Design Flaws: The Other (Minneapolis) Shoe Drops

Conservative blogger Ed Morrissey (hat tip: Robinson/Long) writes in justifiable outrage over the liberals in Minnesota who raced to the politically convenient (for them) conclusion that the bridge collapse in Minneapolis was the result of lack of funding for proper maintenance. The actual cause of the collapse, as reported in Sunday's twin cities Star-Tribune, was a set of design flaws that made the bridge incapable of withstanding the weight of two renovation projects. Morrissey blogs with understandable dudgeon:

Early on, the information gleaned from around the country pointed to inadequate gusset plates and a design mentality of the era that eschewed redundancy in favor of sleekness. The answers were at the ready for anyone who wanted to find them -- which obviously did not include DFL leaders in Minnesota.

Of course, it was primarily conservatives--some of whom comment on this very blog--who were quick to assume that corruption in Louisiana prevented proper maintenance of the federal levee-floodwall "system" that failed three years ago in New Orleans, and who refused to acknowledge the three independent engineering investigations which concluded, with initial reports coming as early as October, 2005, that fatal design and construction flaws, not a lack of maintenance, were responsible for the near drowning of a major American city.

So both sides would prefer not to confront an uncomfortable fact: something in our system of providing for major infrastructure has gone terribly wrong sometime during "the American century."

Comments

[DarthVector]

Less money for bridges is more money for bombs.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Let's hope that the trend reverses, starting next week.

At $566 billion (rough direct cost of Iraq Nam to date as of this writing), that's roughly 566 MAJOR infrastructure projects at $1B per.

The entire Big Dig (Boston) cost $15B. Remember when THAT sounded expensive? We could have had FORTY of them.

The largest ongoing civil engineering project in the country right now -- NYC's Water Tunnel 3 Project -- is $6 Billion. We could build a HUNDRED of them for the cost of the Iraqupation.

Building a high-speed NE rail corridor? $30 billion. Give me TWENTY. (Doesn't even consider benefit to reduced airport and air corridor crowding.)
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2007-07-11-amtrak-high-speed_N.htm

Modernizing the FAA? $15B. I'll take FORTY.
http://www.oig.dot.gov/StreamFile?file=/data/pdfdocs/WEB_ATC_Mod_4-14-08_Final.pdf

Recall for scale that No Banker Left Behind was $700B -- even BEFORE $100B of pork. Impact on the stock market? Zero, apparently.

http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home

A trillion here, a trillion there, pretty soon we're talkin REAL money.

(Apologies for riffing at such length off of the prior comment's poetic pithiness.)

[DarthVector]

Never fear. I open the gate, you close the sale. Peace. :^)

[Bienville]

Huzzah! ; )

All excellent points.

The best economic stimulus is always infrastructure improvement.

Every agency I know has plans on the shelf. They could bid within a few weeks or months.

[jeesonus]

This is why I love Harry Shearer: there is no knee-jerk extremism, just logical observation. We can play "us vs. them" to perpetual stalemate, but in truth sometimes we are ALL to blame, and more often than not the solution is in transcending party lines and ideologies. When Shearer isn't being brilliant he is painfully funny... check out his radio show.

[DarthVector]

I await the Derek Smalls solo album with glee.

You are right. Harry, you're a true legend. Comically, intellectually, and emotionally.

[Tags]

At least they didn't blame it on "driver error."

Yet.

[NunzusCaesar]

More info on deformed gusset plates:

http://www.startribune.com/politics/33340314.html?elr=KArksi8D3PE7_8yc+D3aiUo8D3PE7_eyc+D3aiUeyc+D3aUU

A particular comment posted on Mpls StarTribune

"The inspection process was flawed as well

As a structural engineer, I don't disagree with the NTSB findings but hope they will go further with regard to inspections. Its quite ¦ read more plausible that an underdesigned gusset plate could have this effect on a fracture critical structure, but given the photographs of a deformed gusset plate during inspection it is inconceivable that no action was taken - gusset plates are not ever designed to deform. If no action is taken given such glaring evidence before the collapse, why even inspect these bridges? To give the public a false sense of security that our infrastructure is sound - because they were inspected - is shameful and should result in MnDOT thoroughly reassessing their inspection program and the qualifications of inspectors as well as MnDOT managers who review these findings and then put them in a file cabinet with no action."

[customgreen]

As someone who was a part of a bridge inspection team (construction industry proffesionals) along side NYSDOT engineers and manufacturers what we saw was disturbing. This goes back nearly 20 years, and for the most part the state took our findings seriously. Rotting steel, crumbling concrete, piers that were cracking, all done with active roadways above. It gives you a whole new respect and awareness of what you are putting your trust in. Design flaws exist and should be corrected, but at the same time what can now be called a design flaw, could at the time be withing standards. It is a far different measure in northern climates than southern climates. Freeze thaw, salt, and and potholes that are hit causing severe jarring work against these structures. Any decent inspector, or state official should have flagged the bridge as structuraly unsafe. Either a reduced load with weight limits, or emergency shoring or some other temporary measure might have avoided this collapse. Regular inspections are an absolute must and recomendations should be taken very seriously.

[NunzusCaesar]

The flaw in Harry's article is that this bridge, 2.5 miles from my driveway, had been scoring "deficient" on inspections since 1993. And always the action plan was to continue inspections. Further, MNDOT has photos, going back several years, of bulging and deformed gusset plates.

An "accident" occurs through a chain of events and factors. Break the chain, and you can avoid the disaster. Every indication is that MNDOT had evidence of problems with the bridge, yet neglected to break the chain.

[Harry Shearer - Huffpost Blogger]

And had there been similar oversight of the Corps' work on the "Hurricane Protection System"--called "a system in name only" by the Corps' own belated mea cupla--similar early warnings would have been available, since many of the decisions cited by the investigations were made two or three decades ago....

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

To split a fine hair... if the original design could hold up its own weight, so to speak, but the weight of the renovation projects was the problem, then WHICH set(s) of design engineers should be chided?

(My vote? ALL of them.)

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Huzzah.

~ Registered Civil Engineer

[Stuart]

The problem may not be the result of the engineering work, but faulty management of that work.

It happened at NASA, where in 1986 engineers tried to warn about O-rings before launch and potential foam damage before re-entry, 17 years later.

THe Corps of Engineers has done a better job of keeping its design process for the New Orleans flood systems from public view, but enough evidence has been accumulated independently to show that the same kind of management flaws were in play.

Engineering has unfortunately lost its cachet in this country, where it is not a profession that promises great rewards for success. America's best and brightest have been nudged toward law, medicine, and the MBA track in favor of technical accomplishments. Tulane, Lousiana's premiere university that saw its faculty and student body dispersed by the Corps' failed floodwalls, nonetheless decided to drop its engineering school at a time and place where engineering will be a core component of recovery.

To today's engineers, Dilbert's frustrations are almost too real to be funny. As long as upper management continues to value financial acumen over deep technical knowledge, I fear that more disasters will be coming.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Goddamn right!

Unreal the number of times that I, in engineering management of large scale public works, have found myself in the minority in a meeting.

~ Licensed Civil Engineer, MBA

[HoppinHill]

It wasn't just conservatives who fed the myth that corruption in Louisiana caused the catastrophic flooding. All of the American media - I repeat all of it - has fed the "blame the victim" myth because it was what America wanted to hear.

America - especially our members of Congress - did not want to hear that the federal government is overwhelming responsible for the worst engineering failure in the world since Chernobyl.

[CrackerJacker]

Agreed. I wonder though how many members of local, state and federal government would bitch about this being "Big government" to score points with conservatives.

[CrackerJacker]

Nuts. What I meant to say was that 'I wonder though how many members of local, state and federal government would bitch about this being "Big government" to score points with conservatives', in reference to the plans to rebuild the national infrastructure.

Apologies for that, I was half here and half in a legal argument over gun control on Gizmodo.

[raker]

What conclusion do we draw? What's the cause of these engineering failures? Is the problem government bureaucracy, or is it inept engineers? Has the Army Corps been FEMA-ized with cronies and yes-men, or is there a different fundamental problem? I wonder what the Corps would say is at the heart of the problem, and if their version is credible. Are the specific shortcomings that led to the flooding of New Orleans the same kinds of problems that led do the highway collapse in Minnesota? Is right-wing venality or left-wing venality part of this problem? And how did the levees and highways get built without conscientious engineers seeing the danger and blowing the whistle? So many questions.

[gracieloufreebush]

Or, could it be the selection of the "cheapest bid"?

[slemay]

We not only need to repair the existing infrastructure, we need to begin now to develop the infrastructure for the future. Eisenhower had a vision, a vision that worked for several decades. Based on our current geo-political situation, that same infrastructure won't take into the future.

Fill in the potholes and prevent disasters like the bridge, but also give us what's next.

[breakingpoint]

I think the words political party means blame the other guy.

We have to start pulling it together fast and get to a point of American's We or We the People are going to end up living with a Banana Republic up our back ends.

We need to utilize the best parts of these two parties in a hurry
R- get'er done for a fair price.
and
D- watch'er so's she's doin' it right.


"A house divided against itself cannot stand"
-Lincoln

[LoRiseAntlers]

You haven't been paying much attention to all those R's who like letting their cronies doing it with the cheapest material at the highest rates the last 7+ years.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

D-itto.

[MatoSka]

Investing in infrastructure is not a cure to the current economic crisis. It is a demonstrated need for the effective and updated environment in which the economy can function day to day. This means that when schools, technology, mass transportation, resource management, energy production and flood control are woefully neglected, it is no longer possible to presume business as usual in any sense of the word.

"The American Society for Civil Engineers (ASCE) has called for a vast array of improvements to the nation's infrastructure. The group put out a report card in 2005, prior to Hurricane Katrina and last year's bridge collapse in Minneapolis, and gave the condition of the U.S. infrastructure a "D." ASCE plans to issue another report card next spring.
"Since 2005 when we did this, the nation has not made considerable headway in any of the categories," said Casey Dinges, a managing director at the ASCE. "I would be hard-pressed to see how the grades would improve."
"ASCE is calling for the nation to spend $1.6 trillion on improvements. That includes $39.5 billion to be spent on airports during that time, $300 billion on bridges and roads, $10 billion on dams and levees over the next 12 years, and $1 trillion in drinking water and wastewater system improvements over the next two decades."

[glitz]

Don't you realize that if all these issues were solved, they couldn't be used for the next election's stump speeches?