Slog News & Arts

Line Out

Music & Nightlife

« Media Mountain (for Charles) | Slog Poll Results: America is ... »

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

The Birds

posted by on August 22 at 17:00 PM

There’s a new suspect in the bridge collapse in Minneapolis

Pounded and strained by heavy traffic and weakened by missing bolts and cracking steel, the failed interstate bridge over the Mississippi River also faced a less obvious enemy: pigeons.

Inspectors began documenting the buildup of pigeon dung on the span near downtown Minneapolis two decades ago. Experts say the corrosive guano deposited all over the Interstate 35W span’s framework helped the steel beams rust faster.

Although investigators have yet to identify the cause of the bridge’s Aug. 1 collapse, which killed at least 13 people and injured about 100, the pigeon problem is one of many factors that dogged the structure.

RSS icon Comments

1

well, i heard that pigeons are the reason no wmds were found in iraq. muslem pigeon shit is SO much more corrosive than anglo pigeon shit (due of course to more acid build up in their pigeony systems caused by their intense muslim pigeon hatred of our glorious freedoms). the wmds were stored in muslim pigeon filled warehouses, and their corrosive shit corroded those darm wmds to dust! yes! blame the pigeons!

Posted by adrian! | August 22, 2007 5:29 PM
2

Pigeons?

More like overloaded double-wide cargo trucks.

Try again.

Posted by Will in Seattle | August 22, 2007 5:37 PM
3

What utter bullshit - no pig shit - no, just plain shit

And starlings are out of the loop? Har, har.

Some rust spots on a massive steel beam - you are kidding - if this is the quality comment from the experts in Minn. - well - shit brains from them is the BIGGEST problem.

Let someone ck and see if the steel installed was the steel called for in the orig. engineering specs - corrupt contractors and see no evil inspectors are common in these cash cow big scale public projects ... no shit.

Fun to use the word shit a lot, isn't it Dan.

Posted by Essex | August 22, 2007 5:44 PM
4

i didn't want to say anything, but personally? i think it was voldemort.

Posted by adrian! | August 22, 2007 5:46 PM
5

How cheap are those tiny little spikes that Burger King and well, everyone else, use to keep pigeons off surfaces? Are Minnesotans just too polite to keep pigeons away?

Posted by Gitai | August 22, 2007 6:53 PM
6

The pigeon as we know it is a feral domesticate first raised for food. So it would seem that the bridge's destruction might just be the result of human tampering with nature: first in our breeding these rats of the sky in the first place then in our feeding them.

Deep down though I suspect squirrels had something to do with this.

Posted by kinaidos | August 22, 2007 6:58 PM
7

Last time I checked, pigeons neither vote nor fund PACs and re-election campaigns. Based on my observations of the way our system currently apportions responsibility and blame, there's little doubt that the birds are utterly at fault in this matter.

Posted by mike | August 22, 2007 7:29 PM
8

yup, i think birds and squirrels had a part in this...or that it was those flighty squirrel-types...not malfeasance or cost analysis, or simple resouce depletion due to tax cuts. no none of that...


'twas the birds...

-hipsterlite

Posted by hipsterlite | August 22, 2007 8:26 PM
9

Birds are not exactly a new phenomenon, are they? Shouldn't the bridge be designed to hold up, even if the birds shit on it?

Posted by /mm | August 22, 2007 10:08 PM
10

I also suspect Voldermort.
He was in league with Bush to try to deflect attention from that disaster in Iraq/Iran....

Posted by Kevin B | August 22, 2007 10:37 PM
11

@9, Yeah, I would think so. It seems like a distraction to me to say that pigeons were a contributer to the bridge collapse. If they want to blame something, why not blame the tons of salt that is poured on the bridge every snowfall or frozen weather event? Pigeons? Good grief!

Posted by lawrence clark | August 23, 2007 12:52 AM
12

I would be more likely to accept the pigeons idea... if only it weren't so appallingly stupid. Corrosive bird shit weakened the steel? THAT'S WHAT PAINT IS FOR, YOU MORONS.

Posted by Greg | August 23, 2007 7:26 AM
13

Okay, I can believe that pigeon shit rusts bridges, but so does water. Which, as I recall, is not in short supply around this bridge. I'm with the paint person...why didn't it occur to them that steel will rust if exposed to moisture of any kind?

Posted by BonnySwan | August 23, 2007 7:32 AM
14

Did anyone read the linked article? For instance, the lines "(Chemist) Langerman emphasized that he wasn't saying pigeon dung factored into the collapse of the 40-year-old bridge. 'Let's let the highway transportation and safety people do their job'"? And all you engineers who have nothing better to do than post on Slog: I promise you, the bridge inspectors have heard about water corrosion, salt corrosion, bird deterrents, and paint (some of which were also mentioned in the article, but whatever).

Posted by S | August 23, 2007 7:58 AM
15

Tom Lehrer was right.

Posted by Eric Mozart | August 23, 2007 11:31 AM
16

tgru nztgvpjqe fwhx ofayh rwixsh klfvorye ynfxjvz

Posted by pjte zulqsgr | August 28, 2007 3:00 PM
17

tagiu tscj ztingcu iglsb rfwyl vjdol cbjdyoqri ovxdrn foqt

Posted by jbfp mwtpasufn | August 28, 2007 3:02 PM

Comments Closed

In order to combat spam, we are no longer accepting comments on this post (or any post more than 14 days old).