Raw Videos: Washington State Bridge Collapse

[Metro Jacksonville]

Raw Videos: Washington State Bridge Collapse



Another part of America's decaying infrastructure network fails. The Interstate 5 Bridge over the Skagit River in Northwestern Washington State collapsed on Thursday evening, dumping vehicles and people into the river. State troopers are not certain if there were any injuries or deaths. Here's a feed of three videos providing insight into the bridge's failure and rescue efforts underway.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2013-may-raw-videos-washington-state-bridge-collapse

[BridgeTroll]

the Washington Department of Transportation does not list it among its list of 'structurally deficient bridges.'

The preliminary cause seems to be a semi truck striking a support beam.

[PeeJayEss]

Good article here:
Sounds like 3 people went in the water in two vehicles and all are recovering from non-life-threatening injuries, and authorities don't think there were any others, so that's a positive. Truck allegedly hit an overhead support that caused the collapse, but the truck made it off the bridge. So while this bridge might not have been in tip-top shape, it does not appear that it spontaneously collapsed like the I-35 one. It was inspected recently and had appropriate repairs done. This is I-5 between Seattle and Canada, and it was the middle of the night, which is lucky, so traffic was nothing like that on the Mississippi River one.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/05/24/highway-bridge-collapses-in-washington-state-people-in-water/

[spuwho]

 "Functionally obsolete" means that the design of a bridge is not suitable for its current use, such as lack of safety shoulders or the inability to handle current traffic volume, speed, size, or weight.

[spuwho]

I have driven that bridge in Skagit Valley many times.

It is really a remnant of the old US 99 that was transitioned to the Interstate System when I-5 was completed. Many parts of US 99 had already been converted to 4 lanes prior to the FHA standards being set. This one was one of many that were simply transitioned under that plan, since in 1968, the bridge was still quite new.

It is easy to see that nearly no one uses a box truss anymore for limited access highway bridges.

[civil42806]

the Washington Department of Transportation does not list it among its list of 'structurally deficient bridges.'

The preliminary cause seems to be a semi truck striking a support beam.

stop ruining the narrative lol

[thelakelander]

When you think about it that way, that is a problem.  Who needs a terrorist when this guy can do a more effective job of taking out bridges?

[spuwho]

This might facilitate or accelerate the replacement of many of the pre Interstate bridges on the I-5 corridor. There are other box truss and arch truss spans on the route. There are more near Chehalis and over the Cowlitz. There is an older arch truss near Olympia that is identical to the I-95 bridge over the Jax Terminal yard.

[PeeJayEss]

this ruins the narrative?  If all it takes to destroy an entire bridge is a truck hitting a single support beam then there is a serious underlying problem.

Serious indeed, and pervasive. Very interesting map that shows the location of bridges that are listed as both structurally deficient AND fracture-critical. In Goldeneye 64 speak, fracture-critical means "one-shot kill." The loss of a single critical member could result in collapse. This I-5 bridge is of a fracture-critical design, but was not considered structurally deficient, so it wouldn't even have been on this list. So, theoretically, these are all higher risk than the bridge that just collapsed.

http://saveourbridges.com/map.html

Clarification of what all the classifications mean, via wikipedia:

The National Bridge Inventory includes a structural evaluation of deck, superstructure, and substructure, on a 0-9 scale:[2]

    9 Superior to present desirable criteria
    8 Equal to present desirable criteria
    7 Better than present minimum criteria
    6 Equal to present minimum criteria
    5 Somewhat better than minimum adequacy to tolerate being left in place as is
    4 Meets minimum tolerable limits to be left in place as is
    3 Basically intolerable requiring high priority of corrective action
    2 Basically intolerable requiring high priority of replacement
    1 This value of rating code not used
    0 Bridge closed

It also classifies bridges as either "structurally deficient" or "functionally obsolete". Neither necessarily implies lack of safety, though that could be a concern as well. "Structurally deficient" means that the condition of the bridge includes a significant defect, which often means that speed or weight limits must be put on the bridge to ensure safety; a structural evaluation of 4 or lower qualifies a bridge as "structurally deficient".[3] The designation can also apply if the approaches flood regularly.[1] "Functionally obsolete" means that the design of a bridge is not suitable for its current use, such as lack of safety shoulders or the inability to handle current traffic volume, speed, size, or weight.[4][5]

In December 2008, 72,868 bridges in the United States (12.1%) were categorized as "structurally deficient", representing an estimated $48 billion in repairs, and 89,024 (12.2%) were rated "functionally obsolete", representing an estimated $91 billion in replacement costs.

In my opinion, its really just a lack of funding (public will to fund) that is the problem. The inspections are being done, and for the most part policy-makers have the information available to them about which bridges need replacing. There are just so many that need to be replaced (I-5 and I-35W both having been characterized as such before their collapses), that it is a huge, high-stakes balancing act of risk management. I-35 probably should have had a higher priority rating, but it seems, with the large number of bridges in the same position as I-5 (would collapse if hit just right), it would be difficult tojustify a higher priority prior to the collapse.

Also, this is just a really cool (sad) website on the state of all our infrastructure:
http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/

[spuwho]

While there is a lot of distance between the two, the taxpayers did recently approve a deal to build a new basketball arena to woo the Sac Kings to town, just as they did for the Safeco Field. Private $$ was used on the football field.

Taxpayers will approve certain taxes depending on how they are served by them. Road investment is declining because people are driving less miles in more fuel efficient cars.

New roads are more sexy than fixing old ones.

As we used to say about government spending on infrastructure, "you will never find a replacement toilet named after anyone". "If its not new, its not named after you"