Your bridge collapse questions--answered

(As you can imagine, we've received a lot of questions in the wake of the collapse of a bridge on the Upper Iowa River.  We hope this answers any questions you might have):

Jake, Tony and Steve were skeptical that the semi hauling feed caused the bridge to collapse, with Jake calling it "Fake News" and Steve using a more descriptive term! 

Mr. Answer Person says, "The 3 ton weight limit on the bridge referred to the ENTIRE vehicle weight--not a per axle weight.  The feed truck could carry up to 30 tons, but it appeared to be around half full at the time of the accident.  That's just the weight of the feed--the weight of the truck itself led some officials to estimate between 25 to 30 tons of weight went across the bridge."

Another skeptical reader asked why the bridge had such a low weight limit.

Mr. Answer Person says: "The Dahly Bridge was built in 1874.  That was roughly 50 years before cars were even invented!  Bridges in that era had to support horse-drawn wagons as the heaviest loads."

A number of readers echoed Down's comment: " I really hope this driver gets a huge fine AND has to pay to rebuild the bridge!"

Mr. Answer Person says: "Both issues are being worked on.  In this case, traffic charges would be determined by the Iowa Department of Transportation's Motor Vehicle Enforcement department.  The state employee assigned this job was in another part of the state Friday when the accident occurred.  The Iowa State Patrol wrote up a report on the scene in Bluffton and the Iowa DOT will be reviewing that report, with word soon about what charges will be filed.

As for the question of paying to rebuild the bridge, that's also being worked on, with County Attorney Andy Van Der Maaten saying there should be liability coverage by the truck operator." 

decorahnews.com will continue to track these questions and will post follow-up stories as soon as we have additional information.