Inspection finds two bowed gussets on Inner Belt Bridge

Source: Plain Dealer

Two steel gusset plates, which connect some of the beams that hold up the Inner Belt Bridge, have buckled about an inch, while others have significantly deteriorated, according to a new state inspection.

Similar, yet more severely corroded gusset plates caused an Interstate 90 bridge over the Grand River in Lake County to fail in 1996. Four plates buckled on that bridge after crews sand-blasted them during painting preparations, and one section of the span dropped three inches.

Officials also suggested that stress on gusset plates might have played a role in the Interstate 35 bridge in Minneapolis, a similarly built span that collapsed and killed 13 people in August.

Even with the buckling, Michael Malloy, the ODOT bridge engineer for Cuyahoga County, said he doubts the Inner Belt Bridge poses a danger to the 119,000 drivers who cross it each day.

Read more: http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/119503336184980.xml&coll=2

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Like the 1-35 bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis, it was designed with deck truss construction. If one part fails, it all fails. Unlike the I-35 bridge, Cleveland's Innerbelt Bridge is very long, at least a couple of miles.

When we finish rebuilding Iraq
Can we start rebuilding America?

Don't worry....Be Happy....

Michael Malloy Michael Malloy Michael Malloy Michael Malloy Michael Malloy Michael Malloy

Maybe they will name the NEW bridge the Michael Malloy Bridge

We're the World's Only Superpower.

Our military/industrial complex needs every cent it can get, and The Leader will make certain it does.

Better learn to swim, America, or find alternate routes to the shopping mall.

A bridge built on capitalist theory cannot fail unless sabotaged by single payer health care wreckers!

:sarcasm:

--Steven Colbert

and we could stop funding the military/industrial complex as well.