Bridge collapse on I-5 in Burlington, WA

[ATCclears]

I hope everyone gets out OK.

Peter

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[Brutus57]

Yes, I hope everyone is OK! I live about 8 miles from that bridge and was on it yesterday on a trip to Bellingham and back. Traffic is going to suck for MONTHS, Dang!!!



Brutus Out

 

[accessbob]

Wow! Horrible.

 

[SP101]

hey Brutus, tell me how you are going to get from mount vernon south to ???

 

[coctailer]

Bridges don't just collapse do they?

Don't they inspect them?

 

[Brutus57]

hey Brutus, tell me how you are going to get from mount vernon south to ???

The bridge is between Mt. V and Burlington.

I live south of the bridge. There are two alternate routes but they are not made for I-5 numbers of cars. Old 99 is the route over now or Fir Island to Chuckanut.

Brutus Out.

 

[Nick Burkhardt]

Damn <broken link removed>

 

[Burt Gummer]

A Skagit Valley Herald reporter at the scene said a sheriff's office rescue boat has arrived and rescue crews were looking for people in the water.

The reporter saw one person sitting atop one vehicle in the water and could see a second vehicle as well.

Crowds of people lined the river to watch the scene unfold, the newspaper reported.

Read more: <broken link removed>
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[Burt Gummer]

Channel 49 on Comcast

 

[Brutus57]

I am shocked there are no TV choppers overhead. Its sunny skies currently viz 15 miles or better.

Brutus Out

 

[mjbskwim]

Can't believe there wasn't more carnage.

OK now think of the outcome for y'all if the river was that biggun down south.
Or maybe the ship canal in Seattle

 

[ATCclears]

Yes, it's why I posted the event here. Think how many bridges may collapse during a major earthquake. How will you get around? Traffic problems? Enough fuel?

Peter

 

[Brutus57]

The 63/4 quake was major, I experienced it, so the the recent Nisqually quake, not too many bridges were damaged but now this state has a number of bridges in heavy use well beyond their expected life span. So there will be more of these since clearly current inspections aren't catching flaws.

Brutus Out

 

[Sgt Nambu]

Can't have a mommy state and replace infrastructure too! If those pesky citizens would just give up those awful vehicles (and firearms too) we could take care of just everybody!!!

Hope that everyone is OK! My brother in law lives pretty near there, but he is at home.

 

[Burt Gummer]

No lives lost apparently.

I've heard over the years that many bridges have been rebuilt and strengthened in cities to support tanks/military heavy vehicles and/or masses of people/cars crossing them all at once.

Haven't done enough research to determine if that is most likely BS or not. Most of the time though an assumption that gov is up to no good is usually a safe assumption.

 

[Mark W.]

Maybe instead of pissing away 200 million on planning and greasing the wheels for the "NO ONE WANTS THE DAMN THING COLUMBIA RIVER CROSSING BRIDGE" they should have taken a better look at the bridges we do have. This makes me think of the local school district who has allowed our schools to fall into disrepair and figured no problem we will just ask for a 36 million dollar bond to tear one down, abandon another, shuffle kids around, and build another around the Gym from the one they want to tear down.

This after the last one of 39 million that was supposed to solve all these problems.

You can build a Walmart Super store including the property and all fee's for less then 10 million. Tell me how many kids you could school inside a Walmart Super store sized building?

Our new high school has a freckin stair case with more sq ft age then the classrooms in the grade school I attended. Looks cool total waste of money.

 

[ATCclears]

Update. It sounds like a truck with an oversize load hit the bridge. A witness (who went over and landed in the water) said another semi was in the left lane and seems to have prevented the semi with the oversize load from moving to the left.

I wonder if there were both forward and rear pilot vehicles, and if there was a rear pilot vehicle then why didn't it "protect" the semi with the oversize load during the bridge crossing.

Bridge collapse Washington Interstate 5 | www.kirotv.com

Peter

 

[Brutus57]

i think there's an ammo company in Burlington. I hope this doesn't exacerbate the ammo problem! WHAT NEXT?

Brutus Out.

 

[Capn Jack]

There is!!! Where??

Jack...

 

[Provincial]

Require a permit to carry oversize loads! Oh, they already do. Never mind. Oh, let's ban oversize loads, since no one really needs them and they cause problems. - Ginny Burdick