An expansion joint in southbound I-5 just south of I-90 has buckled. Three of the five lanes are closed. Traffic is backed up 7 miles according to NPR. WA-99 is a working alternate, but very backed up as well. For regional travelers, I-405 is a better bypass.
Man alive..... everything within 2 miles of the Montlake Bridge was backed up today. It gives a double sense of how precarious our road infrastructure here is (both because this kind of incident happened, and because all it took was that one closure to screw up traffic all over the north end). I shudder to think how things will be after the Metro route cuts in the fall.
At least there wasn't an earthquake! It would be frightening to see additional damage to the roads after that.
This is reminding of the Skagit River Bridge incident.
Thank you for that very necessary bump. It's good to know that three lanes being closed and repaired within a day remind you of a bridge falling into the river and the entire freeway being closed in both directions for a month.
No, just more of a 1960's vintage freeway with maintenance problems and suddenly a piece of the freeway buckles which could or could not have to do with the condition of the freeway structural-wise reminded me of the bridge collapse. And I'm sorry if you found the relation un-necessary but there's no need to be rude about it.
The Skagit bridge was structurally okay. Driving over it with a load that was too big for it was the problem. There's always going to be some load that's too big for a bridge.
I'm just imaging the future when they realize that elevating most of I-5 through Seattle wasn't a good idea, and they have to either replace the bridges or remove them and build into the hillside, like they should have in the first place. It will make the viaduct construction look like a cakewalk.
Quote from: TEG24601 on September 08, 2014, 12:41:41 PM
I'm just imaging the future when they realize that elevating most of I-5 through Seattle wasn't a good idea, and they have to either replace the bridges or remove them and build into the hillside, like they should have in the first place. It will make the viaduct construction look like a cakewalk.
Seattle's hilly. Some portions are under ground level, other portions are above ground level. If you tried to build it all under ground level, you'd run into the waterways and have to choose between a very deep tunnel, below the ships' bottoms, and a high level bridge. Tunnel underwater would be extremely expensive, high level bridge from a below-grade freeway would require too long approaches.
I think we're stuck with the elevated roadways.
Quote from: kkt on September 08, 2014, 03:36:39 AM
The Skagit bridge was structurally okay. Driving over it with a load that was too big for it was the problem. There's always going to be some load that's too big for a bridge.
If this is the event I'm thinking of, a truck was dragging a chain which damaged the expansion joint. So I suppose it did have something in common with the Skagit Bridge: while better maintenance certainly wouldn't have hurt, the actual incident was caused by drivers being idiots.