J

jimpappas

Well Known Member
Saw the news about the bridge collapse and immediately thought of you.

Hope you and yours are OK.

Best wishes.
 
Minneapolis Bridge collapse

I was just looking at Doug's Oshkosh photos when our daughter called to tell us about the bridge collapse. Our son-in-law is there for computer training. It turns out that he is okay. I then thought of all the Minnesota RV-ers in Doug's photos and said a little prayer for their safety. There will be many families affected by this tragedy and our thoughts and prayers are with them. You guys and gals check in wih us and tell us how you're doing.
Don
 
Hard to beleive....

I just got home from the airport and saw the news from Minneapolis....I grew up traveling over that bridge day after day....hopes and prayers for all involved!

Paul
 
A-OK, but geez...an MSNBC link? Geez. That hurts.

http://minnesota.publicradio.org

How 'bout supporting your local RVer? :D All OK here. I was in the newsroom putting the finishing touches on a 120-picture slideshow of the BBQ when it happened and I'm now working an all nighter (it'll be a 24-hour shift).

Son #2, an EMT, thought he was about to get sent over to the scene but the next shift came on.

In the midst of the tragedy, the emergency response plans were fanTASTIC, as near as I can tell. Not everything is FUBAR out there.

Appareciate the shout out.
 
Pete and Alex OK

My family crossed that bridge 6 times today, but never at the wrong time. I cross it twice a day on my commute. Traffic tomorrow will be fun. :confused:

I spoke to Alex Peterson tonight and he is fine, too. Will be interesting to see what the cause was.
 
MPR doing fine work - Thanks Bob

I was at the hangar waxing the plane tonight and the coverage by Bob's organization (Minn Public Radio) was wonderful. Proud to be a yearly donor -
 
Had our dinner plans not been cancelled at the last minute we'd have probably been crossing that bridge within 5 minutes either side of the time of the collapse. Scary.
 
Bob, I must admit my first thought on seeing that story last night was wondering where in relation to it you lived. Very glad you're OK.

b,
d
 
Bob

Bob,

Sorry I linked the wrong site :eek: I just grabbed the first one my access gave me.

Glad to hear all are OK so far.

Be well guys.
 
THOUGHT I heard on the news; that bridge was a privately operated toll bridge/highway. Anyone know if thats true? JW
 
Nope, YOU own it.

It'll be a political nightmare up here. The state's roads and bridges are taken care of by the gas tax, which is constitutionally dedicated to roads and bridges.

It hasn't been raised in 20+ years. The Legislature this year voted a gas tax increase but the governor Vetoed it with the usual charges of tax-nd-spend; not without merit, I guess, but the reality is you can't defer maintenance forever and try to make 1986 infrastructure work in 2007.

If you look at the picgures, there's still cars on the center section which is sitting, dry, in the river. I just heard the guy who owns the SUV on there. He says when the bridge collapsed, he grabbed his briefcase, LOCKED HIS DOORS, and got off the bridge.

Locked his doors?

that may be the safest SUV in America.
 
Why only 50 years?

I don't get it. I just heard someone who is supposed to know say that 50 years is about the life of a bridge. I have crossed bridges 2000 years old; I guess they don't know the rules. I cross a bridge almost every day that is 123 years old. Concrete properly made and cured will last many centuries. Could it be that there are some corners being cut here and there? I know of a dam that has 400,000 tons (at least) of gravel that wouldn't pass any inspection (dirty, wrong size, etc.) Just like in flying, improper preparation eventually leads to disaster.

I guess the "nice" part of all this is that after those 50 years, you normally aren't around to see the results of shoddy work, which is what I feel we are paying for. Politics should have no part in quality, but it must.

Bob Kelly
 
I don't know about 50 being the average lifespan of a bridge but this one is 40 years old and uses a design -- I'm not an engineer -- I understand wouldn't be used today. it sits on the Mississippi River and is constantly pounded by pretty wicked currents there.

It's pretty early to say there's wrongdoing; I certainly have seen no evidence of that.

But when's the last time you felt like calling your legislator to urge them to repair more bridges.

Meanwhile, just down the road from the bridge, the public is paying $400 billion for a new baseball stadium.

Bridges aren't sexy; no politician ever got re-elected for maintaining one.

This particular governor favored bonding (borrowing) to handle the state's road work because then taxes won't go up and he signed a no-new-taxes pledge. I dn't want to get into a political debate about whether there's wasteful government spending and all that (although I think there is), but we would never maintain our RVs the way we maintain our infrastructure.

And for good reason.

the thing that gets me about this is the poor folks who couldn't beat easy odds. What are the odds that your wife or mother -- like this family -- was going to be on a bridge a third of a mile long when it collapsed? Why her (or anyone)? Why then? Why there? That's the part that shakes you up. The utter randomness of the end of life.

On the day *I* depart this world, I'm looking forward to an explanation.

Cuz it really makes no sense. Maybe it is all just a giant crapshoot. Maybe not.

Sure makes the debate over the EAA (on the Rv list) irrelevant, tho. Sure makes everything irrelevant.
 
Bob Collins said:
Meanwhile, just down the road from the bridge, the public is paying $400 billion for a new baseball stadium. QUOTE]




I think you meant $400 million. Anyway, I agree the Mississippi is the "evil-doer" in this case, AKA Mother Nature.
Click to expand...
 
A little premature

I understand we will all have to wait for the reports as to what really happened here, and I shouldn't jump to any conclusions. I have just seen so much waste in building "things." At 16 years old, I had a part in the dam previously mentioned. I will feel really bad if it ever lets go. There was so much "wink, wink" going on in the name of profit. Columbus Indiana (near where I live) is well known for it's great architecture. Some years ago they built a jail with windows that could be removed!! One of their high schools leaked for years. The mostly steel post office is rusting away. In Europe, people are proud of their old buildings--here we brag about the new. We need a mindset of building to last. Sorry, guess I strayed a bit from the aviation theme of the site... I'll try to do better.

Bob
 
You must log in or register to reply here.