MTFFL

I wonder what caused the bridge to collapse. Very sad and scary.

did your company design it???

What bridge?
Was it in Kerblakastan? Because I can't find any local news stories about it.

I heard on the news this morning that terrorism has not been ruled out.

Boo terrorism!

They said that it had not been ruled out, but that is was unlikely that terrorism had anything to do with it.

I also heard that the chief theory behind the collapse is that the problem was structural in nature.

So, David, with your knowledge of structural integrity, what could have happened?

It apparently was a brittle failure, which is not supposed to happen. When designing a concrete structure, concrete = brittle, the engineer must put enough steel in the concrete to let it start to deform and therefore give warning before failure. Too much steel in the concrete could also cause a failure without warning. But I don't think excessive loading was an issue. I don't know if the deck, piers, foundation or beams failed first. I think I heard that the bridge was built in 1967 and that would mean it was likely put together with rivets. They are more likely to fail due to repeated loads, fatigue, than are bolts. That is where I would look first, the connections, with such a catastrophic failure.

I take back everything I've ever said about you.

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll ... /708270364

"...170 Middle Tennessee bridges received inspection ratings lower than the bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis..."