Howard Hill, director of technical operations and a principal of Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates Inc., examined the collapsed Interstate-35W Bridge in Minneapolis. He traded emails recently with ENR Chicago Bureau chief Tudor Van Hampton on how he heard of the disaster, what he found when he reached the scene and how WJE decided the design error was made.
As the first person to point to gusset plates as the failure mode on I-35W, how was this assignment different from others you've tackled in the past, and how was it the same?