Western Railroad Discussion > Interstate 5 bridge collapse in Washington State

Just saw on Fox News that a Interstate 5 bridge has collapsed north of Seattle WA. Near Mt Vernon WA over Skagit River. Is the BNSF line in the area able to handle any extra passenger trains in the short term. Unknown if any people have been hurt.

Fox News??? I don't believe it...

I kid!

I hope everyone's alright.

- Jeff Carlson

bnsfsd70 Wrote:
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> Fox News??? I don't believe it...
>
> I kid!
>
> I hope everyone's alright.
>
> - Jeff Carlson

I wouldn't either but it's on NBC's website as well. Partial collapse, cars in the water, no other details.

EDIT: additional details from AP via Denver Post:
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_23312490/i-5-bridge-collapses-nw-wash-people-water



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/23/13 20:17 by lowwater.

The NB and SB lanes collapsed into the Skagit River, 2-3 cars with people in the water/on top of their vehicles. No ETA on when they will be pulled out.

The bridge is over the Skagit River at Mt. Vernon, WA. It collapsed all of a sudden at 7pm, PDT this evening. This is the primary route between Seattle and Vancouver, BC. Traffic is backed up in both directions for miles.

Please see the two attached photos. Some sort of railway shuttle utilizing both SOUNDER and BNSF equipment (if any) would be a great idea. But it still wouldn't have the capacity !
Photos courtesy of KING-TV.

KRK

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How many billions of $$$ is this country behind in infrastructure repair and replacement?

Looks like another fracture-critical truss design, like the one on I-35 that fell in Minneapolis.

And yes, if you want to see a consequence of politicians' failure to maintain transportation/infrastructure, you're looking at it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/23/13 20:39 by toledopatch.

Live public safety radio audio at http://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/4958

Jim

fbe Wrote:
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> How many billions of $$$ is this country behind in
> infrastructure repair and replacement?


$3.6 TRILLION.

http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/

If only my truck was in that water too...

I see survivors and I hope there are more.

Posted from Android

KING TV is interviewing an eye witness that says a truck with a high load struck the upper corner of the bridge. The witness has experience in trucking and he says the pilot car with the height pole was too close to the front of the truck to warn the driver in time to stop.

My coworker drove over that bridge just four hours earlier.

toledopatch Wrote:
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> Looks like another fracture-critical truss design,
> like the one on I-35 that fell in Minneapolis.
>
> And yes, if you want to see a consequence of
> politicians' failure to maintain
> transportation/infrastructure, you're looking at
> it.


If that's the case, why didn't bridge inspections pick up the safety deficiencies, and why wasn't it closed?

Oops, right now it appears that it wasn't considered structurally at risk of collapse, but rather listed as inadequate in regards to factors such as narrow lanes or shoulders, etc. But that key distinction gets lumped into 'rated deficient' soundbite that implies 'dangerous' so as to trick people into supporting an agenda.


Which can be illustrated by comparing how 2 news outlets cover the story from the same source:

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http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57586023/i-5-bridge-collapses-in-nw-wash.-people-in-water/

The bridge is not considered structurally deficient but is listed as being "functionally obsolete" — a category meaning that their design is outdated, such as having narrow shoulders are low clearance underneath, according to a database compiled by the Federal Highway Administration.

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, 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.

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http://blogs.seattletimes.com/today/2013/05/bridge-collapses-on-interstate-5-over-skagit-river/

The bridge, built in 1955, 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, 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.

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Note how the Seattle Times decides to edit out the most important section that indicates the bridge was not considered structurally deficient. That edit completely changes how the following data comes across. Seems to be an intentional case to mislead by an activist pretending to be a journalist. Professional malpractice.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 05/23/13 21:24 by darkcloud.

Watching King5 news on the www, they say it was inspected in the past few months. Another topic was the bridge status included being functional but not current to dimensional needs. Which fits with a hi-wide whacking some of the overhead trusses.

Says no fatalities known at this time.

The same thing with the same cause happened on the SP at the Medina River near San Antonio in about 1985.
A shifted load of bridge timbers on a flat car hit the truss, knocking it down and taking about 30 cars into that river. About 18 of the cars were sulfuric acid. The Sunset route main line was out of service for four days while we tore out the wreckage and built 360 feet of concrete bridge.
The cause then was stupidity too. At Del Rio this eastbound train crew had been advised to "watch that load of bridge timbers, it was reported as shifting but it looks OK" by the inbound crew. They met several westbounds each of which told them about the shifted load and to each they replied "we know". What had in fact happened was the load was still shifting, getting wider by the mile. They made it through several steel truss bridges before it got bad enough to hit the Medina River span.
Remember "when in doubt, take the safe course?" If they had actually stopped and walked forward from the caboose (remember that little car of crewmen who were supposed to be protecting the rear of trains?) they would have found out if it was safe to proceed.
About as smart as a truck driver tailgating his own pilot car.

Kinda makes my heart beat a little faster. I've crossed that bridge at least a dozen times this year. I can't believe what appears so few cars involved. There has always been more traffic than that when I've been there. Traffic moves at 70 there even though the speed limit isn't that high. I can just see somebody talking on their cell phone and all of a sudden there isn't a highway in front of him. Now I'm gonna be afraid to cross any of the bridges between Vancouver (WA) and Centralia.

Gotta have something about trains on this post. I turn west less than a mile north of here and follow the rail line to Anacortes. Frequently see trains for the refinery parked on the line. Quite often get to see a couple of the old Santa Fe "B" units.

jb

toledopatch Wrote:
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> Looks like another fracture-critical truss design,
> like the one on I-35 that fell in Minneapolis.
>
> And yes, if you want to see a consequence of
> politicians' failure to maintain
> transportation/infrastructure, you're looking at
> it.

The failure on I-35 in MN was not a "maintenance" issue. It was a design flaw that finally caught up with them. What is amazing is that it did not happen sooner. It took some loading conditions during a maintenance project to finally cause the failure.

Old Bob out in Lost Wages

Send in the Sounders!!

Suspicions is that an over width truck may be the cause of the bridge collapse. On KOMO TV, one of the survivors was interviewed just coming out of the hospital, and said that a wide load truck hit the truss, then a puff of smoke then he and his wife was in the water.

Warren
Seattle, WA

I'm no civil engineer, but maybe we should design bridges so that the VEHICLE will lose, just in case the bridge collides with the vehicle.

jdb Wrote:
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>
> I can just see somebody talking on their cell
> phone and all of a sudden there isn't a highway in
> front of him.

This exact scenario happened on 9-17-89, the day of the big San Francisco earthquake (the "Loma Prieta" quake). There were two cars cruising along the bridge (Interstate 80), and they did not notice the lack of a road in front of them! Luckily they were on the upper deck, so when they fell below, they only fell to the lower deck which was still intact. If they had fallen through to the water, they surely would have been killed because that bridge is quite high.