Bridge Collapse in Washington State

http://www.kirotv.com/news/news/i-5-skagit-river-bridge-collapses-people-vehicles-/nX2d5/

KAGIT COUNTY, Wash. – — Both north and southbound lanes of the Interstate 5 Skagit River Bridge collapsed Thursday evening, said officials with the Washington State Patrol.

The collapse happened between south of Burlington and north of Mount Vernon just after 7 p.m.

According to the State Patrol, people and vehicles are in the water.

Drivers are being advised to stay away from the area.

http://media.cmgdigital.com/shared/lt/lt_cache/thumbnail/400/img/photos/2013/05/23/e5/b1/skagit_valley_herald.jpg

Does not look good. Can only hope that any injuries or fatalities are fewer than Bridge collapse in Minneapolis since it's less populated.

Google Street View

Quick correction: that shouild be SKAGIT COUNTY.

i'm personally pretty cool with raising rich people taxes until every single bridge is fortified with diamonds, this is like nightmare #1

INFRASTRUCTURE, America!

The mania for LOWERING TAXES has no connection to this bridge collapse. This can be proved by... oh look, a puppy!

have to admit whenever i'm on a long bridge i think about this kind of shit the whole way across

a few republican politicians are rewriting their constituent letters right now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-zczJXSxnw

It's scary. Imagine building a bridge now with the same engineering and materials they used in the 50s and expecting the cars and trucks of 2070 to safely cross it.

Bridges happen to be one area where engineers have a huge amount of data that's been collected and refined over more than 150 years (regarding just the more modern iron/steel/rivets technology). People don't like bridge collapses and tend to make a big fuss about them.

If cost were no object, an engineer could easily design a bridge using 1950s technology that would have a projected lifespan of several hundred years, assuming the load projections were anything close to accurate.

i think people might make a big fuss about them because this, come on dude

http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim2/2013/05/23/130523-WA_BRIDGE_COLLAPSE_620x350.jpg

3 days ago, Gov Inslee said WA gas taxes needed to increase to cover bridge and road repairs. Search for washington state bridge ratings and you can find a pdf of all the structurally deficient bridges by county. The bridge that just collapsed was down at #157 on the list.

Correction - there's 156 deficient bridges on the list, and that one hadn't been prioritized for repair. Just monitor by inspection. Waiting to see which side of it a friend heading up to Vancouver tonight is on.

He'd already made it across before it collapsed.

looks like no fatalities

That's a relief. It looks like the span would have had a max of 6 cars on it?

it also seems like it wouldn't be hard to reach victims from the shore, since the bridge is short, and the distance from bridge to water is not that long compared to other places this could have happened. still horrible though, and frightening.

After what happened on I-40 in Oklahoma and 35W in Minneapolis, this was a huge relief.

Ok, now you all can hit me with your Tacoma-Narrows gifs.

There was also when the I-90 floating bridge sank, sometime in the '80s.

Sounds like a truck hit it: http://my.chicagotribune.com/#story/chi-washington-bridge-collapse-20130524/