Nobody could have known about the 35W by Corina Ciubotaru

The bridge collapse in Minnesota last week sparked a massive bridge investigation all over the United States. 1,160 bridges in the state alone are deemed structurally deficient as was the 35W but specialists say there is no reason to worry: this is just a standard term for the state of a certain bridge, and they can be in much worse state before being taken out of public use. In other words, there was no way of knowing the 35W would fall into the river beneath it on Wednesday. Furthermore, it was a non-redundant structure design, meaning that the whole structure would collapse if a single portion failed. While investigations continue and suppositions regarding the reason for this tragedy arise, attention turned to a construction company in charge of consolidating the structure of the bridge. NTSB investigators now wonder if closing half of the lanes had some effects on the weight distribution and the overall resistance of the bridge and are trying to determine the negative impact of the restoration work being done by Progressive Contractors Inc., the company in charge of the job. The bridge was supposed to be replaced in 2020 as it had minor wear and tear problems, similar to other bridges built 40 years ago. Even though three members of the deck truss were carrying higher loads than others, the bridge was considered safe but after this collapse, rules of bridge-building in America will probably be thoroughly evaluated. As the rules changed in the last 40 years due to flaws discovered in 60s bridges, some of them may be changed now to avoid such a catastrophe in the future.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070805/ap_on_re_us/bridge_collapse_contractor;_ylt=AiAwEkoPYYfJR4sQf0WGjcWs0NUE

by Corina Ciubotaru for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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