rather than lower the expressway, wouldn't it be cheaper to raise the city?" The project has incurred criminal arrests,[8][9] escalating costs, death, leaks, and charges of poor execution and use of substandard materials. The Massachusetts Attorney General is demanding contractors refund taxpayers $108 million for "shoddy work".[10] On January 23, 2008, it was reported that Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, the consortium that oversaw the project, would pay $407 million in restitution for its poor oversight of subcontractors (some of whom committed outright fraud), as well as primary responsibility in the death of a motorist. However, despite admitting to poor oversight and negligence as part of the settlement,[11] the firm is not barred from bidding for future government contracts. Several smaller companies agreed to pay a combined sum of approximately $51 million.[12]

=======================

The new $234 million bridge contains hundreds of sensors that will collect data. The purpose of the "smart bridge" technology isn't to warn of another impending disaster; it's to detect small problems before they become big ones, said Alan Phipps, design manager for the project with Figg Engineering Group Inc. of Tallahassee, Florida.

"What these sensors are for, it's like going to your doctor for your health checkup," Phipps said. "It's to ensure you're maintained in top shape so you never get close to having a serious problem."

The bridge was completed on budget and more than three months ahead of the December 24 deadline. That means the contractors should get a bonus close to the contract maximum of $27 million, though the actual amount hasn't been determined.

someone remind me why I live in MA again

haha so it started in 85 and got done in 07??!?

The initial proposal dates back earlier than that! They finally broke ground in '91, so basically it's been under construction pretty much the entire time I've lived here.

nice, my friends in northeast must be very excited

they can now reemerge from their isolated hovels

their thirst for fresh commuter blood will once again be slaked

The Big Dig and that bridge are like multiple orders of magnitude separate.

...Yes, thus feeding nicely into my "diametric opposites" comment.

the chunnel took 12 years.