35W Freeway Bridge Collapse

[frigilux]

YAY!! My friend's daughter is OK. She was near the bridge when it collapsed and pulled over to help, which is why we didn't hear from her til about 10 minutes ago.
What a freakin' relief! That was too close for comfort.

 

[alexb1186]

When I first heard of this I immediately thought of you Robert and thank god you weren't involved. I'm trying to find out how deep is the Mississip at that point but I'm coming up blank

 

[pdub]

Robert- Glad to hear you and Neal are alright. I tried to call my brother who lives in the Mpls. area and couldn't get through but he got ahold of me about an hour ago and let us all know he was OK.

I've been watching the KSTP coverage online and it's unbelievable. Who'd of thought anything like this would ever happen.

take care - Patrick

 

[sudsmaster]

Homeland Security has ruled out terrorism as a cause of the bridge collapse.

Three dead confirmed so far, that may go up, but I hope not.

On report says the traffic was bumper to bumper, going about 10 miles per hour, at the time of the collapse. Some 50 cars may have been on the bridge when it went down.

Looks like a steel structural failure at this point. I wonder if salt was used on the bridge roadway in the winter, and if that could have led to premature corrosion of key stress points in the steel structure.

Amazing.

 

[exploder3211]

Who else in in the minneapolis contingent?

 

[jmirawm]

Robert

Thankful that you and Neal are ok. Also to find out your friends daughter is ok Eugene. Prayers for all in your area tonight.

 

[exploder3211]

Am Glad Every one is OK so far... Robert and Neil and Eugene.. Am still stunned.. My sisters friend works near there as well and she and her kids drive this route daily.. No word from them yet

 

[Brent-Aucoin]

Chad thanks for the news link!
Robert glad to hear that you and Neal are okay.
I am just in shock at this! It blows my mind to see the footage!
Human Error...
I wonder if there was any deaths caused by this? I have not heard.
If not, what a blessing!
Brent

 

[roto204]

Thankful

I'm very glad that you and Neal are okay, and I hope that Don and our other Minneapolis friends are all right as well...

 

[frigilux]

The good news aspect of this is that the bridge was under construction and only one lane was open in each direction. Normally there are hundreds of cars, bumper-to-bumper on that bridge at 6:00 p.m. As calamitous as it is, it could have been so much worse.

This is going to have a huge, major impact on traffic in Minneapolis for months.

The 10th street bridge (I think it's the 10th street bridge---Robert of someone else may be able to confirm that) runs parallel to the collapsed bridge. I can only imagine the horror of what people on the 10th street bridge saw as the interstate bridge collapsed.

People who are at The Guthrie theater for a show called MSNBC. The new Guthrie is right at the collapse area. I was there on Saturday night to see Private Lives. The theaters are up several floors, so you look right over the interstate.

Seeing it on TV doesn't do it justice. That's an unimaginably large span of bridge that's down. I'm just glad all the lanes weren't open at the time. Part of the bridge collapsed on a cargo train which was passing underneath.

 

[gyrafoam]

Robert-----

I e-mailed Don Shier and John Eichinger and Chris.
LMOM for Weibel.

 

[saltysam]

Robert

Good to hear that you and your partner are ok. I just talked to my brother who also lives in Minneapolis with his partner and they are both o.k. He also works just minutes from this bridge but doesn't take it to go home......what a relief
Mark

 

[~sudsshane]

Eugene~

So glad to hear you are ok-- I will keep your friends daughter in my thoughts...Also, Don Shier, ( Jetaction) Has anyone heard from him? let us know you are ok Don...

 

[oxydolfan1]

To complicate matters, they are saying on Channel 5 News that bad weather is headed into the Minneapolis area...

 

[gansky1]

My mother called a while ago to make sure Robert, Don, et al were OK - we just got home right before she called so had no idea what had happened. Glad to hear everyone is OK so far, hopefully we'll hear from Don soon.

 

[toggleswitch]

Thanks for letting us know, Robert and Eugene and all.
Glad you are all safe.

Eugene:
Hoping all is well with your friend's daughter.

Scary how much life changes in two minutes.

 

[dalangdon]

some news from the source

KSTP is doing some pretty good coverage. Much better than the cable news blather. Star-trib is doing good coverage also, but they must be getting hit pretty hard on their website.

http://www.kstp.com/

 

[mayken4now]

I hope all will be ok. Woof, sigh, Certainly I will try to contact Don, John and Chirs. So glad Robert and Neal are in the safe part of all this.

We know how it feels here in Pensacola to go throught something of distruction.

Lets pray and keep faith they are good and ok.

Steve

 

[~sudsshane]

Watching live coverage right now of KARE-NBC 11..Boy, you guys are lucky to have Mike Pomerantz up that way. His reporting of the 9/11 attacks for CBS2 in NY was supreme.Top notch journalist... Very nice to look at also! =)

 

[rickr]

So glad Robert and Neil are ok, but my heart goes out to the others that may not have been as fortunate. What a horrible thing to have happen! Things such as this should NOT happen at all. I understand that the bridge was under repair/reconstruction. If there was even a remote chance of something like this to happen, the bridge should have been closed to all traffic. Who are the engineers responsible for this?