I-5 bridge over Skagit River collapses, cars with people in water

reply to post by roadgravel

Same thing in my country,since 1994-roads full of potholes everywhere.In some areas,people have on occasion started fixing up particularly bothersome ones themselves.I'm surprised this is happening in America though-your government don't have Apartheid to blame for the fact that they steal+waste taxpayers money,and ignore the fact that infrastructure actually has to be maintained.I still have this impression in my mind that America is a country that keeps infrastructure in tip-top shape,so this is surprising to find,that you guys also have to worry about things (literally) falling apart .I hope the drivers+passengers of the 2 cars made it out safe.Good thing its not winter by you now.

Originally posted by g146541
reply to post by MidnightTide

 

A couple of years back, the Sacramento Bee (the biggest paper in the valley, that crushed the competition) ran an article on the state of bridges in the state.
There is a bridge on I-80 that crosses the sacramento river.
It is A HUGE ONE 3 or 4 lanes each way and very high, it had I believe 600 cracks in the structure, that still have not been fixed.
This will make wonderful horrible headlines someday.

If only folks were not greedy in their positions and actually worked for the people and fixed the infrastructure before lives were lost...
Maybe the next officials after the coming revolution will take their jobs seriously.

That worries me, I live off I-80 in PA, and my sister moved outside of Sacramento and uses that bridge on I-80 out there time to time. Turns out everyone was ok in this collapse, they think all the victims were rescued.

The government knows all these bridges are long overdue for inspections, maintenance, repair and replacement. we're to busy fighting wars and giving money away.

Originally posted by westcoast
reply to post by llmacgregor

 

Okay....I am not posting this on FB or anything, but this IS a conspiracy website. So here you go:

This bridge has been there since 1955. It is a main I5 corridor. What are the odds that a semi is going to hit and collapse it??? Plus, going into memorial weekend, literally cutting off the main artery into Canada.

I would think State Patrol would be on high alert for anything in similar, strategic locations.

I agree. Bridges local to the area have been hit not long ago. They should have been aware, unless, as seen in some commentary on the net, oh and before someone decides they haven't had enough coffee to understand what is being said about conspiracy being linked to the event look it up for yourselves!
In conclusion from what is being talked of,

Democratic leader/s in opposition against GOP filibustering of money needs for infrastructures, planned this out, knowing it would work as intended. Already mentioned in this thread here: www.abovetopsecret.com...

Who is this truck driver and why now did they decide to pass where they truck would not obviously fit? Is it connected to something bigger? -see above and below-

Another conspiratorial assumption:
As the I-5 bridge being the main way in and out of Canada, perhaps a way to close off a) escape route to Canada if emergency (b entering of people and or trade

Anyway, intentional or not, and directed to both sides of the same coin...funding going towards making these bridges and more of our highways safe needs to be assessed over big bank threat bail outs and the rest of the nonsense spending or we'll be looking Forward to Detroit.

You can lower taxes for everybody especially the poor billionaires for some time, but after a while your whole infrastructure slowly collapses. Everybody uses it nobody wants to pay for it.

You guys don't even have underground telephone or electric cable in most regions.

The most scary thing is, that some of the atomic powerplants run on the same non existing money.

You hear things like that from third world countries very often.

A government run, tax funded infrastructure maybe isn't the best way, but it provides a certain security ans stability.

Sligh told reporters his vehicle was "behind a semi-truck pulling a wide load. I was commenting to my wife as we approached the bridge that it seemed that the truck and the load he was carrying was about four feet wider than the actual bridge on the right side. ... We started slowing down, and about that same time another semi-truck came up on the left side, and it almost looked like he pinned that truck over to where he couldn't swerve to get over. "He hit the bridge about 3 or 4 feet wider than the actual bridge was, and there was a big puff of dust. I hit the brakes, (but with) the weight of the trailer and everything else, we went right off with the bridge as it collapsed into the Skagit River."

According to KIRO, the white semi-truck that was being investigated by State Patrol troopers was marked with an oversize load sign and followed a pilot car southbound across the bridge.

CBS news

I drive this bridge often as it is less than ten miles from my location and it was clearly a structure that should of been replaced in the last 20 years, but of course they'd rather upgrade their own motor pools and give themselves raises leaving it for their replacements or perhaps waiting for a catastrophe knowing that it would be paid out of some emergency budget from another bureaucracy.

Sure it appears an oversized semi whacked the girders of a bridge which lacked the redundancy of a more modern design, but the truth is our leaders have dropped the ball long ago.

Not only that it was a hit and run, as the state patrol had to hunt for the truck that kept going. What a jerk!

False flag. TPTB are going to start collapsing bridges on purpose, thereby forcing people to buy new cars and solving the economic crisis.

trollface.jpg

Had to drive around this area to get home last night.. Lucky I wasn't on the bridge when it fell into the water, the word here is that a semi truck hit some part of the bridge and collapsed it.. Heard people saying this at work just after it happened..

I see the truck was mentioned in many news stories about this, but what I heard was from someone who saw it happen.. Things like this don't happen very often up here...

A lot of the transportation infrastructure in this state is old and really needs to be fixed or outright replaced. There's constant construction going on in Seattle because of this (traffic sucks all year round). One of the last places I would want to be when the Cascadia Fault finally goes is anywhere in that city.

Originally posted by pjfry
You can lower taxes for everybody especially the poor billionaires for some time, but after a while your whole infrastructure slowly collapses. Everybody uses it nobody wants to pay for it.

You guys don't even have underground telephone or electric cable in most regions.

The most scary thing is, that some of the atomic powerplants run on the same non existing money.

You hear things like that from third world countries very often.

A government run, tax funded infrastructure maybe isn't the best way, but it provides a certain security ans stability.

No, this is EXACTLY what you get from government run, tax funded projects. One of the few things that tax money is constitutionally supposed to go for and unless some politician can get some crony kickback cash, it ain't happening. Yet we spend billions on idiotic, unconstitutional crap like foreign aid and the mating habits of shrimp.

Originally posted by sean
The government knows all these bridges are long overdue for inspections, maintenance, repair and replacement. we're to busy fighting wars and giving money away.

Responsibility for local infrastructure surely falls to state government, not federal?

Originally posted by MidnightTide
I know many bridges are coming up to their life expectancy, surprised this hasn't happened more often.

Dont worry. The POTUS promised a bunch of shovel ready jobs I'll throw this one out there for the hardcore tinfoilers Could this be a conspiracy to destroy bridges only to be re-built to stimulate shovel ready jobs?

Originally posted by Sankari

Originally posted by sean
The government knows all these bridges are long overdue for inspections, maintenance, repair and replacement. we're to busy fighting wars and giving money away.

Responsibility for local infrastructure surely falls to state government, not federal?

That depends on the highway. This was a state highway so upkeep for it falls to the state.

Are there not signs posted for the max height/weight allowed and did someone not measure the height of the load and tell the driver? Me thinks, someone is in a heap of doodoo. What time did this happen and you are very lucky it was not at peak time, I am sure it would or could have been much worse.

Washington has some scary bridges - floating bridges that sway as you drive over them.
Looks like the infra structure is decaying - could be - d.c. should stop sending foreign aid and start repairing the U.S. of A.

Originally posted by sean
The government knows all these bridges are long overdue for inspections, maintenance, repair and replacement. we're to busy fighting wars and giving money away.

Originally posted by buster2010
That depends on the highway. This was a state highway so upkeep for it falls to the state.

^^ There you go, sean: the government responsible for this bridge is not the government 'fighting wars and giving money away.'

I think the major issue we're seeing today is bridges in the US in general. Bridge collapses will be a very common thing moving into the next decade if the US Govt. doesnt fund the fixing of them...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Not sure if this has been shared yet, but 759 Bridges In State of Washington Have Worse Sufficiency Scores....

story

Federal fuel tax

The United States Highway Trust Fund is a transportation fund which receives money from a federal fuel tax of 18.3 cents per gallon on gasoline and 24.4 cents per gallon of diesel fuel and related excise taxes.

It currently has three accounts, the Highway Account which funds road construction, a smaller 'Mass Transit Account' which supports mass transit and also a 'Leaking Underground Storage Tank Trust Fund'. It was established 1956 to finance the United States Interstate Highway System and certain other roads. The Mass Transit Fund was created in 1982. The federal tax on motor fuels yielded $28.2 billion in 2006.

History

Prior to the 1956 Highway Revenue Act and the establishment of the Highway Trust Fund roads were financed directly from the General Fund of the U.S. Treasury. The 1956 Act directed federal fuel tax to the fund to be used exclusively for highway construction and maintenance. The Highway Revenue Act mandated a tax of three cents per gallon. The original Highway Revenue Act was set to expire at the end of fiscal year 1972. In the 1950s the gas tax was increased to four cents.

The 1982 Surface Transportation Assistance Act, approved by President Ronald Reagan in January 1983, increased the tax to nine cents with one cent going into a new Mass Transit Account to support public transport.

In 1990 the gas tax was increased by President George H. W. Bush with the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 to 14 cents - with 2.5 cents of the increase going to the Highway Fund and the other 2.5 cents going towards deficit reduction.

In 1993 President Clinton increased the gas tax to 18.4 cents with the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 with all of the increase going towards deficit reduction. The Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 redirected the 1993 increase to the Fund.

en.wikipedia.org...

Our infrastructure in general is in bad shape. I'm in southern Colorado, bridges on the interstate were repaired a couple years ago but state highways are another matter. We've had two collapse on state highways. These are mountain roads.

We're a sparsely populated county, not exactly at the top of the list for state funds. We're the invisible, forgotten people until Shell oil/drilling/fracking operations start sniffing around our natural resources. Unfortunately the state remembers us only when it suits their agenda.

I think part of the problem is the practice of taking the "low bid." Weather/truck traffic is tough on our roads but road crews are back out there patching way too soon after repaving. Some new paving jobs are left rough/crappy. We all know it's going to last maybe a season and wasn't worth the expense. Why not pay more so it's done right in the first place?

County roads are even scarier and we've got lots of bridges on them. The county removed a large culvert from our road and left it a deep dip, no Texas crossing, sign nothing but a dirt hole. People were hitting it pretty hard. No one was hurt but the county got tired of complaints and finally put in another culvert.

On this same stretch there was a place where the road crossed an arroyo. Both sides got heavily washed and the culvert filled with sand. It was 20 feet or more deep on both sides, my house and then some could've fit. One side filled with water but the county didn't close it until water was actually spilling over the gravel road, we called it the "earthen dam." They finally shut it down and tried to drain it. We kept waiting for it to blow. Eventually one side filled with sand so the road is open, until the next gully washer.

If you think the infrastructure in cities is bad proceed with caution in rural areas.