Tinklenberg, Just Another Oberstar
Posted by Andy on January 25th, 2008
El Tinklenberg, who said he wasn’t going to run for the 6th before he announced he was going to, is simply recycling what DFler Jim Oberstar (D MN8) is saying on the 35W bridge.
Former Ventura Transportation Commissioner Elwyn Tinklenberg questions whether the recent preliminary findings by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on the I-35W bridge collapse — a finding that suggested a design flaw likely brought down the bridge — has answered anything.
The NTSB’s asserts that the use of thinner connector plates in the bridge design — half-inch thick plates instead of inch thick — could have been a fatal design flaw.
But Tinklenberg explained that there’s also the issue of metallurgy.
Depending on how steel is tempered or otherwise fashioned, a half-inch steel plate can actually be stronger than an inch thick steel plate, Tinklenberg opined.
Further, NTSB didn’t explain exactly why the bridge fell last summer instead of 20 years ago, or 30 years ago, he added.
“It doesn’t explain 40 years,” Tinklenberg said, adding the issue of bridge maintenance is still open.
Maybe the gussets were made with Transparent aluminum. Oberstar and Tinklenberg are so hell bent on casting blame in this bridge collapse, that themselves may actually taint the results. Both of them have from day one said that had gas tax increases been passed prior, the bridge wouldn’t have fallen (more or less). What proof do they have?
Does Tinklenberg have the missing design notes that may state the gussets were in fact super special steel? Or is he grasping at straws to make this as political and partisan as possible?
The two of them want a gas tax so badly, they are willing to say and do anything.
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January 27th, 2008 at 2:08 am
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