Bridge Collapses over Missisippi River in Minneapolis-cars fall into the river.

[Crunk415balla]

MINNEAPOLIS — A freeway bridge spanning the Mississippi River collapsed during evening rush hour Wednesday, sending many cars into the water.


Tons of concrete collapsed and there were injuries, authorities said. Survivors were being carried up the riverbank.

http://www.theheraldbulletin.com/local/local_story_213194821.html

Its live on CNN right now, my realitives over there called me to tell me about it, MSP area news is claiming "many" cars fell into the water. A tractor trailer also caught on fire somehow. No word on deaths, but a schoolbus was on the bridge, didn't fall in, but kids were injured.

I've been over that bridge many many times, I can only imagine how horrifying it would be to be driving along when all of a sudden the bridge collapses. I hope no one was killed, but some of the cars look pretty mangled...

[Jerrycobra Boeing]

it looks pretty crazy, lets hope no one died

[JordanD]

damn. hopefully everyone gets out of this ok but from those pictures it doesn't look too good.

[Tanner_J]

That sucks...one dead. Bumper to bumper traffic.

[B757300]

Up to six now confirmed dead.

[pkonowrocki]

And at least 10 kids from the banana bus were taken to the hospital. I'm watching it live now and they say they have rescue workers and divers searching the area for injured.

[Crunk415balla]

Up to 6 dead? Damn...one angle showed several cars utterly crushed by a portion of the bridge hitting them. I hope they don't find any more bodies.

[pilotgolfer]

9 confirmed dead now.

[DAL767-400ER]

RIP to the victims. But wtf happened to that bridge? It looks like it just disintegrated. Shoddy work?

[pilotgolfer]

Death toll has been lowered to 4 this morning.

[JordanD]

RIP to the victims. But wtf happened to that bridge? It looks like it just disintegrated. Shoddy work?

I read somewhere it was built in the 1960's. I guess a combination of age and heavy use had something to do with it. Cnn is saying 20-30 missing and the death toll is expected to rise.
There's a bridge down here that hasn't been painted in years (they had to stop 7 years ago because of some scandal or something) and the thing is covered in rust. Honestly it scares me crossing that stupid thing.

[Crunk415balla]

Good to hear 4 victims as opposed to 9, but that is still 4 lives gone.

I do hope that the missing turn up!

[Leftseat86]

Rust isn't bad for a bridge like this, it actually prevents the metal underneath from corroding further, but fatigue is a big problem, especially with the welds. A few of us on another board are wondering whether possible heavy equipment used for the resurfacing project might have tipped the balance or started the fatal failure.

[brianw999]

Here in the UK we're hearing of an inspection a couple of years ago that scored 4/10 for the safety of the structure.

In the litigious world that is the USA these days I'm astonished that that bridge was allowed to remain open !

RIP, an awful tragedy.

[JordanD]

I saw an article that mentioned that bridge scored only 50% on a reliability test a couple of years ago. Crazy...