Secrets of the City

Prof. C. Ford Runge, a guy I once slapped down in a Star Trib op/ed, has a similar opinion.

I think this has been misreported and/or misinterpreted. This is NOT the NTSB saying the bridge fell down because these plates were too small. This was an announcement or warning of sorts for governments to heed when dealing with bridges and load calculations.

The chairman made very clear that the NTSB does not know what made the bridge collapse, or as he termed it “We don’t know what was the straw that broke the camel’s back.” He didn’t rule out any possibility, including excess weight on the bridge deck due to construction. In other words, it knows what broke – the gusset plates – but not why it broke on August 1, 2007, as opposed to why didn’t it break on any other day.

Moreover – and this was the point of the announcement – this was an unknown and unconsidered flaw in terms of load calculations, all of which revolves around the gusset plates being too small. The chairman said, I’m paraphrasing, that not knowing about the design flaw led to load capacity that was significantly less than calculated. He explained that structures are designed to hold much more load than anticipated, but unbeknownst to anyone with regard to this bridge, the actual margin of error was much lower due to the ill-designed plates. He then, again, made very clear that the investigation has not determined what caused the gusset plates to break.

Why announce that now? Because as their announcement states, it is something that warrants immediate attention. Hard to disagree with that. Imagine if another bridge fell down and was found to have the same problem, only for us to learn that the NTSB had known this for months without telling anyone.

Of course, the media immediately ran with this as being the cause of the collapse and transitioned nicely into goading politicians into sniping at each other about it, which then became the story, because that’s what matters most.

Well, bob, I can see how you would have done that because he doesn’t appear exceptionally bright.

The reason the NTSB announcement didn’t include matters of rust and corrosion is because the NTSB doesn’t know whether or not that played a role in the collapse. Plain and simple. The NTSB isn’t in the habit or throwing out possibility after possibility. It finds and reports facts.

I’m sure there’s a way we can blame the whoremongers, fornicators, and adulterers.

I think this has been misreported and/or misinterpreted.
Agreed. I was literally yelling at the tv when the announcement was on the news.

It didn’t help that the lawyer for the state and all the tv stations kept using the word “Why” to describe the findings. So it’s easy to see how people could be confused.

And I was taking notes during the press conference thinking, “There’s no way they’ll be able to communicate this.”

Oh, it is so back on, T-Paw!

I’m sure there’s a way we can blame the whoremongers, fornicators, and adulterers.

Not until after the RNC is over.

Kwatt,

Oberstar seems to be pointing to the NTSB Commissioner as responsible for pushing the gusset plates as the cause before the board has made a conclusion. Essentially saying while announcing the flaw in the gusset plates for safety reasons, the commish went too far by calling them “the critical factor.”

Oberstar wrote: “Such announcements undermine the process and create the potential for committing the board to conclusions which will be difficult to change if the subsequent investigation suggests other possible conclusions.”

In other words, stop providing political cover and go find and report the facts.

The chairman made it crystal clear what he was and was not saying. He did not push the gusset plates as a cause. He said they don’t know the cause. They know there was a major design error that compounded itself with regard to load calculations and other things, but whether or not any of that is what made the bridge fall, they don’t know and he said as much. Many times. To discern that he did takes ignorance or intentional misrepresentation of what he said.

Certainly no politician would ever be ignorant or intentionally misrepresent anything, especially when there are fingers to be pointed.

To be fair, kwatt is right:
I want to make it clear that we have not yet determined the probable cause of the accident, but there has been a development that I want to share with you today. We are issuing a safety recommendation to the Federal Highway Administration, which will be available at the conclusion of this conference and will be placed on the Boards website shortly.

However, he could’ve offered a bit more clarity in the body of his remarks. Or just said something to the effect of, “There may have been a problem with the gusset plates on the bridge — they seem to have been too thin for the load requirements. Other similar bridges should confirm they are suitably gusseted.”

Instead, what he did was remarkably similar to saying, “Allow me to make this clear, I’m not saying I’m gay. I’m just saying I like penises.” So I can understand the confusion.

And I think the story should have been centered around the safety recommendation. I mean, that’s a big deal. Instead it immediately devolves into nonsense hype and BS that serves zero public good. In the end, this will probably completely upend the way bridges are inspected and calculated and stuff, but we’ll be too busy foaming at the mouth to notice.

btw – props to rich for “suitably gusseted”. Sweet.

I’m sorry. Oberstar is the reincarnation of former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani. This DFL establishment hack is tying the 35 W bridge disaster to his next re-election bid for this year. A total human exploit on death!!!

Maybe the bastard should use a repeat mantra for his lemming supporters: a noun, a verb, and the 35 W bridge.

But at least I hope the Twins enjoy the stadium we’re helping to pay for! Yaay baseball! Wait… there are more bridges with problems? Oh.

Uhhhhmmmm… well… yaaaayyy baseball!

Bikin’ Jim Oberstar, career liberal politician, is rightly in the crosshairs now that his diversion of millions in transportation infrastructure (read: repairs) to build silly little bike paths is going to be front page news.

The Strib has kept it rather well buried to date.

Throw the bum out!

He’s deplorable.

scrw it. It was ME. It was all my fault.

I was jumping up and down on the bridge, having read all the reports and I KNEW HOW DETERIORATED the bridge was. AND I ORDERED THE MEN TO KEEP WORKING.
KEEP JACK HAMMERING.
KEEP IT OPEN.
MWAHAHAHAHAH

Then I STARTED JUMPING up and down, causing a resonant cascade which brought down the bridge.

It was MY FAULT and I could have never done it WITHOUT those reports. Thanks MDOT, you are among gods.

What’s deplorable, bud, is using this tragedy to make political hay.

You can no more link the bridge collapse to bicycle paths than you can an attack by men from Mars.

I agree.

I am just correcting the fools who try to pin this on Pawlenty and carol Molnau.

It’s a design flaw. Bad things happen. Granted.

It MAY have been corrected if Bikin’ Jim Oberstar was doing his job as House Transportation leader, the position MOST responsible for FUNDING repairs to existing infrastructure.

Instead, career liberal Bikin’ Jim was earmarking money for bicycle paths in Northern Minnesota!

The hysteria demonstrated by DFL buffoons (Steve Murphy is Witless Buffoon #1) trying to lay the “blame” on the current local administration is ludicrous.

No wonder Bikin’ Jim is peeved at the NTSB.

Build a shitty bridge, then don’t give it the maintenence it requires for the next forty or so years and it falls in the river. Why is that so hard to believe.

Yup, it was LBJ’s fault for approving that shitty design back in 1966.

I imagine a selection of gussett plates sitting on Johnson’s desk in the Oval Office.

“So you’re telling me the half-inch ones are thick enough?” Johnson asks in Texas drawl.

“Yes, Mr. President.”

“Well, you boys are the engineers.”

Little did he know.

Even then engineers failed to factor Global Warming into all their calculations.

Little did they know.

The Rat: “I imagine a selection of gussett plates sitting on Johnson’s desk in the Oval Office.”

And that was the last time there were any gussets on the desk of the Oval Office for almost 30 years.

I’m also thinking that “oval office’ would be a great euphemism for something. But I am also pretty certain that I can’t be the first (or probably the 50,000th) to make that observation.