I-35W Mississippi River Bridge Collapse
| I-35W Mississippi River bridge | |
|---|---|
Bridge 9340 in May 2006
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| Coordinates | 44°58′44″N 93°14′42″W / 44.97889°N 93.24500°WCoordinates: 44°58′44″N 93°14′42″W / 44.97889°N 93.24500°W |
| Carries | 8 lanes of  I-35W
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| Crosses | Saint Anthony Falls/Mississippi River |
| Locale | Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Official name | Bridge 9340 |
| Maintained by | Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT) |
| ID number | 9340 |
| Characteristics | |
| Design | Continuous truss bridge |
| Total length | 1,907 ft (581.3 m) |
| Width | 113.3 ft (34.5 m) |
| Height | 115 ft (35.1 m) |
| Longest span | 456 ft (139 m) |
| Clearance below | 64 ft (19.5 m) |
| History | |
| Construction start | 1964 |
| Opened | November 1967 |
| Collapsed | August 1, 2007 |
| Statistics | |
| Daily traffic | 140,000 |
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 When a Bridge Falls, Retro Report
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The I-35W Mississippi River bridge (officially known as Bridge 9340) was an eight-lane, steel truss arch bridge that carried Interstate 35W across the Saint Anthony Falls of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. During the evening rush hour on August 1, 2007, it suddenly collapsed, killing 13 people and injuring 145. The bridge was Minnesota's third busiest, carrying 140,000 vehicles daily. The NTSB cited a design flaw as the likely cause of the collapse, noting that a too-thin gusset plate ripped along a line of rivets, and asserted that additional weight on the bridge at the time of the collapse contributed to the catastrophic failure.
Immediately after the collapse, help came from mutual aid in the seven-county Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area and emergency response personnel, charities, and volunteers. Within a few days of the collapse, the Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT) planned a replacement bridge, the I-35W Saint Anthony Falls Bridge. Construction was completed rapidly, and it opened on September 18, 2008.
The bridge was located in Minneapolis, Minnesota's largest city and connected the neighborhoods of Downtown East and Marcy-Holmes. The south abutment was northeast of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, and the north abutment was northwest of the University of Minnesota East Bank campus. The bridge was the southeastern boundary of the "Mississippi Mile" downtown riverfront parkland. Downstream is the 10th Avenue Bridge, once known as the Cedar Avenue Bridge. Immediately upstream is the lock and dam at Saint Anthony Falls, where Minneapolis began. The first bridge upstream is the historic Stone Arch Bridge, built for the Great Northern Railway and now used for bicycle and pedestrian traffic.
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