Skagit River bridge collapsed!

Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Register Log in
BK_1emVCEAEWK78.jpg:large
 
Hopefully the people in the cars are OK. I'm driving to Seattle Saturday with the family, and was wondering where the Skagit Bridge is. Way north of Seattle, apparently.
 
PapaG said:
Hopefully the people in the cars are OK. I'm driving to Seattle Saturday with the family, and was wondering where the Skagit Bridge is. Way north of Seattle, apparently.
Click to expand...

a cousin of mine lives in that area, and had planned on traveling tonight and would've been on the bridge about the time it collapsed. Crazy shit.
 
I blame Obama AND Bush. For good measure i'll throw Reagen in there too.
 
That's definitely not a quick fix... good thing it wasn't the bridge between the Couv and Portland. I can't even imagine the mess that would cause. Hopefully the people are okay.
 
Natebishop3 said:
That's definitely not a quick fix... good thing it wasn't the bridge between the Couv and Portland. I can't even imagine the mess that would cause. Hopefully the people are okay.
Click to expand...

there is also, iirc, a bridge close to that one. traffic won't be fun for a while though.
 
used to use that all the time driving to reserve weekends at Whidbey Island.

Julius is right, but the only other bridge that's even remotely in the ballpark is Riverside/Burlington Ave. Bridge, two blocks east of the freeway...unless you want to drive east to Hwy 9 and cross near Sedro-Wooley. I've never been out that far, though.
 
I still haven't heard anything about a death toll, injuries, or anything like that.

I'm curious, because you'd think that if a bridge collapsed while cars were going 50+ mph, that'd spell out certain death for most of the people on that part of the bridge.

Always had a phobia of bridges, and the two longest bridges in the US happened to be in NO... the Causway and the Manchac. I don't know if anyone's every driven on those, but driving for over half an hour on a bridge over swamps can get unsettling.
 
Last edited:
...
[video]<script src="http://www.king5.com/templates/belo_embedWrapper.js?storyid=208785081&pos=top&swfw=470"></script><object name="player" id="_fp_0.7890758998692036" width="470" height="264" data="http://swfs.bimvid.com/player-3.2.15.swf?x-bim-callletters=KING" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"> <param value="true" name="allowfullscreen"/> <param value="always" name="allowscriptaccess"/> <param value="transparent" name="wmode"/> <param value="high" name="quality"/> <param name="movie" value="http://swfs.bimvid.com/player-3.2.15.swf?x-bim-callletters=KING" /> <param value="config=http://www.king5.com/?j=embed_20878...e-collapse-recounts-experience-208785081.html" name="flashvars"/></object><script src="http://www.king5.com/templates/belo...e-collapse-recounts-experience-208785081.html"></script>[/video]

http://www.king5.com/video?id=208785081&sec=548932&ref=articlevidmod
 
Crazy. .. my brother drove over that bridge today. He went to the Burlingame outlets. .. copped some dope filson shit

hoop fam
 
what's at the Burlington one that isn't at Tulalip?
 
Lots of rust on that bridge wheres the maintence? The bridge was also built in 1955. No upkeep on it probably explains why it collapsed.
Not to mention this info from www.oregonlive.com
The bridge was built in 1955 and has a sufficiency rating of 57.4 out of 100, according to federal records. That is well below the statewide average rating of 80, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal data, but 759 bridges in the state have a lower sufficiency score.

According to a 2012 Skagit County Public Works Department report, 42 of the county's 108 bridges that are 50 years or older. The document says eight of the bridges are more than 70 years old and two are over 80.

Washington state was given a C in the American Society of Civil Engineers' 2013 infrastructure report card and a C- when it came to the state's bridges. The group said more than a quarter of Washington's 7,840 bridges are considered structurally deficient of functionally obsolete.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
That red color isn't rust. It's primer where the surface peeled off in the fall. The bridge is inspected every couple of years and we're told that it's holding up well. The speed limit is 60 but many do 70 over it. Without it, the trail of deliveries between Seattle and Canada stops cold for driving, though not for rail or flying. I used to live there. The end of the bridge was my off ramp and on ramp, College Way. Now I'm 25 miles north, listening to the freeway, and it's moving at 4:30 am, 9 1/2 hours after the truck went through the support. I hope it isn't stop and go during work hours. Here's the best witness. The opening picture is the truck that caused it.

http://www.king5.com/home/Witness-recounts-oversized-truck-striking-bridge-208767601.html
 
21 pictures
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Sk...ar s+people+seen/8427846/story.html?tab=PHOT

43 pictures
http://www.king5.com/news/local/Rep...er-cars-in-water-208758631.html?gallery=y&c=y

12 pictures
http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2013/05/23/3022109/skagit-river-bridge-collapse.html

This is the truck. The van section had no sides, so it was empty, so the cause was width, not weight.
052313skagitbridgetruck.jpg


The official analysis from the really official final report
16h2oti.jpg


Nice day for sailing your rubber ducky. (Film is silent.)
[video=youtube;9ZAR7hbcBsA] [/video]
 
I hate heights and bridges. I shall NEVER cross over Bridge of the Gods again after this.
 
Our Reason Foundation study, "Examining 20 Years of U.S. Highway and Bridge Performance Trends," found Washington ranked 34th out of 50 states in terms of making progress reducing its percentage of deficient and functionally obsolete bridges from 1989 to 2008.
 
Update:

MOUNT VERNON, Wash. (AP) - A truck hauling a too-tall load of drilling equipment hit an overhead bridge girder on the major interstate between Seattle and Canada, sending a section of the span and two vehicles into the Skagit River. All three occupants suffered only minor injuries.

It happened about 7 p.m. Thursday on the north section of the four-lane Interstate 5 bridge near Mount Vernon, about 60 miles north of Seattle and 40 miles south of the Canada border, and disrupted travel in both directions.

The Washington State Patrol said the truck the driver works for Mullen Trucking in Alberta. The tractor-trailer, which was marked as an oversize load, was hauling a housing for drilling equipment Vancouver, Wash., when the top right front corner of the load struck several trusses on the north end of the bridge, the patrol said.

The driver, William Scott, of Spruce Grove, Alberta, near Edmonton, voluntarily gave a blood sample for an alcohol test and was not arrested.

Initially, it wasn't clear if the bridge just gave way on its own. But at an overnight news conference, Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste blamed it on the too-tall load. The vertical clearance from the roadway to the beam is 14.6 feet.

The truck made it off the bridge and the driver remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators. Two other vehicles went into the water about 25 feet below as the structure crumbled. Three people were rescued and were recovering Friday.

The trucking company said it received a state-issued permit to carry its oversized load across the bridge.
 
Where does the blame lie for this one? Interesting.
 
tlongII said:
Where does the blame lie for this one? Interesting.
Click to expand...
plenty of blame to go around, imho. We've let our bridges and roads go to pot, because we've invested in wars and bailouts galore.
 
too bad this wasn't shovel-ready when $800B in stimulus money was going around . I mean, you probably can't fix a bridge for half a million (who knows?), but giving the Forest Service in WA $554,763 in 2009 to replace windows in Visitor Center closed in 2007 probably didn't help. Or the $712,000 to build a "joke machine". Or not repaving a runway in Johnstown, PA for an airport (that cost ~$150B) that no one except John Murtha. Etc.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Shapecity
Bridge Collapses in Minnesota
Replies
21
Views
752
TheFreshPrince
TheFreshPrince
barfo
Columbia Crossing - no deal?
Replies
6
Views
725
ucatchtrout
ucatchtrout
SlyPokerDog
OT Portland names bridge after religious conservative!
Replies
6
Views
350
ABM
ABM
SlyPokerDog
OT London Bridge: Fatalities reported after two terrorist attacks in capital
5 6 7
Replies
193
Views
12K
Rastapopoulos
Rastapopoulos
HomerLovesKoolAid
Beaver kills fiaherman
Replies
13
Views
611
jlprk
jlprk

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 1 (members: 0, guests: 1)
Back
Top