I have been following the I-35 bridge collapse for a while. Now it seems that the Federal Safety Investigators are close to publishing the final report, and the smoking gun is the design of the gusset plates, 40 years ago.
This bothers me. I have a hard time to accept that a design flaw was so critical that made the bridge collapse but not critical enough that allowed the bridge to function properly for 40 years. It also bothers me because it shows how long into the future liability, blame or responsibility follows design engineers. Imagine that you design a gusset plate when you are 30 years old, and in your seventies, somebody knocks at your door and tells you that you made a mistake, a bridge collapsed and you are responsible for the death of a bunch of people.
Obviously I am not saying that the investigation is flawed or wrong. I am sure they did their due diligence and they are sure that the gusset plates are the cause of the collapse. But the whole affair is making me think, and I do not like the conclusions I am reaching.
Maybe in 40 years somebody will knock at the investigator's door and will tell him that he reached the wrong conclusions and that the gusset plates were not the issue after all
This bothers me. I have a hard time to accept that a design flaw was so critical that made the bridge collapse but not critical enough that allowed the bridge to function properly for 40 years. It also bothers me because it shows how long into the future liability, blame or responsibility follows design engineers. Imagine that you design a gusset plate when you are 30 years old, and in your seventies, somebody knocks at your door and tells you that you made a mistake, a bridge collapsed and you are responsible for the death of a bunch of people.
Obviously I am not saying that the investigation is flawed or wrong. I am sure they did their due diligence and they are sure that the gusset plates are the cause of the collapse. But the whole affair is making me think, and I do not like the conclusions I am reaching.
Maybe in 40 years somebody will knock at the investigator's door and will tell him that he reached the wrong conclusions and that the gusset plates were not the issue after all
http://www.startribune.com/local/33308279.html
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