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Roberto Ballarini, Arturo Schulz, and Taichiro Okazaki
PHOTO BY RICHARD ANDERSON
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The collapse of the I-35W bridge shocked the nation this summer — none more than the citizens of Minnesota, who continue to feel the effects of the tragic loss. Even with construction of the new bridge underway, unanswered questions about what caused the collapse remain.
Now, a team of University experts are working to answer those questions. Faculty in the Department of Civil Engineering (CE) secured funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for academic research of the bridge, which will supplement official investigations. The team, led by assistant professor Taichiro Okazaki, includes Roberto Ballarini, CE department head; Ted Galambos, professor emeritus; and associate professor Arturo Schultz. They began their analysis with a site visit just days after the collapse.
The team is currently tackling the challenge of gathering information about the bridge. “At this point, we do not have access to the bridge material. However, based on the information made public by MnDOT, data gathered from a previous study by the CE department, and the combined knowledge and experience of our team, we will continue to work to identify the cause of the bridge collapse.”
The researchers are developing a computer simulation to study how the bridge behaved, eventually leading to simulations of possible scenarios of what might have happened.
“We hope to learn as much as we can…and these lessons must be used and conveyed widely to reduce the likelihood of such tragedy repeating in the future,” says Okazaki.
From the 2007 edition of Research, an annual publication of the OVPR.
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