kristoff wrote: Sat Aug 16, 2008 5:04 am The replacement bridge is nearly complete. It should be opened in about another month. The crews have been working 24/7 non-stop. It will have taken them about 10 months to build start to finish. It is also twice the capacity of the old one, is (hopefully) twice the strength of the original and will also include space for a lite rail line in the future.

Many preliminary reports have surfaced. The basic finding is that many gusset plates (which are the plates used to join together to or more girders or beams) failed, due to stretching and thinning from excess weight. The bridge carried far more traffic than it was ever designed for. At the time of the collapse, there was also several million pounds of construction materials and equipment on the deck - its surface was being patched and repaired (shoulda been doing the structure).

Several similarly built bridges around Minnesota have been closed with little progress toward repairing or replacing, save one or two. No money. Beyond the initial flurry of hysteria, though, not much has been accomplished in terms of bridge safety.

Riverwind (imported) wrote: Sat Aug 16, 2008 8:51 am Yes and on the political side, on lt governor that was in charge of bridge safety was fired. In total 13 people died, all things considered it could have been much worse. I know that a bridge with like construction was down in Hastings a few miles out of the twin cities and it has already been refitted.

Around in this part of the world that bridge is in the news weekly.