by T.W. Budig
ECM capitol reporter
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.
Come on. They do not just spec a thickness. They specify a grade. If one-inch thick steel of a particular grade were specified; and 1/2 inch steel of that grade were used, well, the answer is --- what ---
Metallurgy.