GeotechSearch.com – New Geotechnical Search Engine!
Rockman's Ramblings
Problems with Comment Forms Now Fixed
I’ve told a few people this before, it seems like every time I try to fix something on this site, I break two more things. The latest casualty: The forms to add comments to GeoNews […]
Rockman's Ramblings
Problems with Registration and Outside News and Blogs
I just found out that there was a problem with the site that prevented new members from registering on GeoPrac. My appologies to anyone who got a permission error after filling out the registration form. I humbly invite you to try again at your convenience.
Additionally, the Outside News and Blogs page that I was patting myself on the back for has apparently not been visible to the public either. Great big oops on my end. 
It should be up and running now.
Thank you to Elizabeth at the ASCE Geo-Institute who took the time to let me know about both problems. Do me a favor and check out the new G-I News Feed blog that she maintains.
Rockman's Ramblings
Personal Reflections on I-35 Bridge Collapse in Minneapolis
On January 15, the National Transportation Safety Board released a safety recommendation letter report to the FHWA related to the I-35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis Minnesota that claimed the lives of 13 people and injured 145. The safety recommendations are based on the findings of an interim report from the FHWA Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center that some gusset plates, components of the steel trusses, were undersized (not thick enough). This deficiency was confirmed to be a flaw in the design and not construction-related based on review of the original drawings from the 1960s and inspection of the wreckage. Whether this was a calculation error or a drafting error will perhaps never be known as only portions of the original design calculations were located. But the point is that it was never caught by any reviewers.
When this event first happened back on August 1, I remember being very shaken up by it. After my initial sadness for the victims of the accident, my first thought as a geotechnical engineer was: “were the foundations at fault.†As more information came out, it quickly became evident that the failure did not have anything to do with the foundations but that it was related to the superstructure of the bridge. But this still was something that profoundly affected me. (Continues…)