Interstate 5 bridge over the Skagit river in Washington State is down

[Amazon 7]

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151430139126476&set=a.74925066475.78273.6276351475&type=1&theater

This is just a couple miles north of our little DZ up at Mount Vernon WA... WHOA

[airtwardo 6]

DAMN!



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/23/skagit-river-bridge-collapses_n_3329496.html

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[Amazon 7]

Sounding like a oversize truck hit the girder... Memorial Day weekend traffic headed to Vancouver, Canukistan is going to Suck

[oldwomanc6 38]

Amazon

Sounding like a oversize truck hit the girder... Memorial Day weekend traffic headed to Vancouver, Canukistan is going to Suck

Yikes, if a truck hitting the bridge is true, that says horrible things about the engineering.

lisa
WSCR 594
FB 1023
CBDB 9

[Amazon 7]

oldwomanc6

***Sounding like a oversize truck hit the girder... Memorial Day weekend traffic headed to Vancouver, Canukistan is going to Suck

Yikes, if a truck hitting the bridge is true, that says horrible things about the engineering.

Its an older bridge...girder type.. you weaken it a little when the truck hits.... and it started creaking then fell in

http://www.king5.com/live-stream/pop-up-no-ads/KING-Live-Stream-205421141.html

[Eagleeye 0]

I don't understand why they don't have Clearance Beams that span the roadway as you approach bridges? So much cheaper to replace and not to mention the unintentional damage to structure and lives.

[quade 3]

If people understood about the deterioration of basic infrastructure in this country they wouldn't be surprised by this.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[normiss 620]

The best part about that picture - the two people sitting on their cars.

[Amazon 7]

normiss

The best part about that picture - the two people sitting on their cars.

Yup.. they were decidedly hypothermic, the Skagit River right now is probably 40 degrees F from the spring snow melt coming out of the North Cascades. They might have been cold but they are sitting there alive If that would have been an hour earlier.. it would have been a lot more cars.. and many many more people in the cold water to rescue.

[FlyingRhenquest 1]

Yeah, there are tens of thousands of bridges in the USA on the verge of collapse, and no one has the political will to fix or replace them. If your bridge falls down, the US Government knew it was at risk for at least a couple of decades.

I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

[Andy9o8 0]

FlyingRhenquest

Yeah, there are tens of thousands of bridges in the USA on the verge of collapse, and no one has the political will to fix or replace them. If your bridge falls down, the US Government knew it was at risk for at least a couple of decades.

If we were to discuss what would pay for that, it would have to go into Speakers Corner...

[FreeFallFiend 0]

I remember hearing a lot of experts talking about this after the bridge collapse up north a few years back. (Minnesota?) It really shook people up in Cincinnati where we have a bridge that everyone knows is dangerous but nothing is being done about. The Brent Spence Bridge in Cincinnati is one of the nations heaviest traveled bridges since both I-75 and I-71 cross it. 12 years ago we were told it only had 8 years of life left.

From Wiki:
"The bridge was designed to carry 85,000 vehicles per day, but in 2007 it carried 155,000 vehicles per day.[1] It is expected to carry 200,000 vehicles per day by 2013.[1] On June 21, 2011, chunks of concrete from the upper deck of the bridge fell onto the lower deck. Construction crews closed lanes on both decks of the bridge, causing traffic delays of two hours or more. All lanes of the bridge were reportedly re-opened by June 22, 2011, but local commuters were encouraged to eliminate the Brent Spence Bridge from their daily drive until at least July 1, 2011. This incident lead to the belief that the Brent Spence Bridge is in immediate need of replacement and in danger of collapse. Residents often believe the bridge to be structurally deficient, but it is actually functionally obsolete."

Estimates to replace it are at $150 million hence why to this day nothing has still been done.

Fiend

I am about to take my last voyage, a great leap in the dark. - Thomas Hobbes.

[Andy9o8 0]

...and a bridge carrying I-95 over a river in Connecticut collapsed in 1983. Our bridge infrastructure is timing-out.

[JohnMitchell 14]

Andy9o8

...and a bridge carrying I-95 over a river in Connecticut collapsed in 1983. Our bridge infrastructure is timing-out.

You're quite right on this one.

Want to create good jobs and rebuild America?

[skiskyrock 0]

That's one way to get it fixed, any chance the trucker can take out the 520 bridge on his way back?

[Andy9o8 0]

JohnMitchell

***...and a bridge carrying I-95 over a river in Connecticut collapsed in 1983. Our bridge infrastructure is timing-out.

You're quite right on this one.

Want to create good jobs and rebuild America?
I'd love to. Just as I'd like the US to learn from all the other countries' beta-versions and develop a workable, quality system of guaranteed universal health care for all.

But something's got to pay for those things. Unfortunately, the US doesn't have the willingness to do things like, for example, trim one-third off its global projection-of-power military budget, or tax capital gains at ordinary income rates instead of deeply-discounted rates, or stop spending billions on a farcical war on drugs. So if you'll excuse me; I'm going to take the ferry.

[DrewEckhardt 0]

Eagleeye

I don't understand why they don't have Clearance Beams that span the roadway as you approach bridges? So much cheaper to replace and not to mention the unintentional damage to structure and lives.

Washington State can't afford such things because they don't have an income tax.

[NWFlyer 2]

I hear there's a movement afoot to rename it the Tim Eyman Memorial Bridge.

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

[BillyVance 34]

NWFlyer

I hear there's a movement afoot to rename it the Tim Eyman Memorial Bridge.

Damn... I had to research the Malfunction Junction interchange oil tanker explosion in Birmingham, AL, because of that name. Tim Dyson was an oil tanker driver who jack-knifed his rig when some dumb fuck teenager cut him off, and Tim wrecked right under an overpass at the I-20/I-59/I-65 junction, causing a massive explosion that buckled the overpass. The new bridge that was built to replace the destroyed one, was named after the oil tanker driver.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[lawrocket 3]

Gotta hand it to google maps. They already direct around it.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[kallend 1,621]

oldwomanc6

***Sounding like a oversize truck hit the girder... Memorial Day weekend traffic headed to Vancouver, Canukistan is going to Suck

Yikes, if a truck hitting the bridge is true, that says horrible things about the engineering.

No, engineers had already declared the bridge "Structurally obsolete". It was old and never designed for current traffic loads and truck sizes.

According the ASCE, over 11% of US bridges are at risk structurally due to age, deferred maintenance, etc.

Place blame where it's due: politicians and the voters who put them in office.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[aphid 0]

kallend

Place blame where it's due:

The truck was being driven by a fellow from Edmonton, Alberta. I predict this in 3, 2, 1...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOzG7bBylRo

[CanuckInUSA 0]

aphid

***Place blame where it's due:

The truck was being driven by a fellow from Edmonton, Alberta. I predict this in 3, 2, 1...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOzG7bBylRo

It's pay back for 20 years of not winning the Stanley Cup.

Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

[NWFlyer 2]

BillyVance

***I hear there's a movement afoot to rename it the Tim Eyman Memorial Bridge.

Damn... I had to research the Malfunction Junction interchange oil tanker explosion in Birmingham, AL, because of that name. Tim Dyson was an oil tanker driver who jack-knifed his rig when some dumb fuck teenager cut him off, and Tim wrecked right under an overpass at the I-20/I-59/I-65 junction, causing a massive explosion that buckled the overpass. The new bridge that was built to replace the destroyed one, was named after the oil tanker driver.

totally unrelated.

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -P.J. O'Rourke

[Amazon 7]

NWFlyer

******I hear there's a movement afoot to rename it the Tim Eyman Memorial Bridge.

Damn... I had to research the Malfunction Junction interchange oil tanker explosion in Birmingham, AL, because of that name. Tim Dyson was an oil tanker driver who jack-knifed his rig when some dumb fuck teenager cut him off, and Tim wrecked right under an overpass at the I-20/I-59/I-65 junction, causing a massive explosion that buckled the overpass. The new bridge that was built to replace the destroyed one, was named after the oil tanker driver.

totally unrelated.

You gotta cut poor Billy some slack... bless hit lil heart...he is from Bama... and did not hear what you really said.anyway..