STUDY ON SOCIAL IMPACT OF THE I-35W BRIDGE COLLAPSE IN MINNEAPOLIS

Abstract

  We conducted a comprehensive study on the social impact of the I-35W bridge collapse through published documents by governmental and media organizations in the US. We find that the bridge collapse has not only caused direct loss including substantial loss of life, loss of road-user costs and Minnesota's economy due to the unavailability of the river crossing, but made far-reaching impact on the nation. First the collapse has raised national concerns about bridge safety. Diverse measures including special nationwide bridge inspections, publicity activities on the safety of bridges, rehabilitation or replacement of bridges more than before, a proposal for strengthening bridge inspection standards and processes have been taken to mitigate the concerns. Some specialists said that some of the measures have little improvement of bridge safety judging from some rationally-based criteria. The magnitude of the cost of these measures intended for the 600,000 bridges nationwide appears to be grater than that of direct loss derived from the specific one bridge, the I-35W Bridge.