Bridge Analysis

MoDOT Completes Preliminary Study of Minneapolis-Type Bridges
156 Deemed Safe So Far, Remaining 76 Will Get Further Study

Preliminary studies of all Missouri bridges with gusset plates similar to the collapsed bridge in Minnesota are complete, with many already confirmed as safe, Missouri Department of Transportation bridge engineers announced.

Engineers are evaluating the state's 232 truss bridges.

Read more....

Missouri took the NTSB’s press release seriously as all jurisdictions were urged to do. Meanwhile, Oberstar tried to make political hay out of Rosenker’s preliminary findings. MoDOT Director Pete Rahn knows, in a real world, he must not ignore NTSB (to his own peril if a bridge collapses), but Oberstar has the luxury of politicizing the real world report.

Even Louisiana is following suit.

William D. Ankner, Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development Secretary designee, said the recent federal report citing the steel plates connecting the beams of a bridge’s frame as the probable cause of the Minneapolis bridge collapse caused Louisiana to check its own bridges more closely.

"After the Aug. 1 Minneapolis bridge collapse, DOTD bridge inspectors reviewed and analyzed the inspections of all truss bridges in Louisiana," Ankner said. "However, in light of the federal government’s findings I have directed DOTD engineers to begin an immediate review of the plate design of all similar bridges in the state.
___________________________________________

Isn't it amazing how engineers can read the NTSB report and take prudent action while a politician attacks the reporting NTSB chairman to try and score political points? Motives make all the difference in the world. Engineers try to preserve life and save themselves enormous embarrassment and culpability. Democrat politicians embarrass themselves trying to destroy Republicans who clearly are not at fault while not sensing any guilt whatsoever.

Somewhere in Missouri and Louisiana there certainly must be some Democrats among the engineers who knew they needed to take prudent action. Three cheers for Democrat engineers!

Duplicity

Isn’t it amazing how Oberstar and other Dems can denigrate a person’s ability and integrity if they are a Bush or Pawlenty appointee? Rosenker’s integrity is attacked because he is a Bush appointee. Molnau’s integrity is attacked because she is a Pawlenty appointee.

Oberstar is the senior Democrat on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and has oversight of the NTSB and its chairman, Rosenker. And yet Oberstar pawns himself off as a public servant when he takes Rosenker to task for his report, which obviously hinders the Dems cause. Oberstar wants us to think his motives are honorable while Rosenker’s and Molnau’s are political. Oberstar thinks he has a right to meddle in the process to get a report he wants. That right is reserved for Dems alone.

Nothing New

Rep. James Oberstar felt compelled to attack NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker to keep up the Democratic attack on the GOP for the bridge collapse. In a courtesy of hand-holding the Representative, Rosenker met with Oberstar to explain a few things that he seemingly could not understand by hearing and reading the NTSB report.

No new information comes from this meeting. The gussets were still undersized and the undersized gussets were not compromised by corrosion. See our previous post. According to MPR, "Rosenker said he meant only that the under-designed gusset plates didn't show signs of corrosion." We knew that from the NTSB report. See also the Strib report on the meeting.

Oberstar’s letter to Rosenker is in contrast to his official web site which has a press release that shows he had an accurate understanding of the NTSB report as of January 15 and a measured response to it. Oberstar knew all along there was nothing to be clarified by Rosenker. On his web site, he even praised the benefit of the NTSB’s report on the undersized gussets so all governmental agencies can review their bridges.

This duplicity is disgusting for it is pure pandering to show Big Daddy is looking out for us. Don’t expect an apology from Oberstar for trying to make something out of nothing. With the web available to all of us, it is easy to find this hypocrisy. Thank you Al Gore for inventing the Internet!

___________________________________________

Update

Read the New York Times article on the topic.