35W tragedy will be examined using a computer model

After the tragedy on the 35W bridge near Minneapolis last week, authorities are doing their best to find the reasons for the sudden collapse. The 40-year old bridge was built during an age of far less construction standards than we have today and due to its specific structure, the collapse could have been generated by a single small failure in any part of it. It is not the first bridge of its kind to collapse and after it was built in 1967, safety measures on this type of construction increased. Several inspections labeled the bridge "structurally deficient" and it was scheduled to be replaced in 2020, and at the time of the accident, a team of workers from a local construction company were in charge with repairing damaged pieces of the upper surface. We must keep in mind that this was the most used bridge in Minnesota and any construction work on it should have been done with great care. Now, U.S. authorities plan to create computer models to simulate the collapse in an attempt to see which part of the 35W was the most fragile. Next week, the debris will be cleared from the water to allow heavy ships to pass, but only after helicopters will take aerial shots of the site to allow the computer model to be accurately built. Given its importance, this bridge will be rebuilt using state money as agreed by the President, hopefully by the end of next year. The death toll is smaller than anticipated and most of the missing persons have been found.

related story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6932882.stm

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

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Edited by: Jana Kalicka