Skagit River bridge collapsed!

[Denny Crane]

Sequester.

In before Obama

 

[theprunetang]

I just got a text from my friend who lives in Mt. Vernon. First of all.....I love the guy. But, anything that can ever possibly go wrong will happen to him. Just one of those people. And of course, he was one of the 3 cars that went into the river. Luckily he is alright. Crazy.

 

[Nate Dogg]

Looks like it will cost at least $15 million to fix it now according to the oregonian.

 

[PapaG]

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

It collapsed because a truck that was too tall for the bridge hit a cross beam. There was no bridge height given prior to crossing the bridge, apparently.

 

[PapaG]

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.

This bridge was in solid shape. It was compromised structurally when the too tall truck tried to cross it. There was also a $867 billion 'stimulus bill' that ended up becoming recycled money instead of actual projects.

[video=youtube;4p4-vPrcDBo]

 

[PapaG]

Sequester.

In before Obama

Too late!

 

[jlprk]

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.

This is why I don't blame the politicians, as everyone else does, for not coughing up the half-billion dollar, 100% taxpayer-financed stadium that Bennett and Stern demanded.

I just got a text from my friend who lives in Mt. Vernon. First of all.....I love the guy. But, anything that can ever possibly go wrong will happen to him. Just one of those people. And of course, he was one of the 3 cars that went into the river. Luckily he is alright. Crazy.

Your friend has a dignified nose, but must be cold in his t-shirt.

 

[The_Lillard_King]

This is why I don't blame the politicians, as everyone else does, for not coughing up the half-billion dollar, 100% taxpayer-financed stadium that Bennett and Stern demanded.



Your friend has a dignified nose, but must be cold in his t-shirt.

You are like a local reporter with your posts in this thread. Good stuff man, but waiting for you to interview the witnesses . . . and HP

 

[julius]

This bridge was in solid shape. It was compromised structurally when the too tall truck tried to cross it. There was also a $867 billion 'stimulus bill' that ended up becoming recycled money instead of actual projects.

[video=youtube;4p4-vPrcDBo]

if a bridge is hit by a truck, even if it's too big, and it collapses, it's not structurally sound. Bridges are supposed to take on some damage, abuse, and not collapse like that.

 

[PapaG]

if a bridge is hit by a truck, even if it's too big, and it collapses, it's not structurally sound. Bridges are supposed to take on some damage, abuse, and not collapse like that.

Link?

The bridge had been inspected since the Stimulus was passed. Love you libs trying to make this a political issue, though.

 

[ABM]

This was interesting.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/engineering/structural/10-reasons-why-bridges-collapse.htm

 

[MickZagger]

True story:

I once skinny dipped underneath that bridge.

 

[ABM]

True story:

I once skinny dipped underneath that bridge.

The critical question is, did you pee on any of its support beams?

 

[julius]

Link?

The bridge had been inspected since the Stimulus was passed. Love you libs trying to make this a political issue, though.

actually, you're projecting here. Please show me where I blamed a particular president, or a party, or a political ideology?

The wars that we wasted money on didn't just all the sudden start in the last 10 years, nor did the bailouts only happen under one administration.

And making it a political issue? yuo mean like how you talked about "stimulus money" being recycled? Do you even listen to yourself?

 

[MickZagger]

The critical question is, did you pee on any of its support beams?

True story:

If I was a super hero I'd want to have lazer-like pissing abilities. To be able to cut down bridges and stuff (for the greater good of course) would be beyond awesome.


If

 

[julius]

True story:

If I was a super hero I'd want to have lazer-like pissing abilities. To be able to cut down bridges and stuff (for the greater good of course) would be beyond awesome.


If

really? I'd want to have invisibility or flying. Or invisibility with flying and laser eyes.

 

[ABM]

True story:

If I was a super hero I'd want to have lazer-like pissing abilities. To be able to cut down bridges and stuff (for the greater good of course) would be beyond awesome.


If

Oh, and you could leave a trademark behind....kinda like Zorro did?

 

[MickZagger]

Do you ever pee on logs when your in public restrooms? (a previous persons log of course). Not trying to brag, but my pee is already pretty strong as it does a lot of damage to those "logs". The PSI coming out of my urinary tract must be through the roof.

 

[MickZagger]

Oh, and you could leave a trademark behind....kinda like Zorro did?

exactly.

 

[PapaG]

actually, you're projecting here. Please show me where I blamed a particular president, or a party, or a political ideology?

The wars that we wasted money on didn't just all the sudden start in the last 10 years, nor did the bailouts only happen under one administration.

And making it a political issue? yuo mean like how you talked about "stimulus money" being recycled? Do you even listen to yourself?

Derp Derp a derp. Did you read what you just wrote?

 

[theprunetang]

This is why I don't blame the politicians, as everyone else does, for not coughing up the half-billion dollar, 100% taxpayer-financed stadium that Bennett and Stern demanded.



Your friend has a dignified nose, but must be cold in his t-shirt.

That is actually not him. He was in a blue Subaru. All of the photos I have found leave him out. But, he also swam to shore right off the bat rather than sitting on his car roof.

 

[julius]

Derp Derp a derp. Did you read what you just wrote?

yeah, did you?

I blamed government (not Bush, not Republicans, not conservatives) for being irresponsible and not making sure the bridges are up to date and big enough/new enough to take something like this and continue on.

 

[Denny Crane]

NOW...

it's a shovel ready project.

 

[ABM]

NOW...

it's a shovel ready project.

Can't wait for the dredge report.

 

[jlprk]

This bridge was in solid shape. It was compromised structurally when the too tall truck tried to cross it. There was also a $867 billion 'stimulus bill' that ended up becoming recycled money instead of actual projects.

I agree that it was checked constantly and was in adequate shape. I disagree that none of the stimulus went to bridges. $3 billion did, and something like $20-30 to other infrastructure. Finally, I agree with you that if not for you Republicans, the stimulus would have been bigger, like Roosevelt's, aimed mostly at infrastructure.

if a bridge is hit by a truck, even if it's too big, and it collapses, it's not structurally sound. Bridges are supposed to take on some damage, abuse, and not collapse like that.

It apparently hit in exactly the right place, the weak spot. Engineers will figure it out. At least it didn't implode inwardly, like a controlled demolition or the World Trade Center. Of course, the WTC caving in straight down, like no other building before or since, except for manmade demolitions, should not be brought up here, and why anyone would, I will never know.

Here's a picture looking north. You see the orange Home Depot sign on the right. The mall and next to it the discount mall are out of the picture. To their right will be the biggest Fred Meyer I've ever seen, way out of proportion for the population. Behind us, a half-mile south, are Costco, Wal-Mart, and more warehouse franchises, just total traffic congestion even when the bridge fed all this commerce. The place is driving hell normally, and now it's worse.

 

[jlprk]

That is actually not him. He was in a blue Subaru. All of the photos I have found leave him out. But, he also swam to shore right off the bat rather than sitting on his car roof.

Speaking of shovel-ready, you have a scoop. For the first couple of hours, articles quoted a witness, Francesco Somebody, who saw 3 vehicles in the water with people, but he wasn't sure about the 3rd one. Then the police (who took 15 minutes to get there--it's only a few blocks--and then took an hour to reach people with little powerboats--the scuba divers were called at home--civilian boats could have gotten there in under 10 minutes) reported only 2 vehicles (one was attached to a trailer, so from a distance might have looked like two). A couple of things I was reading on the internet still said that some witnesses saw a 3rd, more submerged vehicle.

Since the police spoke that night, the story has been 2 vehicles (the military guy in his pickup and trailer, holding his wife's head above water while waiting an hour, and Dignified Nose sitting on his roof). Members of the crowd were told not to swim out, but the your friend swam in successfully. It was 7 pm on a cold day, but not raining and May. So everything waited for the police.

You have a scoop. All articles say it was 2 vehicles. Edit: I haven't kept up in the last 24 hours, so I guess I should. I stopped reading thoroughly after the first 12 hours. Maybe they changed it to 3. (I doubt it.)

 

[Denny Crane]

So about .3% of all that $800B Obama spent his first month in office went to fix bridges?

Even so, the $15M to fix it now that it's a wreck is .5% of the $3B allocated from that $800B to bridges, according to jlprk. That money could fix 200 bridges that fell down.

This was after W signed a $286.4B republican-passed highway spending bill in 2005.

Sequester. My ass.

 

[Denny Crane]

BTW, that 2005 spending bill was the largest spending bill in the history of the nation. Until Obama's so-called-emergency spending bill in 2009.

 

[barfo]

Sequester. My ass.

Do we have to?

barfo

 

[jlprk]

In Oct. 2011, Republicans filibustered Obama's Rebuild America's Jobs Act, which was to provide $50 billion toward infrastructure.

Now, back to current events. The Skagit River bridge is crossed by 71,000 vehicles per day. The Portland-Vancouver bridge across the Columbia River sees only 120,000 vehicles daily. They are both on I-5. Why does the Mt. Vernon area (population 40,000) get more than half the crossings of Portland (2 million)? (Source: all the articles I'm suddenly seeing about bridges.)