NTSB Doing Its Job

While Steve Murphy and Company are sniping at Pawlenty and Molnau and even NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker for being a Bush appointee, NTSB is calmly and proficiently doing its job for the public.

The report on the St. Anthony bridge can be found here. Look at the picture of the bridge beams and gussets on page 14. Here is another diagram of the bridge. This report is complex, but I urge you to skim through it to learn a few things.

• Learn how little you know about bridges and forces and the dynamic interplay of forces.
• Look at the complex mathematical formulas in the report.
• If you can do the math, thank a teacher.
• If you can’t do the math, thank God that someone else can so bridges are built properly or can be analyzed to be inadequate.
• Realize that Steve Murphy doesn’t have a clue what he is saying when he retorted, ". . . the report is "not worth the paper it's printed on"."
• Realize that the NTSB has published the data and their reasoning for the bridge collapse so that any engineer can check it. If the NTSB is not right in their calculations, some engineer will find it.
• You know the NTSB checked and double checked and triple checked all their work.

Empirical evidence is extremely difficult to refute. Murphy doesn’t even attempt to deal with the facts. He just dismisses the report as worthless.

Based on this report the NTSB issued this press release. Missouri, the Show Me state, didn’t count the report to be worthless as Minnesota’s Senate Transportation Chair does.

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MoDOT Studying Minneapolis-Style Bridges

Statement from Director Pete Rahn In Response to Federal Findings

Missouri Department of Transportation Director Pete Rahn issued the following statement today in response to yesterday's federal report citing gusset plates (steel plates that connect the beams of a bridge's frame) as the probable cause of the Minneapolis bridge collapse.

Knowing what likely caused the Minneapolis bridge collapse is a big help to us, and I appreciate the quick work of the federal officials involved. We're using their recommendations in the study we've begun today of all 232 truss bridges on the state highway system - these truss bridges are the type that use gusset plates in the design. Any deficiencies we discover will be corrected immediately.

Read more....

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Hats-off to the NTSB for their work identifying the structural design flaw in the bridge. This is of such import that their preliminary report calls all jurisdictions to check the design calculations for this type of bridge in order to prevent similar catastrophes.

Hats-off to the NTSB for their calm and staid work in the face of the taunting, mocking, dismissive, unhinged left in Minnesota. The motoring public is served by the NTSB and not Murphy. When the final report is out, Murphy will still not realize he is out of touch with reality. In the meantime, don’t pay any attention to any of his ideas. His gussets have collapsed.