The immediate response is good to see, but it appears the inspections are quite a bit less than the normal ones done using equipment rather than just eyeballing it—though not to be discounted.
Inspectors poring over bridges in state, nation
By Deb Kollars - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Saturday, August 4, 2007
Bridge inspectors fanned out across California and the nation Friday, moving swiftly to carry out a federal order to examine all bridges similar in design to the Interstate 35 bridge that collapsed Wednesday in Minneapolis.
The California Department of Transportation dispatched nearly all of its 75 bridge inspectors, calling in several from vacation, to launch visual inspections of the state's 69 steel deck truss bridges, Caltrans spokesman Mark Dinger said. Thirteen are in the Sacramento region.
Among the first to be inspected was the dramatic Foresthill Bridge over the north fork of the American River northeast of Auburn. After several hours of climbing over, under, in and around California's highest bridge, Caltrans inspectors Anthony Fernandes and Tim Campbell observed no signs of trouble.
"They said that bridge is in super shape -- those were their exact words," Dinger said.
According to a federal inventory released Friday, there are 756 steel deck truss bridges nationwide, all of which were to undergo immediate scrutiny under the inspection order by U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary E. Peters.
Truss bridges, which were commonly built 40 years ago to span long distances, are a relatively unique type of structure. They are designed in such a way that if a defect or disturbance occurs in one location, it can cause the entire bridge to collapse.
Officials so far have not been able to determine what caused the I-35 truss bridge over the Mississippi River to collapse. Peters' advisory urged state officials to immediately inspect, "out of an abundance of caution," all such bridges to look for signs of stress, corrosion, fatigue or other weaknesses that might make them vulnerable to collapse.
