Actually, on the surface the Mississippi "looks" gentle; but it has one heck of an under-current because of the Lock & Dam system from Minneapolis to the Gulf. On top of all of that, a lot of cities have added regular dredgingand high floodwalls to protect themselves when "Ol' man Miss'decideds to throw of hissy-fit. I live on the Mississippi, down river where it joins Illinois and Iowa at the Quad Cities (Where you cross I-80, 74 or 280).

Our section of the river from just north of us at Princeton, IL to just south of us, below Muscatine, IA, actually runs East/West, instead of North/South. The reason is because of all the Lock systems along our portion.

In '05, the FDOT gave this a passing grade, BUT MnDot gave it a failing grade. The crux of the investigation is going to be on the under-girders; the girders that the surface is laid on. That's where the stress-fatigue was prominently noted in the MNDOT report.

The base pillars near both shore lines will be looked at too. The reason for this is that Lock & Dam 1 of the Army Corps of Engineers isn't too far up river from this. It causes a lot of churning and along with the undercurrent, it actually could've caused the scour you mentioned.

The Mississippi is like the old duck parable: Calm and peaceful on the top, but paddling and churning like the dickens underneath.

Hearing witness', it fell like a domino effect, which sounds very intentional. The concrete piers look fine, the steel beams appear to have simply folded unto themselves as if someone had taken a torch to a section and cut them. Obviously that wouldn't happen because it would take too long to cut every section so they all fall together.

First things they will look at are the anchor bolts in the piers and the piers themselves to see if they somehow moved at all. The deck resurfacing had nothing to do with this tragedy. A few bolts had to have given way, whether they were helped or not for this to happen.

No-we haven't had rain all summer long

t fell like a domino effect, which sounds very intentional.
:roll:

From the surveilance camera video that's out, it looked like the center section (the main span) fell straight down. It didn't look like it buckled whatsoever.

All I know is that I hate bridges even more now. I've never been a fan of any bridge that has any real height to it. I just hope I don't have to cross the New River Gorge bridge on US19 in WV anytime soon.

With underground utilities (water, sewer, steam, electric), roads and bridges, flood control management, and other major parts of our country's infrastructure failing at an increasing rate, affecting the lives of thousands of Americans and our very economy, it would be interesting to see how much we have spent rebuilding the infrastructure of Iraq over the past five years, wouldn't it?

You'd LOVE our Mackinac Bridge up here-It used to be the worlds longest Suspension bridge. You're Waaaaaaaay over the water with this one.

, it would be interesting to see how much we have spent rebuilding the infrastructure of Iraq over the past five years, wouldn't it?

:roll:
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I don't think he's trying to stir up something in the politics of the war, but rather focusing on the issue of how much money is being spent on other countries while our own country is starting to literally fall apart (infrastructure).

I can go across the bridges, but I tend to have a "slowdown" effect on them. I'll sometimes go a lot slower than I need to. I also have trouble staying in the right lane going across high bridges. No matter how hard I try, I always seem to be in the left lane (or in the center) of the bridge. I just don't want to see over the sides of the bridge.

I can cross them, but I'm not happy about it. At least I'm not at a point that I freeze up or anything.