Bridge Collapse in Minnesota
Many Dead, Tens Injured, more Missing in Minneapolis Disaster
"One in seven bridges in the United States is functionally obsolete."
According to Clifford Comeau the leader of the Highway Needs and Investment Analysis Team within FHWA’s Office of Legislation and Strategic Planning. Excuses aside the nation must address this need to improve its infrastructure; but who is responsible?
The Accident
There will be hundreds of reports coming out the next few weeks about this horrible tragedy over the Mississippi River on I-35W in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St Paul. Of course speculation will abound and the final report by the NTSB will determine what the causes were. However, several factors are well known.
- The bridge was built in 1967, which means it sustained 40 cycles of Minnesota’s extremely cold winters and hot, thundery summers.
- The average life-cycle of steel bridges of that era is 40-50 years.
- The bridge had been labeled “Structurally Deficient” by Bridge Engineers.
- The bridge collapsed!
The Scramble
After accidents like this the immediate response is to make statements that will help comfort survivors but also remove speculation about blame. Within the first few minutes members of the media and government were asking how this could happen. "A bridge in America just shouldn't fall down," said Senator Amy Klobuchar. Yet as this video shows bridges do “just…fall down,” but there's always a reason.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty said the bridge was on a list of 70,000 to 80,000 bridges across the country that federal investigators classified as "structurally impaired." He said there is an additional 70,000 bridges across the country in a lower category, designated as "functionally obsolete."
U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said. "The rating [structurally deficient] was by no means an indication that the bridge was not safe.”
White House press secretary Tony Snow said "if an inspection report identifies deficiencies, the state is responsible for taking corrective actions."
Categories
There are very few categories for bridges as stated in the regulations. The bridge is either OK, structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.
Structurally deficient has an extremely large range of conditions for a bridge; ranging from something that may be delayed for years to something that mandates the immediate closure of the bridge. By definition from the Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration’s 23 CFR Part 650 RIN 2125–AE86 National Bridge Inspection Standards say: “If one of the three load carrying components (deck, super or substructure) of a bridge receives a condition rating less than five on a scale of 0-9, then that bridge is considered ‘structurally deficient’.”
Functionally Obsolete has a smaller, less ominous definition: “there is something unsatisfactory with the bridge geometry (for example, vertical clearance, width, railings or shoulders.)” It does not mean something is broken just it is a bridge “functionally” (its current use) “obsolete” (out dated.)
Issues
The statements from officials above contain some inaccuracies or misrepresentations. The governor attempted to imply that the “structural deficiency” category was better than the “functionally obsolete” category. This is simply not the case as represented by Federal Law.
The U.S. Transportation Secretary said that the category did not mean the bridge was unsafe; but conversely the category did not mean the bridge was safe.
The White House implied it is the responsibility of the state to correct deficiencies. According to the 1968 Federal-Aid Highway Act and the Code of Federal Regulations, the Federal Government is to “directed the States… [and] in those States or local jurisdictions where substantial NBIS deficiencies are confirmed, the State is to be notified that to avoid suspension of Federal-aid in the jurisdiction involved, one of the following actions is required: (1) correction of NBIS deficiencies….”
The federal government sets up the guidelines, mandated compliance and can withhold money if the states don’t follow.
