[Rhodes22-list] Political - Slim Bridges

[Steven Alm]

BTW, I found out tonight that a friend of mine was dating one of the people
killed.  Very sad.

On 8/10/07, Steven Alm <stevenalm at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Brad,
>
> Yes, there HAS to be political hay.  Bridges cost money and how much is
> determined by the politicians.  The I35W bridge was built in the sixties
> with sixties standards and there was no built-in redundancy which is code
> today.  It's possible that no mistakes were made.  The bridge was inspected
> annually and recommendations were made to improve it, but weight, lane
> closers, resurfacing, etc. are all routine.  One theory is that is was
> pigeon droppings, which are very corrosive to metal, in the box beams.
> Could be.  Others say it's a "perfect storm" of several factors.  But no
> matter what they find,
> Gov. Pawlenty has done a complete about-face on his "No new taxes"
> campaign.  Yeah, I know we're taxed to death here in MN and we've seen taxes
> for a new ball park for the Twins, the arts, libraries and so on but I want
> all those things too!  I'll gladly pay a couple more cents per gallon of gas
> if I can be assured this won't happen again.  We pay high taxes here and
> this a a great place to live!  Let's keep it great.
>
> Slim
>
> On 8/9/07, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Slim,
> >
> > It took the Strib less than twelve hours to take a tragedy and try to
> > make
> > some 'political hay' out of the event.  The last frigging thing
> > Minnesota
> > residents need is more taxes, for bridges or anything else.  I said I'd
> > get
> > back to you on this issue and now I am.  My brother left me a voice mail
> > within minutes of the I35 bridge collapse.  I'll paraphrase as closely
> > as I
> > can remember.
> >
> > "Bradley, remember the performance payments we talked about?  Here's
> > where
> > it bites you in the ass.  I'll bet you a hundred bucks they got too
> > aggressive in removing surface, used too much vibration, and got the
> > bridge
> > unbalanced by diverting all the traffic to one side without considering
> > the
> > original engineering limits".
> >
> > I'm betting on my brother.
> >
> > Brad
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>
>