Bridge collapse in Washington Vol. da infrastructure is wack b

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[h1]I-5 bridge collapses in NW Wash.; people in water[/h1][h2]An Interstate 5 bridge over a river north of Seattle collapsed Thursday evening, dumping vehicles and people into the water, the Washington State Patrol said.[/h2]

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A section of an Interstate 5 bridge over Washington state's Skagit River collapsed Thursday.

From the Associated Press
May 23, 2013, 8:44 p.m.

MOUNT VERNON, Wash. (AP) — An Interstate 5 bridge over a river north of Seattle collapsed Thursday evening, dumping vehicles and people into the water, the Washington State Patrol said. 

The four-lane bridge over the Skagit River collapsed about 7 p.m., Trooper Mark Francis said. There was no immediate estimate of how many people were in the water or whether there were any injuries or deaths, he said. 

It also was not known what caused the collapse of the bridge about 60 miles north of Seattle in Skagit County, which stretches from the North Cascades National Park to a cluster of islands off the Washington coast. 

Xavier Grospe, 62, who lives near the river, said he could see three cars with what appeared to be one person per vehicle. The vehicles were sitting still in the water, partially submerged and partly above the waterline, and the apparent drivers were sitting either on top of the vehicles or on the edge of open windows. 

“It doesn't look like anybody's in danger right now,” Grospe said. 

Crowds of people lined the river to watch the scene unfold, The Skagit-Valley Herald reported. 

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.
 
That's got to be a devastating experience. Ptsd will probably prevent those people from driving for months or years.
 
Damn.. This aint cool..

C- grade on all our bridges!?

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 Bouta be mad paranoid to cross..
 
Memorial Weekend is going to be a damn nightmare up there. San Juan ferry traffic plus the land route to Whidbey Island...all diverted to a two-lane highway lol.
 
Memorial Weekend is going to be a damn nightmare up there. San Juan ferry traffic plus the land route to Whidbey Island...all diverted to a two-lane highway lol.

For real, that is going to be a huge problem for a while until they can get the replaced. I always think twice driving over the decrepit I-5 bridge from Portland to Vancouver.
 
Seriously though...when the bride collapsed in Minnesota some years back I read somewhere that the United States infrastructure is in dire straits. 

It's surprising that this doesn't happen more often. 
 
I hate bridges. The I-75 bridge here has a terrible rating and its over the Ohio river smh.
 
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I've been preaching about decaying infrastructure in this country for years. It will take deaths and destruction for people to start paying attention.

Billions on wars but pennies on bridges and roads. Yeah ok.
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Repped. 

Makes no sense...could you imagine the bridges in NY collapsing? Or the bridges out in the Bay Area? 
 
I'm supposed to be heading up north next week.. i5 from Vancouver to Portland ain't bad.. I never take that bridge anyways.. I usually take 205 then to i84.. is this bridge before or after the 405 split? I need to head to Bellevue area
 
Go on this bridge atleast once a month to hit up WWU. These bridges here are all bad. They say this bridge scored a 55. The Alaskan way viaduct scores a 9.
But on the real though glad there was no deaths and no serious injuries. I hope that trucking company gets sued out of their *****
 
For those that aren't aware of it, if you're driving over a bridge there's a pretty good chance you're driving over repairs that need to be done and/or "duct tape" fixes that will be a lot more permanent than they should be.
 
When I was watching the news about this yesterday, the WSDOT rep on the phone mentioned something about a truck hitting the bridge. He didn't elaborate though because they're still investigating.

EDIT: my local news says it was an oversize load that caused the collapse.

View media item 425424
could you imagine this...:wow:
 
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For those that aren't aware of it, if you're driving over a bridge there's a pretty good chance you're driving over repairs that need to be done and/or "duct tape" fixes that will be a lot more permanent than they should be.
I listen to NPR driving home and I hear about something new that's ****** up with the Bay Bridge remodel literally every other day. These people cannot get it right
 
I'm supposed to be heading up north next week.. i5 from Vancouver to Portland ain't bad.. I never take that bridge anyways.. I usually take 205 then to i84.. is this bridge before or after the 405 split? I need to head to Bellevue area
it's not gonna be a problem for you, this is well north of Bellevue.
 
I listen to NPR driving home and I hear about something new that's ****** up with the Bay Bridge remodel literally every other day. These people cannot get it right

I begin to trust the new Bay Bridge less and less. Going to be taking BART to work for a minute when that thing opens man.
 
Damn, now this is gonna be in the back of my mind whether it's the San Mateo, Golden Gate, or Bay Bridge I'm crossing.
 
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