PrairiePundit

AP /Houston Chronicle: A design error led to undersized gusset plates used in the Interstate 35-W bridge in Minneapolis, which collapsed last year, killing 13 people and injuring 100, the National Transportation Safety Board said today. The agency stopped short of saying the gusset plates caused the collapse. NTSB Chairman Mark V. Rosenker said the gusset plates, which connected steel beams, were roughly half the thickness they should have been. Investigators found 16 fractured gusset plates from the bridge's center span, he said. Rosenker said the agency's investigation found no evidence that cracking, corrosion or other wear "played any role in the collapse of the bridge." They also found no flaws in the steel and concrete material used in the bridge. The Minneapolis bridge was a steel-deck truss bridge that opened in 1967. Rosenker said it wasn't clear how the design flaw made it into the bridge because investigators couldn't find the design calculations...

Houston Chronicle: Fourteen of the more than 2,000 state-maintained bridges in Harris and adjoining counties are classified as "structurally deficient," but all are open to traffic and safe to drive, Texas Department of Transportation officials said Thursday. And Jon Holt, assistant bridge engineer for the department's Houston District, said all the bridges are scheduled for repair or replacement. Rated least sufficient among them is the Brazos River bridge on FM 521, just outside Brazoria. That aged span, built in 1939, is a rarity in the Houston area — a steel truss design that still carries traffic. Its design is similar to that of the Interstate 35W bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis that collapsed at rush hour Wednesday, killing at least four motorists and injuring 79. Federal officials alerted states Thursday to immediately inspect all bridges similar to the Minneapolis span. The Brazoria bridge is the only one fitting that description in the Houst...