October 5, 2007

  • This is a repost of an older posting.  I was over in Dinkeyton and reviewed the “lay of the land”.  The “Chateau” at 425 13th Av. S. E. was half a block North of 4th Street South East, which is a one way westbound.    On the 18th floor I had to be close to 200 feet above the stree level.  I could easily observe the Westbound vehicles, espepcailly trucks and especially those stopped at the lights at 14Th Av. SE and 15th Av. S.E.    The Eastbound University Avenue SE is a block and a half away and the University SE/ 14th Av. SE stoplight was view was blocked by buildings ans was the 15th.

    Below is my repost:

    Sunday, September 16, 2007

    In the early 1980′s I lived on the top (18th) floor of the Chateau Housing Coop.  This is that tall poured concrete building in the Dinkeytown neighborhood of Minneapolis.  My apartment was on the east side and offered a spectacular view of Dinkeytown and the area towards St. Paul.  What I would often see is semi-truck trailers, the open top types that were loaded to the top with grain and no tarp over them.  This indicated short run driving.  I’m not sure if the East Bank “A mill” was still running then with the grain elevators on the West/North side of the river (the current Mill City Museum site basically between the Star-Tribune building and the river).  This mill and elevator was then very active.

    I recall the open grain trucks “filled to the gills” and they appeared to going westbound through Dinkeytown of 4th Street.  My memory is “foggy” on this but I moved into the “Chateau” when it was new in 1973.  Here is the current tax information for my unit I lived in then.  http://www2.co.hennepin.mn.us/pins/pidresult.jsp?pid=2402924310240   I bought my current http://searshouse.com   (3512 34th A. S.) in mid 1986 and lived by Abbot Northwestern Hospital for may two years.  This would have me moving out of the Chateau around 1982 or 1983. 

    Again, this is from strained memory but don’t recall the heavy grain trucks when I first moved into the Chateau.  Here is my theory.  I stress it is only a theory.  When the Star Tribune built it’s new printing plant the rail service to the “West Bank” and the now “Mill City Museum” grain elevator and mill were seriously disrupted.  After the 35W bridge collapse I read that the now bicycle/pedestrian “bridge #9″ downstream was closed to rail around 1980.  The area by the new Gopher Football stadium still has rail and a very active grain elevator/milling industry.  Here is the theory, and I stress that it is only a theory.  “Around 1980, when bridge #9 closed  to rail the grain for the mill then operation at what is now the “Mill City Museum” was trucked from the grain elevators North of Prospect Park by truck.  The logical route would have been over the I35W bridge.  I recall the trucks “loaded to the gills” with grain, Westbound with the loads uncovered.  I recall this starting long after I moved into the Chateau and when it happened the trucks were frequent.

    If I am correct (This is dredged up 20+ year old memory but I am a Twin Cities native and lived in Minneapolis since 1970) from around 1980 until perhaps sometime in the 1990′s when the now “Mill City Museum” mill and elevator closed (I recall it used to make oat flour for Cheerios.) there could have been a massive number of “heavy” grain trucks that potentially went over the I35 bridge from around 1980 to whenever the now museum mill and grain elevators were closed down.

    It would take a lot of “digging” to try to substantiate this.  I do not want to make any accusations but I recall that when the apparently “heavy” grain trucks appeared it was suddenly and there were a lot of them. 

    At most this would potentially “stress” the I35W bridge.  I’m focusing on the bridge bearings/hinges as a contributor to the collapse.  As I recall they actually closed I35W to replace sticking bearings/hinges in the early to mid 1990′s.  The sticky hinges/bearing along with overweight loads might cause stress on the bridge superstructure.  Just a theory.

    I am cross posting this email at my http://riverbridgecollapse.com so fell free to forward and share.  (try not to give out my email address  Again this is 20+ year old memory and I don’t have the resources to really investigate it.