CA 60 Pomona Freeway Truck Fire Destorys Paramount Bl Overpass

[Bigmikelakers]

Overpass before fire:


P1150248 by bigmikelakers, on Flickr

Overpass after fire:



According to the LA Times, it will take several months to rebuild the overpass.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/12/tanker-explosion-freeway-could-reopen-friday-afternoon.html

[The High Plains Traveler]

According to the LA Times, it will take several months to rebuild the overpass.

Although later today CalTrans was speculating that maybe only one side of the overpass needed to be demolished and the other side could remain. That would cut the closure and rebuilding time. They didn't say whether any traffic would be allowed if that were the case.

Reminds me of waaaaay back when a tanker overturned and burned in the ramp from SB Harbor to SB San Diego freeways. Since that is essentially a tunnel it closed the 405 (on top of it) for several days. It was eerie to drive through that scorched tunnel after it was reopened.

[myosh_tino]

Tankers exploding into a massive fireball under overpasses are never a good thing.  Case in point is the eastbound I-580 ramp from the Bay Bridge in Oakland which actually collapsed due to the intense heat of the tanker truck fire on the I-880  ramp below.  The heat was so intense, it melted the steel girders causing the 3-lane wide bridge to collapse.

[Quillz]

Did the BGS fall off, or was it taken down by Caltrans engineers?

And the last major truck fire I can remember was the one at the Newhall Pass, inside one of the I-5/CA-14 junction tunnels.

[Bigmikelakers]

Reminds me of waaaaay back when a tanker overturned and burned in the ramp from SB Harbor to SB San Diego freeways. Since that is essentially a tunnel it closed the 405 (on top of it) for several days. It was eerie to drive through that scorched tunnel after it was reopened.

What year did that happen?

[OCGuy81]

Wow! That's terrible.  I don't drive the 60 very often, but thanks for the heads up.  I'll avoid that area of it in the short term.

[andytom]

Did the BGS fall off, or was it taken down by Caltrans engineers?

CNN had some live video while the fire was burning showing the sign pretty much gone but the supports in place.  As the sign was directly over the burning truck, my assumption was that the sign burned away.

--Andy

[mgk920]

And with the sign being made out of aluminum, it wouldn't stand a chance in a fire of that sort.

Mike

[The High Plains Traveler]

Quote from: The High Plains Traveler on December 15, 2011, 10:57:50 PM

Reminds me of waaaaay back when a tanker overturned and burned in the ramp from SB Harbor to SB San Diego freeways. Since that is essentially a tunnel it closed the 405 (on top of it) for several days. It was eerie to drive through that scorched tunnel after it was reopened.

What year did that happen?

I think I was in my mid teens - maybe not driving yet? That would put it in the mid to late 1960s. I think that interchange was constructed in the early 1960s, almost certainly pre-1964.

[Bickendan]

Eerie seeing the Pomona empty

[andy3175]

I made an update to the State Route 60 page ... https://www.aaroads.com/california/ca-060ea.html.

Regards,
Andy

[hm insulators]

I was in southern California over the holiday season and the day after Christmas, I drove from Orange County up the 605 and briefly turned west onto the Pomona Freeway. I wanted to check out the Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project wherein Southern California Edison is replacing some of the oldest power-line infrastructure with big new 500-kilovolt lines. At the time, I didn't know what had happened to the Paramount Boulevard bridge, so when I drove under it, I was like, "WOW! WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO THE BRIDGE?!" It was all blackened and scorched and parts of it seemed to be missing. The next day, an article in the paper had an update of some sort about the damaged bridge and I found out what had happened.

My question is why didn't the driver of the truck in question stop just a couple hundred feet earlier or get off at the offramp, rather than park his rig directly under the bridge? I mean, surely he knew something was amiss with the truck by the time he got to the Paramount Blvd. offramp and he should've stopped on the offramp rather than directly under the bridge.