Re-routing of all public traffic on bridges under
repair should have been NTSB's recommendation in the
preliminary report issued yesterday on the Minneapolis
bridge disaster. Instead, a strange statement about
"issues with design" and paying close attention to how
contractors load a bridge during repair came out.
I'm pretty sure the NTSB knew within hours that the
bridge was loaded heavy on the Westbound side and I
can't help but wonder if any MNDOT people would even
get on the bridge it they saw and felt the sway the
road workers later talked of.
We may never know if MNDOT knew how bad the bridge was
during its final days, and we may never know if the
bridge road workers' concerns were heard by their
company officers and the MNDOT. What we do know is
that the whole bridge repair system at NTSB and MNDOT
fell apart long before the bridge fell.
I hope there is never another bridge of this design
under repair with public traffic on it. I hope MNDOT
and NTSB have learned their lesson about just turning
over a major bridge to a construction company without
first re-routing the public traffic. MNDOT and NTSB
can bring up all the "issues" about design they want
to, but with the public traffic goes MNDOT's and
NTSB's responsibility and liability to make sure the
public traffic route is safe.
If NTSB is NOW saying that a newly discovered design
"issue" makes this type of bridge unsafe during repair
then; at least, this design type of deficient bridge
must NEVER have public traffic on board again while
being repaired.
That begs the question,"What about all the other
deficient bridges that need repair?" Will the plans
for their repair undergo a good proper NTSB and MNDOT
plan and schedule review before the contractor does a
"fix the worst first repair job" according to his
time clock, schedule of equipment and labor usage?
I just hope that the Minneapolis type of bridge will
be flagged as one that NEVER needs public traffic
on it during major repair.
I guess we'll have to let different design types of
bridges fall before NTSB will go through the trouble to
think about re-routing all public traffic.
I sure hope the trial lawyers are making good notes on
this point. Hopefully the legal settlement in the
Minneapolis disaster will make officials think more
about what risk is acceptable during bridge repair.