I-35W Bridge

I-35W Bridge

Introduction

The National Management System gives the proper format and the correct template for the administration of firms on all administration levels. They give a proactive and precise approach to managing all divisions, bureaus, all levels of government, non-legislative conglomerations and the private division to work together in counteractive action, security, reaction, recuperation and relief of the impacts of occurrences, paying little respect to reason, measure, area or many-sided quality with a specific end goal to lessen the misfortune of life and damage to nature. The National Incident Management System works together with the National Response Framework. While the NIMS handles the administration of occurrences, the National Response Framework (NRF) gives the structure and components for national level strategy for occurrence administration. The focus of this paper aims at presenting critical NIMS report on the collapse of Interstate 35W Mississippi River Bridge.

Discussion

Background

The Interstate 35W (I-35W) Mississippi River Bridge was built in an area to the east of Minneapolis, which has been well developed for more than 160 years. The first commercial activities in the area began in 1848 one mile north of the bridge at Saint Anthony Falls, and gradually turned the area into a local commercial hub. This has, over the time, led to construction of bridges and dams over the river. The environment of the southern abutment of the bridge is an eight- acre wooded estate, which was used primary by the gas works of the city of Minneapolis, 90 years before the bridge was built. The bridge had a long history of industrial use, which also resulted in the contamination of the soil under the bridge with toxic substances. Over the time different segments of the society raised their voice against the issue and a debated started over the cost of removing this industrial waste. The dispute lasted until 1991 and eventually 15,000 tons of contaminated soil has been removed from the area under and around the bridge. The cost of disposal amounted to a total of around 30 million U.S. dollars and the work has been completed between 1993 and 1998 (Stambaugh & Cohen, 2007).

The I-35W Bridge was a steel truss bridge built in 1967 that linked the district in Minneapolis Downtown East and Marcy-Holmes. The bridge was 581 m long, 33 m wide, 19.5 m high above the river had four lanes in each direction, and according to the Minnesota Department of Transportation there has been an average of 141,000 vehicles crossing the bridge per day (Stambaugh & Cohen, 2007).

Construction and Maintenance

The two main pillars of reinforced concrete of the bridge were located on the banks of the 119 m wide river. The superstructure consisted of a 323 m long, hunched truss construction with a maximum span of 139 m. The bridge was an important road link over the Interstate 35W. Because of the cold winter in Minnesota ordered the bridge since 1999 on a de-icing system. At temperatures that allowed for the formation of ice on the road surface, is potassium ...