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Ohio Bridge Scare, But No Warning for Minneapolis

I-35 Bridge, Minneapolis, August 1, 2007

Today the Star Tribune in Minneapolis reports that the federal government knew 12 years ago that a design defect in bridges could lead to a collapse like the one on I-35 in Minneapolis last year that killed 13 people and injured 145 more. Despite this knowledge, they failed to issue any warnings.

The bridge in question 12 years ago was a span in Ohio that buckled and nearly collapsed under the weight of construction vehicles that were painting the bridge. The accident was caused by “undersized and corroded gusset plates that were too thin to withstand an unusual load of construction vehicles and heavy equipment parked on the bridge that day.”

The interim findings on the I-35 bridge indicate that these same gussets caused the collapse there. However,

the federal government’s finding that “the design thickness of the gusset plate was marginal, at best” never resulted in the kind of nationwide technical alert that followed a similar finding last year in the investigation of the I-35W bridge collapse.

Why not?! I’ll admit that I’m no engineer, but it seems to me that whenever you have a bridge partially fall apart, it might be a good idea to look at the design and figure out if it is viable.

“But back in the late 1990s,” Palmer said, “the prevalent feeling among experts was that the I-90 bridge buckling was an anomaly. Federal officials, particularly those at the highway administration, seemed to be more interested in how long the bridge would be out of service and what would be done to fix it,” he said.

“It shut down the interstate,” said Palmer. “That was the big deal.”

Yes, that’s the big deal, quickly reopen the interstate so we can pour more potential victims across an unstable bridge. I’m a big fan of the roads being open and run efficiently, but I don’t want to sacrifice quality for convenience. It doesn’t do me any good to speed down the interstate quickly to my demise as I plunge into a river at the bottom of a ravine. For once in my life, I’d rather sit in traffic.

Ian Grossman, a spokesman for the federal highway administration, said his agency did not put out any formal advisory about its findings. But he said the information was “informally shared among bridge and state leaders throughout the highway community.””

So we learn that state agencies were also involved in this fiasco. Apparently, there was a conference on bridges in Pittsburgh where this specific design defect was discussed. The Minnesota Department of Transportation – the state agency supposedly on watch during the I-35 collapse – sent a representative, Mr. Thomas Merritt, who didn’t attend the presentation.

I’ll let his words speak for themselves:

“I was looking for some of the gosh, wow new construction things,” he said.

Even if he had attended the presentation on the Ohio bridge problem, he said he’s fairly certain he wouldn’t have done anything with the information.

“I might have said, ‘Well, somebody made a mistake,’” Merritt said recently. “That’s probably as far as it would have gone.”

Is this the best that taxpayers can expect from the people whose job it is to make sure our roads are safe and function effectively? Do we honestly spend tax dollars to send goofballs to be amazed by the newest doohickeys instead of attending lectures that can help them prevent loss of life? Are our public agencies really so devoid of intellectual curiosity and rigor that a warning about something that can cause bridges to collapse almost certainly wouldn’t cause you to “[do] anything with the information”?

Looks like our federal and state agencies were asleep at the wheel on this one. Someone may want to tap them on the shoulder to wake them up – the bridge is out up ahead.

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