Minneapolis

MnDOT has released five documents on its website relating specifically to the I-35W bridge (bridge number 9340) which we have packaged into a zip file (35 MB). The files include an outside consultant review, a University of Minnesota Civil Engineering field report, two brief status summary documents, and, most troubling, a MnDOT "Fracture Critical" engineering summary which reveals in candid descriptions and shocking photographs the deterioration of many critical bridge elements. Here's my summary of the relevant parts of the documents, which we posted in our special Bridge edition of the Weekly Report last Friday:

A 299-page draft report prepared for MnDOT by the URS Corporation of Minneapolis entitled, "Fatigue Evaluation and Redundancy Analysis" for Bridge No. 9340, released July 2006.

Press Release: A Kitchen Table Conversation About Minneapolis and Its Future
Source: Center of the American Experiment
Moderated by Mitch Pearlstein
Center of the American Experiment
Directions

Noon to 1:30 p.m.
Thursday, July 12, 2007

Hilton Minneapolis
1001 Marquette Avenue South
Minneapolis

Peter Bell
Chairman, Metropolitan Council

Gary Cunningham
Vice President, Northwest Area Foundation

R. T. Rybak
Mayor of Minneapolis

Historian Barbara Dafoe Whitehead is credited with drawing a very useful distinction between "conference table conversations" and "kitchen table conversations." In severe shorthand, the former focus mostly on politics and policies, while the latter expand to include critical questions of culture, values, faith, and personal responsibility.

Please join us for a kitchen table conversation at which three of Minneapolis' most insightful leaders talk deeply about their city, especially about its young people, many of whom are flying, but far too many of whom are drowning.

Lunch will be served, of course.

American Experiment Members: $25
Non-Members: $30

REGISTER ONLINE
https://www.americanexperiment.org/register.php
or contact Peter Zeller at Peter.Zeller@AmericanExperiment.org

To register via mail please send a check or credit card information to:

Center of the American Experiment
12 South 6th Street, Minneapolis, MN 55402
(612) 338-3605 - (612) 338-3621