Oberstar: Bridge inspections will change

 The National Transportation Safety Board's finding that a design flaw likely caused last year's collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis will change the way all bridges are inspected, said Rep. James L. Oberstar, chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

   The NTSB said last week the probable cause of the collapse was the inadequate load capacity of the bridge, due to a design error in the gusset plates, which failed under a combination of substantial increases in weight due to modifications of the bridge, traffic and concentrated construction loads on the bridge at the time of the accident.

   This will change all bridge inspections in the future, Oberstar said. Inspectors will now have to go back to the design of the bridge itself, to review the engineering documents. They can no longer assume that the bridge was properly designed.   The 40-year-old bridge collapsed on Aug. 1, 2007, killing 13 people and injuring another 145. Oberstar's office said it is estimated that there are another 740 bridges of similar age and design in the United States. 

Source: American Shipper