It's been all over the news and I'm sure you've all heard about it by now.
During Wednesday evening rush hour in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the I-35W bridge spanning the Mississippi River collapsed, killing at least 4 (so far) and injuring 79 others. The death toll is expected to increase by at least 20-30 people once the cars that fell into the river are recovered.
Like others, I look at this entire tragic incident with utter disbelief and ask "How and why did this happen?".
According to Yahoo! News reports, the 40-year-old bridge in question had been given two (2) poor inspection reports over the past 6 years. The last inspection was conducted in 2005 and it concluded that the bridge was "structurally deficient". On a structural stability rating of 1 to 100, the bridge was rated at 50. For a 2001 inspection report on this bridge,
please click here. To see what the bridge looked like
before the collapse,
please click here for a picture taken by John Weeks.IIRC from my school days, getting a 50 out of 100 is an "F"....
A BIG FAT "F"!!! Knowing that the bridge was poorly rated on its last 2 inspections, why did the State of Minnesota's DOT officials not act on this matter sooner? Could it have been the typical "we ain't got the money to fix it right now" excuse? I don't know. However, it doesn't take a Ph.D. in civil engineering or a law degree to figure out that the Minnesota state government is going to be paying huge sums of cash not only to fix the bridge (with some possible Federal emergency funding as well), but to settle the potential plethora of lawsuits that will be coming their way. If you've ever heard the saying "pay me now or pay me even more later", well, y'all, "later" has come, and it looks pretty darn ugly.
If there is a lesson to be learned from this debaucle, it's that our Federal, state, and local officials need to be vigilant about protecting and maintaining our transportation infrastructure. Stress, strain, and age are much more likely to cause similar incidents nationwide than any possible terrorist threat. Again, it's a matter of "pay me now or pay me even more later". Let's hope and pray that such a tragedy never happens again for a long, long time.
In the meantime, please don't take the highways we travel for granted, and most of all, don't take those you love and care about for granted either. I thank God each and every day that I have my wife, my family, my friends, and you, my readers. Let those you love and care for know that you do and please keep the Minneapolis bridge collapse victims and their families in your thoughts and prayers.
That's it for now. Thank you for reading and please come back again.
