The reporters have said the two outside lanes on the bridge were the lanes in use while repairs to the road surface was being done, and that's not true the inside two lanes on the Eastbound side (Eastbound maybe- the news has never tried to orient any of the land marks to the TV audience)while the two outside lanes on the Westbound side were in use.
Everybody says they can't tell what happened and it could be anything but in fact the way the bridge was loaded (heavy on the outside two lanes) let the bridge
twist and all it took was one main member to unload and fail. If you see photos of steel wrapped part way around a concrete footing,
as is clear in one photo, you can be pretty sure the failure happened close by. As for the sudden dust storm that seemed to start the failure, that was concrete under crushing pressure breaking unto dust. I think the repair to the road under surface was most likely needed because of the excess twist and play in the steel frame and when one steel member broke under the off center pressure the concrete deck and footings couldn't hold the large moments the twisting created. Once the twist broke one footing free the rest of the bridge went down quickly.
Well that's my idea about what happened but what makes me so mad is the reporters talk and talk and never "set the stage". I've never been to Minneapolis and I sure don't know what I'm looking at in a strange photo if I don't know what's East And West and all the photos I've seen on air so far have been thrown out for the shock value and not the information value. I saw some impressive footage of the last sections of the bridge to fall but none of the reporters told the viewers which way the camera was facing (toward the East bank I think) and I sure would like to know.
These "GREAT" new reporters today should go back to reporter school and learn how to think for themselves and learn how to really set the stage and maybe even learn how to tell an oft told lie from the truth.
Maybe the rest of us would get some real value from the commercial media if that were to happen?!