The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "bridges" ...
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KOMO TV: Under the Bridge
Our ongoing investigation “Under the Bridge” began with a tip about workers drinking on the job and ultimately uncovered a pattern of design flaws, construction mistakes and contract violations made in the building of the largest floating bridge in the world.
Tags: Bridge; design; construction; contract; flaw
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Earmarks To Nowhere
Just when you thought you had read every outrageous story about congressional pork, last year USA TODAY revealed $13 billion in "orphan earmarks"- highway spending directed to pet projects but never spent. For states, this uncooked pork came at a tremendous cost: almost $7.5 billion of the earmarked money was taken directly out of the state's direct highway funding- meaning states literally lost billions they could have spent to improve or build bridges and highways.
Tags: pork barreling; earmarks; highway; money; orphan earmarks
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Fabricated and Flawed Integrity Tests Threaten Public Safety and an Iconic $6.3 Billion Bridge
The investigation found that a technician who tested the structural integrity of the other new San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge fudnation had fabricated results on othe structures and committed numberous testing errors, callling to question the stability of California's costliest and most important public works project ever, among other freeway structures statewide.
Tags: bridges; San-Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge; freeway structures
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Bridge Tracker
After 13 people died in August 2007 when a freeway bridge fell into the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, governors across the nation rushed to calm fears. Using almost identical language, states assured the public that bridges are safe, because federal regulations require inspection of "every bridge at least once every two years." In fact, at lest 17,000 bridges in the U.S. went more than two years between safety inspections, according to federal records obtained by msnbc.com. Obtaining new records from the National Bridge Inventory under the Freedom of Information Act, bill Dedman of msnbc.com gave the public a look at inspection records through 2006. The series of articles documented several lapses in state and federal oversight bridge inspections. The interactive staff at msnbc.com created the Bridge Tracker, an interactive map of bridges, allowing readers to look at the inspection information for bridges they cross. The map shows the condition and inspection dates for more than 100,000 bridges with traffic of at least 10,000 vehicles a day.
Tags: bridge inspection; Minneapolis 35W bridge collapse; mapping; Freedom of Information Act; National Bridge Inventory; Department of Transporation
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Lead in Dental Work
"WBNS-TV spent the past year probing into the presence of toxic lead in dental work such as crown, bridges and dentures. The team discovered a lack of state and federal regulation in the dental laboratory industry, an industry largely overlooked and unknown to the consumer until WBNS-TV broke the story in February 2008. An increasing number of laboratories outsource dental work to other companies. The FDA doesn't track the materials in foreign or domestic dental work. The lack of oversight results in patient risk.
Tags: lead poisoning; dental work; dentistry; regulations; infection; foreign production
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Tollway Junket
"The North Texas Tollway Authority, a public entity, sent 5 representatives on an all-expenses paid trip to Vienna, Austria to attend the International Bridge, Tunnel and Tollway Association's annual meeting. The trip cost tollway users more than $42,000 dollars and our hidden cameras revealed some representatives dining on five star meals, catered by companies with multi-million dollar construction contracts."
Tags: North Texas Tollway Authority; transportation; roads; toll roads; Texas; conflict of interest; funding; hidden camera; budget; public;
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Why 66?
"The newspaper found that government-commissioned studies of Interstate highway 66 (in Southern Kentucky) are either outdated or flawed, and the key findings of those studies have been distorted by project supporters to buttress their case for the road."
Tags: I-66; transportation dollars; bridge projects; government-comissioned studies
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Minnesota Department of Transportation
In response to the collapse of Interstate 35W Bridge in Minneapolis, the Star-Tribune investigated whether it could have been prevented. The series examined what caused the collapsed, "and raised serious questions about oversight of the state's transportation infrastructure."
Tags: transportation; bridge; Minneapolis; department of transportation; traffic; construction;
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The People Under the Bridge
Residency restrictions placed on sex offenders led to three people to be forced to live across the street from the Miami-Dade's felony courthouse underneath a bridge. By doing so, their probation officers could check on them every night during their state-mandated curfew.
Tags: homeless; sexual abuse; molestation; Kristi House; Angel Sanchez; Marco Carrasquillo; Patrick Wiese
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The Highwaymen
This investigation explores a recent trend: auctioning the maintenance of public highways and bridges to private companies. The article shows how privatization benefits the companies far more than the public. Private road operators charge high tolls and insist on non-compete clauses, so the government can't build other roads in the area.
Tags: transportation; privatization; bridges; roads; constructions; infastructure; driving; transit; state government