About 6:00 PM Central Daylight Savings time a major span of Interstate highway 35W in Minneapolis Minnesota collapsed into the Mississippi river. This highway carries about 200,000 vehicles per day and approximately 50 vehicles are believed to have dropped about 60 feet into the river and vicinity.
Obviously I am all right but there are at least 3 other posters from this metro area and I hope they are all right.
I saw this and it is all over the news today. When I saw the vid it made me gasp with horror. We know at least 7 people that live there. I know I will be making phone calls today. what a horrible thing to happen. I heard there was a school bus that went in? Is that confirmed yet?
Hi Kriswest
Yes.
Nearly miraculously all the children have been saved. In fact I believe that the death toll will be in the mid twenties. Based on the situation I would have guessed that over 75 people would have died, but inexplicably, to me, the toll is very low.
For that I am very glad for those that are affected by this. I do hope it does stay a low death toll.
It reminded me of the California highway that collapsed. I had the heebie jeebies about massive criss crossing highways before, now I will be looking at all these things with a juandiced eye when I must use them. I imagine I will not be alone in that.
There are a great many bridges and highways that are aproaching half a century or more in age. Add to that thought : Most were built by the lowest bidder under stressfull time constraints. I look at the bridges and over passes down here and some look like they are counting their lifespans in months not years.
One can only hope the construction crews were locals and had pride in their work.
Catastrophes in one part of this country affects so many parts of it. My heartfelt condolences if it is bad for you and relief for those that found out they are not affected by this particular catastrophe. It all does make us one wierd huge massive strange extended family in a way.
Is this the same 35 that runs through most of southern Ohio?
Hi Kriswest,
Thanks for your condolences; I appreciate your feelings for those affected.
I too am beginning to wonder about the safety of many of the bridges around our country.
Your statement, “It all does make us one wierd huge massive strange extended family in a way†feels particularly true to me at this time.
Hi Mastriani,
No, this road is an interstate highway that runs north and south from Laredo Texas, on the Mexican boarder, to Duluth Minnesota at the western terminus of Lake Superior.
I live in the metro. I’m fine.
Hi sdwilson2002,
I’m glad to hear that you are alright. You were one of the three people I was thinking of. I think you live in Roseville which is relatively close to the bridge. However, if I am remembering this right, I think you work for Alliant Tech and as such you should not, on a regular basis, need to cross the bridge.
Another was Galactic Heart, though she lives in Stillwater and is unlikely to be in harms way.
The person I was most concerned with is Aporia, because if he exited the University of Minnesota from the north side, via University Avenue, he would almost certainly use the 35W bridge to go to Burnsville.
Anyway it’s good to hear from you.
Ed
Hi Ed3, I’m in Ann Arbor, Michigan at the moment and fine. I was home recently, and when home I do sometimes visit the U of M and cross that bridge, although usually I would come in via Washington Ave from the southwest. So I’m thankful I wasn’t there and that the death toll was relatively low.
I hope they figure out why it collapsed – according to wikipedia, there was an Mn/DOT report in 2006 of weakness in some steel joints on the bridge. This sure can’t help with the Twin Cities’ already unfortunate traffic situation…
Yipes, my son and his other half were stuck in traffic and would have been on that bridge if they had left 10 minutes earlier.
This collapse is heartbreaking. My sympathies to all the victim’s families, and the victims.
