I-5 Bridge collapses.

[jxspyder]

We were just talking about the stretch of interstate on the east coast that got shut down due to fire damage. Well, apparently the west coast feela the need to follow suit as a bridge collapsed on I-5 last night.

The bridge is roughly between Seattle and Everett, and last nights collapse left a 10 mile backup. Thankfully rush hour had largely concluded, so early reports say only 3 vehicles fell through, with no fatalities. These same reports site witnesses who claim the bridge was clipped by an oversized load semi.

The bridge itself is identical to the bridge that collapsed over the Mississippi, I believe, in 2007, that killed 13. Its a steel truss bridge. Its scored a 5 of 10, a 47% and 57% depending on what report you read.

Sent from the muddy banks of the Wishkaw

[iamthesgt]

I only heard briefly about this. It scored a 5/10 on what?

[GhostOverride]

It's amazing that these poorly rated bridges remain operational....this is the shit that happens.

[jxspyder]

I only heard briefly about this. It scored a 5/10 on what?

Supposedly there are 3 major reports that rate bridge integrity. One is out of 10, the other two are percentages out of 100. In all three its either just barely above or well below the minimum allowance.

Sent from the muddy banks of the Wishkaw

[NwG_SnakeEyes]

Luckily no one was killed. That's crazy

[jxspyder]

Picture of the bridge.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/05/24/ny3u8ete.jpg

Sent from the muddy banks of the Wishkaw

[GhostOverride]

I remember when the finished the big dig in Boston...finally...I was driving through the tunnel that day and found out about an hour after I went through a section collapsed on some cars...scary shit....glad none was hurt in this incident

[Ragingclue]

Wow yeah reminds me a bit of the tragedy in Minnesota from a few years back. Glad no one was killed. This is our crumbling infrastructure though, expect more of this.

[iamthesgt]

Supposedly there are 3 major reports that rate bridge integrity. One is out of 10, the other two are percentages out of 100. In all three its either just barely above or well below the minimum allowance.

That's pretty pathetic.

[GhostOverride]

Wow yeah reminds me a bit of the tragedy in Minnesota from a few years back. Glad no one was killed. This is our crumbling infrastructure though, expect more of this.

I have a buddy who lives in that area told me it wasn't too far from where he lives, it was very chaotic when it went down

[BilgeRatBilly]

If only we could afford to put construction workers/engineers to work to build/repair our infrastructure before they get to this point :frusty:

[GhostOverride]

This was off of CNN this morning: 600 Bridges have failed since 1989

Right now, America's got a C+.

That may be a passing grade, but it's not good enough, says infrastructure expert Barry LePatner. That's because there have been nearly 600 bridge failures since 1989, LePatner told CNN. And one out of every nine U.S. bridges is rated as "structurally deficient," according to the ASCE.

Thursday's collapse was apparently caused when a tractor-trailer struck one of the overhead beams of the bridge, which is nearly six decades old. LePatner said it is "totally unacceptable" that the bridge did not have another support structure.

"Bridges today have redundancy so that where you have something hitting a structural element, there (are) other supports to keep the bridge up," he noted. "That is something that bridge engineers understand, but politicians are not funding."