Posted on 05/24/2013 12:18:57 AM PDT by djf
MOUNT VERNON, Wash. — A portion of an Interstate 5 bridge over the Skagit River, about 60 miles north of Seattle, collapsed Thursday, sending three vehicles and people plunging into the cold water at least 50 feet below.
Amazingly, there were no fatalities, Skagit County authorities said. Three people were pulled from the river and taken to Skagit Valley Hospital and United General Hospital; two were reported to be in stable condition, the other had minor injuries and was being released Thursday night.
The survivor who was released was identified as Dan Sligh, 47. His wife, Sally Sligh, 56, remained in the hospital. The other injured person was reported to be a 20-year-old man.
Both the northbround and southbound lanes of the northern section of the bridge collapsed at about 7 p.m.
This section of I-5 runs between the Washington cities of Burlington and Mount Vernon.
When rescuers arrived, people were sitting on top of their submerged cars. The water is about 18 feet deep where the bridge collapse took place.
Gov. Jay Inslee headed to the scene to monitor the rescue efforts, and the National Transportation Safety Board said it was monitoring the situation as well.
Inslee later told a news conference that repairing the bridge is “job No. 1″ and that it’s unknown how long it will take to replace the bridge. I-5 is a main north-south arterial for northwestern Washington state.He said he will authorize the Transportation Department to establish detour routes to minimize impact on traffic and commerce.
“Witnesses say a truck hit the bridge and caused it to collapse, but an investigation has been launched to confirm that,” Inslee said. “Any witnesses or people with information should contact the State Patrol.
“The National Transportation Safety Board is on their way tomorrow, and I’ve been in touch with our federal partners. We will be involved in a vigorous and diligent effort to get traffic flowing again through the Skagit bridge corridor and I will issue an emergency proclamation tomorrow to make sure we have the resources to do so as quickly as possible,” Inslee said.
Goskagit.com said one driver who had just crossed the bridge shortly before it collapsed told a reporter he felt a vibration and looked in his rear view mirror to see that the section of bridge he had just crossed was no longer behind him.
“I thought something was wrong with my car at first,” the man told the reporter about feeling the vibration.
The bridge was built in 1955, was inspected last November and it received passing grades, Treece said.
“and realize many are paid to do that. this was documented here as well in the recentpast, libs are and were paying people to develop online profiles to go onto targeted sites and spout the liberal lines and attack certain conservative posters that were identified as problematic because of their persuasive posts.”
Sequoyah101 and chris37 are, in my humble opinion, two examples of such profiles. The two profiles were registered nine days apart in the lead up to the 2008 elections and the formats of their names (Name with numbers) is a commonality and they also post in similar topics and, quite often, within minutes of each other in the same topics. I suspect that they are the same person.
it was targeted to fail
I-5 is the main route to Canada, traffic is now being diverted through town in order to use the other bridge ...
Bender he still blame Ike LOL!
Been over that bridge a few times myself, though, my crossings were 30 years ago when I was stationed at Whidbey Island NAS.
I think that you have to look at the meanings of the terms they are using. “Structurally deficient” and “obsolete” don’t mean they are dangerous to use and at imminent threat of collapse. It basically means they are old and should be replaced by more modern bridges. I read somewhere that the bridge got a C- grade.
“The bridge was built in in 1955 and had a sufficiency rating of 47 out of 100 at its November 2012 inspection, Transportation Department spokesman Noel Brady said Friday. 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 or functionally obsolete.”
We have a bridge where I live that we have been trying to get replaced for about 8 or 10 years. It has a sufficiency rating of 21 our of 100.
We have not been able to get approval from FHWA. They keep coming up with new requirements that did not exist when we started this. Each one delays it for 3 to 6 more months. Such as providing for the homeless who live under the bridge while we tear it down and rebuild it. Declaring a shallow ditch under the bridge that the railroad did not clean regularly enough, as a Federally Protected Wetland. There are a lot of other things equally stupid, but you get the idea.
Arranging for an other crisis they will not let go to waste no doubt. All those mythical set-aside highway funds collected in taxes on fuel?... Well, the private banking cabal euphemistically called the federal reserve appreciates our collective stupidity. The ‘IOUs’ accumulated as fedzilla took the taxes collected for social engineering have yet another credit re ceipt to be written to the fedzilla for loans of imaginary money to rebuild infrastructure ... kind of like those soical security IOUs in the lockbox! LOL
C- grade for an interstate freeway bridge. The I-5 Interstate Freeway is very heavily traveled, particularly by triple-trailer big rigs.
Since this bridge was, according to eye-witnesses, hit by an oversized truck-trailer, it now must be replaced.
Too bad the folks who make these decisions waited until a crisis occurred rather than anticipating the probability and just replacing the bridge to accommodate the bigger sized vehicles.
People from outside the area (and some from within) are making comments on this situation that show no appreciation of the actual circumstances).
The bridge accommodated "bigger sized" vehicles just fine for over 55 years. This is the main truck transportation route from Seattle to Vancouver.
The problem is that the oversized load was mostly in lane 1 instead of spanning the two lanes. The bridge structure is arched and at the center, between the two lanes, has the most clearance. There would have been no contact if the trailer had been placed correctly. The accident was the fault of both the pilot car and the truck driver.
This was not the fault of the bridge. Sure it would be nice to have brand new bridges everywhere -- feel free to donate.
Triples not permitted in Washington State. Doubles up to a max of 68 feet, I think, with 30-day permit on most of I-5.
I live in the state off Washington. I deal with substandard bridges all the time in this state.
Mostly when hit by Canadian truckers with oversized loads.
I was very curious, since this is not that far away (tectonically speaking) from where the landslide occurred on Whidbey Island. Do you think the Juan de Fuca is doing some moving around up there? Something seems whacky.
I've got family up there, too, so just a little concerned.
My brother is an engineer and he has had things happen on his job sites like uncovering an archaeological site, and once they dredged up WWII unexploded ordinance. Both of which shut them down for days.
Well, we can't have that. It needs to be redesigned and rebuild in an overly complex and expensive manner, perhaps with a design that celebrates diversity. It can then be built with Chinese steel or perhaps imported concrete, fortified with sawdust.
Have I got this about right?
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