HighLight Heading
October 2007
Researchers receive grants for research related to I-35W bridge collapse, share insight with media
Two new research projects are under way in response to the August 1 collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis.
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 includes Roberto Ballarini (CE department head), Taichiro Okazaki (assistant professor), Ted Galambos (professor emeritus), and Arturo Schultz (associate professor). Their analysis began with a site visit by Okazaki and other CE faculty on August 7.
Another team of CE faculty, led by Henry Liu (assistant professor) and David Levinson (associate professor), has secured a small grant from the NSF to analyze traffic patterns after the loss of this key section of metro freeway.
University experts also provided insight and background to the media immediately after the collapse. CTS fielded requests the evening of the tragedy for information about a research report published in 2001. The Mn/DOT-funded report, by the late CE associate professor Robert Dexter and researchers Heather O’Connell and Paul Bergson, recommended focused inspection of the bridge rather than premature replacement. The report is on the CTS Web site at www.cts.umn.edu/Research/ProjectDetail.html?id=1999014.
In the days following the tragedy, local and national media interviewed a number of researchers. Those cited included Professor Catherine French, Ballarini, and Galambos of CE; Lee Munnich, director of the State and Local Policy Program at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs; and Robert Johns, CTS director.
“CTS will continue working with University of Minnesota researchers to provide objective information to policymakers, the media, and the public,” says Johns.