I-35w Mississippi River Bridge Collapse

NameCourseCourse InstructorDateI-35W Mississippi River Bridge CollapseAt about 9.00 PM on August 1, 2007, Bridge 9340 for I-35W over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota, collapsed. The deck truss bridge was built in 1967 with a deck width of 108ft., total length of 1907ft. and 456 ft. at the longest span of its unique steel arches. The design of the bridge was intended to avoid impediment of river navigation on the Mississippi river. At the time of collapse, the I-35W Mississippi River Bridge bore the load of rush hour traffic of about 50 vehicles and 300 tons of construction equipment and materials for repairs to deck paving, guardrails, and lights. The bridge collapse caused 13 deaths, 145 injuries, and damage to property.The proximate cause of the failure of I-35W Bridge 9340 was attributed to weak gusset plates but there are many underling issues to what led to the failure of the gusset platesCITATION NAS09 \p 1 \l 7177 (NASA 1). Structural IssuesBridge 9340 was designed in 1964 by Sverdrup & Parcel and Associates a St Louis engineering consulting firm. The bridge used warren-type deck truss design to simplify overall design calculations and cut on costs. A truss design bridge uses