It wasn't long after the fatal Minnesota bridge collapse on I-35 last summer that the liberal media jumped on the tragedy as a way to bash President Bush and the spending priorities of the Bush administration. Keith Olbermann suggested that Iraq war spending was to blame and Mike Barnicle, subbing for Chris Matthews on "Hardball" wondered if it gave Democrats political ammunition for growing the size of government.
Of course, this hardly was shocking for seasoned bias busters like our own Tim Graham, who noted parallels with media bias following a 1989 bridge collapse in San Francisco.
But now the investigation into the August bridge collapse is complete and it turns out that the seeds of the tragedy were planted in the 1960s when the bridge was built during the LBJ Era of massive social and defense spending with the Great Society and Vietnam respectively.
From a January 15 article by AP's Frederic J. Frommer:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal investigators have identified a design flaw as the cause of last year's Interstate 35W Minneapolis bridge collapse that killed 13 people and injured about 100, a congressional official said Tuesday.
The official, who was briefed by the National Transportation Safety Board, said that investigators found a design flaw in the bridge's gusset plates, which are the steel plates that tie steel beams together. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity so as not to pre-empt an update being provided later Tuesday by the NTSB chairman, Mark V. Rosenker.
Matthew Wald of the International Herald Tribune also noted inspectors who lay the blame on origin design, not a lack of proper maintenance.:
"This is not a bridge-inspection thing," said one investigator. "It's calculating loads and looking at designs." The investigator spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the investigators' findings before the announcement Tuesday.
Saying it was not clear whether other bridges might have the same flaw, the investigator said, "This could well be a one-off thing. But you don't know that."
[...]
The I-35W bridge was of a type called "fracture critical," meaning that the failure of any major member would cause a collapse, because it had no redundancy. The design is lighter and less expensive to build but has gradually fallen out of favor with highway departments. Investigators in the Minneapolis case said it took time to locate all the design information on the bridge, partly because of its age.Structural analysis is easier now, though, than it was when the bridge was built, because of the improvement in computers.
So it turns out that the bridge was poorly designed from the get-go and it took 40 years for that poor design to yield a tragedy. Not that I'd think it's appropriate or fair, of course, but something tells me I shouldn't expect to see Keith Olbermann issue an apology and then go on to rail against LBJ's profligate spending on the Great Society and Vietnam in a quest for a political scapegoat.
—Ken Shepherd is Managing Editor of NewsBusters
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Design flaw my Aunt Minnesota's big butt
January 15, 2008 - 15:10 ET by Lame CherryMr. Shep.........I seem to recall My 3 Sons on television in Steve being commended that all the engineers of that era over planned for everything..........Boeing built the 747 bomb and crash proof, Ford pick ups would bounce off of rocks..........and NASA built that Saturn V to blow the Apollo to Mars of it needed it.
Engineers did not make design flaws in the 1960's as they were still taught the World War II methods.......so therefore it goes back to my original scenario of some creepy liberal pocketing money some kickback thug using inferior Rosie the Riveter parts.
That bridge should have been built past stress parts like the Saturn Vand there is no way those engineers would have gotten away with thinner steel, so the alternative is back to square beginning in someone said they were putting high stress steel in and wonder of wonders someone put garbage in, covered it up with concrete, pocketed the money and died and sent his kiddies to greater stock profits.........as 100,000 in 1960 would be invested several hundred million today.
These modern kiddos in Congress and engineers do not know the history and how things work in real industry. Donald Trump should be investigating this as he knows all about corrupt payoffs and kickbacks in building.
*HIC IACET ARTORIVS REX QVONDAM REXQVE FVTVRVS
It's Bush's fault
January 15, 2008 - 15:19 ET by Chris NormanIt's Bush's fault retroactively. He should have known that bridge was flawed. If he had ordered a review on 1960's bridge design, this may have been prevented. Come on, it's all Bush's fault.
Right on!
January 15, 2008 - 15:52 ET by Cape Conservativeand, sad to say, we may just hear that bandied about in the coming days!!!! Heaven knows what/who is going to be the "catch-all" to blame once November gets here. Undoubtedly something/one Republican ;-) If they can't "pin the tail" on an individual, it will go on the party!
But Wait!
January 15, 2008 - 15:55 ET by OldSailor88LBJ = Democrat
Nahhh........You're right. It's Bush's fault.
Faciem durum cacantis habes
Wow, what a blanket statement..
January 16, 2008 - 06:50 ET by Jcon96Engineers in the sixties did not make design flaws? One or two come to mind immediately, the Apollo 1 design (no quick escape system)The Convair 880/990 (flaws too numerous to mention) The Edsel (speaks for itself) just to name a few. People make mistakes, and in this case I would chalk it up to just bad engineering, not to anybody lining their pockets, at least not anymore than is usual with government contracts.
Edsel a design flaw?
January 16, 2008 - 09:18 ET by rpkinmdI was under the impression that the Edsel engineering was outstanding. The Edsel problem was that the marketing did not match the engineering. The Edsel was way ahead of its tme in features, or said another way, a great engineering job.
COST CUTTING IS CULPRIT
January 16, 2008 - 08:06 ET by Der AlteI realize that everthing wrong in the world is Bush's fault. From asteriod impacts to paper cuts, W did it. But me thinks on this one he might have had help. If the design criteria was "lighter and less expensive" then that has to be the real cause of the failure. If thinner steel was used on the gusset plates and more weight is added to the structure then this kind of thing is bound to happen at some point.
Civil/structural engineering has a good track record when it comes to building things to last. The Brooklyn bridge is probably the best example. What was different there is that they overdesigned it so it would not fall down. If some project manager at that time wanted to keep costs down and had used less expensive materials then what happened in Minnesota would have happened in Brooklyn years ago. But even if it did it still would have been Bush's fault!
NO TRAGEDY LEFT BEHIND...
January 16, 2008 - 08:54 ET by danybhoyA couple of thoughts about the political football that is the 35-W bridge collapse...from someone born & raised in the TwinCities...
First let me adress BathTubBoy's dumb@$$ thought about Iraq war spending diverting money that could have gone to bridge repair. Our state budget comes out & the funds that are supposed to go towards transportation goes to everything BUT roads & bridges in the TwinCities. LightRail gets it's millions(thank you Jesse Ventura), & serves a few people, we get millions for bike trails in northern Minnesota, again serves a few people(thank you James Oberstar, D-MN-8th District), & millions more for road projects outstate, while nice to have, serves few people. The roads & bridges in the TwinCities gets the shaft on transportation funding because they don't fit into the agenda of the "smart growth" crowd. The money is there, BathTubBoy, the political hacks entrenched in St.Paul get it wrong every time.
As for the journalistic fraudster & plagiarist, Mike Barnicle. There is no need to push for a bigger gov't. Like I said about BathTubBoy's comments about funding, THE MONEY IS THERE, it's how it is spent. The last thing that should be expanded is the gov't, I know that being in Boston as long as Barnicle has he does'nt understand this, but the gov't (outside of the US Military, when allowed to do their job) does'nt do a damn thing right.
Maybe before the idoits at MSNBC go on the air with a story, actually look into all of the facts behind the story. BathTubBoy & Barnicle don't know a damn thing about the backround of the 35-W bridge collapse & the trouble with Minnesota transportation funding. But then again, MSNBC never let the facts get in the way of the story...or their agenda.
"Some of us are wise, some of us are otherwise" Mark Levin
Design flaw??
January 16, 2008 - 09:21 ET by rpkinmdI did not see in the report that the drawings showed the eight gusset plates in question as being undersized. It stated that they were undersized based on calculations. The calculations were performed because failure of the some of the gussets were noticed in the debris. Since checking the drawings would be easy and a normal step in the investigation, I am speculating this was a construction error that was undetected in building the bridge.
I would be easy for a artisan to grap the wrong material and make a thin gusset plate. It should have been caught in the construction inspection process but was not. Until the findings are reported that the drawings show the defective gussets, we only have a speculation that this failure was a design flaw.
One other possibility that
January 16, 2008 - 09:10 ET by FishFace222One other possibility that the dems could run with--the design flaw conclusion is a cover-up to get GWB off the hook.
LOONY LEFT...
January 16, 2008 - 09:19 ET by danybhoyThere must be someone on Kos/DU/MoveOn/ThinkProgress that has posted that very thing. Bush has blamed for all sorts of things, might as well blame him for the 35-W bridge collaspe.
"Some of us are wise, some of us are otherwise" Mark Levin
→ LBJ Bridge
January 16, 2008 - 10:05 ET by Cool ArrowIt isn't an accident that less than a week after Hillary praises LBJ that a connection between LBJ and a disaster is reported.
Looks like an MSM loves Obama plant to me.
Before last week, how many times during 2007 did you see news stories referencing LBJ?
I'm just sayin.
I ♣ My Seal
A Little Insight
January 16, 2008 - 11:25 ET by candanceSince I live in Minneapolis, I can tell you some details the nationwide media will not.
Last year when the collapse happened, yes the state government/spin machines immediately said no federal funding was the issue. Now the rebuilding part is going slow because - you guessed it - they're not getting federal cooperation.
However the state of Minnesota was proven to be running on a SURPLUS of like 2 billion dollars last year. To make things even more ridiculous, the state said none of that money could be used for DOT needs because all of it had already been promised to special programs. The state now refuses to cut the extra spending and says they might have to raise even more taxes to build a new bridge.
Last night when the local media talked about this report, they opened with "The NTSB found the cause of the collapse, now let's talk about other contributing factors." I kid you not.
A Little Insight
December 9, 2008 - 11:25 ET by 1611LilacLadyCandace -
Sounds like Minnesota politicians never heard about not burning their bridges behind them? (no pun intended)
Might have to raise taxes huh? That sounds like my state - NY. They built our thruway system and included toll booths which were only to last until the system was paid for . . then they would close them.
Now that the cost is more than covered more that 50 years later, how many toll booths were closed? 2 And that was just last year!
LBJ
December 9, 2008 - 11:04 ET by 1611LilacLadyHe couldn't run a country nor a war the right way . . what else is new about lieberals?