Traffic has a slight problem north of Seattle - I-5 bridge falls down!

[adidasguy]

Yep - oversized truck took down the I-5 bridge north of Seattle.
That will make for one mess for people going between Seattle and Canada.


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[Kiwingenuity]

Has even made the news this side of the world...

Corrosion + poor maintenance?

EDIT: maybe someone could Dukes of Hazard it...

[john]

Wow.  Truck clips one of the supports and the whole things collapses.  Now that's pretty bad.  More amazing is that nobody died.

[yamahonkawazuki]

You aint kiddin, am glad nobody died on this one. hate to see the bill on this repair tho. news was calling it "functionally obsolete" i wonder what they meant by this?

[adidasguy]

That just means old design.

The truck hit the cross beams. A driver next to the truck called the TV station saying the pilot car height stick was hitting the beams - which means the truck will hit the beams. Dumb ass truck driver is what it was.

The bridge was of a design where if one critical member was knocked out, the bridge would fall down. I guess that's true of you look at any girder style bridge: remove any one member and now you don't have a strong triangle for support and it will fall down.

[yamahonkawazuki]

That just means old design.

The truck hit the cross beams. A driver next to the truck called the TV station saying the pilot car height stick was hitting the beams - which means the truck will hit the beams. Dumb ass truck driver is what it was.

The bridge was of a design where if one critical member was knocked out, the bridge would fall down. I guess that's true of you look at any girder style bridge: remove any one member and now you don't have a strong triangle for support and it will fall down.

Yup. you said it perfectly.  wonder if pilot driver knew of the stick hitting, and notified driver. ?

[pliskin]

I saw on the news recently that something like 70% of all bridges are not safe anymore due to lack of maintenance. I cross the Chesapeake Bay bridge a few times a year. It's 5 miles long and a little scary, expecally on a bike because it gets a little windy at times. They have a service where people will drive your car across it for you for free. It's old, high and skinny and does not look like it was built to hold much weight. 

[yamahonkawazuki]

that the one near bethlehem steel?