I-5 bridge collapse

[Capt Worley PE]

A bridge collapse that sent cars and drivers plunging into the Skagit River in Washington State was caused by an over-sized truck that collided with the span of structure, authorities have said.

'For reasons unknown at this point in time the semi struck the overhead of the bridge causing the collapse,' State Patrol Chief John Batiste revealed at an overnight news conference.

The truck made it off the bridge and the driver remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators, he added.

Three passengers were pulled alive from their vehicles after they plunged tens of feet into the water below at around 7pm on Thursday. Even more were pulled from the debris, but rescuers said no one died in the dramatic accident and all victims have been accounted for.

Lots more and lots of pics at link.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2330069/BREAKING-NEWS-Bridge-collapses-Washington-state-leaving-cars-filled-passengers-river.html#ixzz2UEqC8xkZ

 

[blybrook PE]

I saw the email alert about this. Glad no one was seriously injured or killed.

 

[Exception Collection]

WSDOT is saying it's not their fault, that the driver should have known... despite the fact that they don't have signs posted saying the bridge has low clearance.

I'm not sure about WSDOT, but I can't imagine getting out of my car at each bridge to verify the height. I suppose that they could have looked at the bridge list WSDOT maintains (http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/publications/manuals/fulltext/M23-09/I-5.pdf), but I'd have to be the person planning out their trips if they need to do that with every load. The truck had a permit; the permitting system requires that they enter the planned route. If I were a driver, I'd treat that as a "your route's fine" unless there was a note about detouring around issues. On the other hand, I haven't seen anything about a pilot car.

 

[Road Guy]

Did the bridge have any height listed at all?

 

[Road Guy]

This is one of the comments from the paper. Pretty much hits the nail on the head.. And there's probably h

A hundred bridges in the country just like this one..

Thanks politicians! (Note I am not blaming any party cause they are all to blame)

The $840 Billion Stimulis in 2009 that Obama had passed and said was filled with shovel-ready infrastructure projects including roads and bridges, his allies claimed he saved the economy and prevented double-digit unemployment. But the reality is over half that money was wasted and no one could identify a project that lived up to the hype, two-years later when asked by CBS News what happen to all the shovel-ready jobs? Obama said, "there's no such thing as shovel-ready jobs" Obama failed to require projects preapprove that met the needs of the economy and had positive returns, instead he created a political treasure chest and gave money to projects that had political connections and high risk, losing hundrends of Billions of dollars. This I-5 bridge will need just $15 million to repair, the Administration is giving them $1 million, Obama gave Solyndra $535 million to go bankrupt..

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2330069/BREAKING-NEWS-Bridge-collapses-Washington-state-leaving-cars-filled-passengers-river.html#ixzz2UMI5Wymg

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[Exception Collection]

The bridge clearance is listed in the document I linked earlier, but as I mentioned in my previous post there were no other signs. Reportedly there was a pilot car, and the mandated measuring device WAS hitting the bridge, so either the pilot car guy or the truck driver screwed up.