US DOT announces who gets the Urban Partnership money

The U.S. Department of Transportation announced today the five metropolitan areas to whom they awarded the Urban Partnership Agreements (UPAs). The winners are:

• New York
  
• Seattle
  
• The Miami and Ft. Lauderdale metropolitan area
  
• The Minneapolis and St. Paul area
  
• San Francisco

Each of the winners will still need to submit traffic studies for their respective projects before receiving the money. Twenty six cities applied for the the program's funding. New York's $354 million will go towards congestion pricing in Manhattan. Seattle will use its $139 million to charge tolls on the Highway 520 floating bridge. Miami's $63 million will go towards installing variably priced toll lanes on I-95 between Miami and Ft. Lauderdale. Minneapolis will spend use it's $133 million to add High Occupancy Toll lanes to I-35. San Francisco's $159 million will help establish a congestion pricing plan for the downtown area.

Investigators have found a possible "design issue" in I-35W bridge collapse,
the BBC News reports.

I-35W Bridge Collapse Myths And Conspiracies

I-35W Bridge Collapse Myths And Conspiracies

By John A. Weeks III

http://www.johnweeks.com/i35w/i35wmyths.html

from the Oakland Tribune, 8/6/07
Minnesota collapse gives Bay Area bridge riders pause

Minnesota Bridge Images

Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) has published a number of high-quality images of the I-35 bridge that collapsed on August 2. A video of the event has been found that will aid in determining how the collapse progressed.

MPR bridge collapse images

Collapse of Bridge 9340 on I-35

In 2000 the University of Minnesota Department of Civil Engineering carried out an assessment of stresses and strains on the I-35 bridge for Minnesota Department of Transportation. The 2001 report concluded that "the bridge should not have any problems with fatigue cracking in the foreseeable future."