Roads damaged in natural disasters

[Bruce]

I stumbled upon a USGS collection of pictures of WA-504 during and after the eruption of Mount St. Helens and its subsequent mudflow and it got me itching to find more pictures of roads destroyed in natural disasters. Post what you can!


Mudflow deposit. covering State Highway 504 near the town of Toutle, northwest of Mount St. Helens, to a depth of 2 m (6 ft). Geologist for scale. Photo by R.L. Schuster. Cowlitz County, Washington.


The 75-m (247-ft) St. Helens bridge on State Highway 504. View before May 18 eruption of Mount St. Helens. Photo by D.R. Crandell. Cowlitz County, Washington.n.d.


The 75-m (247-ft) St. Helens bridge on State Highway 504 after May 18 eruption of Mount St. Helens when it was washed out by the mudflow on the North Fork Toutle River. This steel structure was carried about half km (quarter mile) downstream and was partially buried by the mudflow. Man for scale by bridge girder. Photo by R.L. Schuster. Cowlitz County, Washington. 1980.


Aerial view of flooded area at State Highway 504 bridge just below the confluence of the North Fork and South Fork Toutle River, northwest of Mount St. Helens. Photo by J Cummans. Cowlitz County, Washington. May 19, 1980.

[Jardine]

Just google "Interstate 680 flood damage" and you'll see the pictures of the 2011 Missouri River flood damage to 3 miles of good interstate.

What the Army Corp of Engineers destroyed in 104 days, PCI rebuilt in 33 !!!!

Several people looking at the destroyed interstate have used the term 'Biblical' to describe the damage.  Indeed, there are 2000 year old Roman ruins in better shape than that road after the flood waters went down.

I think there is a thread here somewhere on the I-680 damage too.

[oscar]

Kind of a slo-mo "disaster", but the three-decade-old eruption of Hawaii's Kilauea volcano has covered parts of several highways and streets on the Big Island, and frustrated initial attempts (ultimately abandoned) to repair the damage. 

http://www.hawaiihighways.com/photos-Lava-Closures.htm
(two page collection, including many photos from the Hawaii Volcano Observatory)

[cl94]

Kind of a slo-mo "disaster", but the three-decade-old eruption of Hawaii's Kilauea volcano has covered parts of several highways and streets on the Big Island, and frustrated initial attempts (ultimately abandoned) to repair the damage. 

http://www.hawaiihighways.com/photos-Lava-Closures.htm/
(two page collection, including many photos from the Hawaii Volcano Observatory)

Dead link

[oscar]

Fixed.

[The High Plains Traveler]

The Portuguese Bend Landslide on the south side of the Palos Verdes Peninsula near L.A. is a long-term disaster. Construction to extend Crenshaw Blvd. down the south side of the hills in the mid-1950s started a large area moving, eventually destroying a number of homes. Palos Verdes Drive South crosses this area, and at least when I was living in that area was continually rebuilt. The water main runs above ground along the road to avoid breakage. I'm not sure what the current status of this area is, but I have to think the slide is of very long duration.

[Alex]

Several segments of US 90 along the Gulf Coast have been washed out by hurricanes or  extremely heavy rainfall events. Earlier this year two sections in Pensacola were washed out and after Hurricane Katrina, two of the US 90 bridges in Mississippi were destroyed.

[Bruce]

Some earthquake damage on WA-302 after the 2001 Nisqually earthquake:

[hbelkins]

Flood damage from Friday night on KY 1427 in Floyd County:

[US71]

NW Arkansas has had several problems.  US 71 north of Mountainburg washed out 3-4 years ago and another section is slowly going.

AR 23 aka The Pig Trail had a washout 2-3 years ago and AR 16 near Brashears had a washout a few years back. So it seems to happen a lot around here.

[Arkansastravelguy]

NW Arkansas has had several problems.  US 71 north of Mountainburg washed out 3-4 years ago and another section is slowly going.

AR 23 aka The Pig Trail had a washout 2-3 years ago and AR 16 near Brashears had a washout a few years back. So it seems to happen a lot around here.

There's a part of 170 going into devils den that looked like it was washed out and rebuilt. Do you know anything about that?


iPhone

[US71]

NW Arkansas has had several problems.  US 71 north of Mountainburg washed out 3-4 years ago and another section is slowly going.

AR 23 aka The Pig Trail had a washout 2-3 years ago and AR 16 near Brashears had a washout a few years back. So it seems to happen a lot around here.

There's a part of 170 going into devils den that looked like it was washed out and rebuilt. Do you know anything about that?


iPhone

I'd forgotten. Been at least 10 years, maybe longer.

[freebrickproductions]

Sorry about the large picture, but here's a picture from this article on Wikipedia that was damaged in the April 25-28, 2011 tornado outbreak. This is Stokes Road in Kemper County, MS by the way.

[sbeaver44]

Hurricane Irene (2011) washed out part of NY 23 (very scenic road between Oneonta and Hudson, by the way) in Prattsville.  Link: http://www.catskillsearch.com/site/2011/10/27/route-23-prattsville-red-falls-construction/

Also, we could probably start a separate thread on NC 12.  Seems every year that poor road gets damage somewhere new.

[catch22]

The Thistle, Utah landslide in 1983 pretty much wiped out the town, a railroad and US-6/89.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thistle,_Utah

[2Co5_14]

Here is a video of a road in Freeport , ME being completely washed away in a culvert failure due to flooding.  I'm not sure of the exact date - it was posted August 2008.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_uqPR4Ir5o

[1995hoo]

....

Also, we could probably start a separate thread on NC 12.  Seems every year that poor road gets damage somewhere new.

Pretty much. This picture of said road on Hatteras Island after Hurricane Sandy is fairly typical:





The infamous Klingle Road in Washington, DC, probably belongs in this thread. A three-quarter mile segment had to be closed in 1991 due to erosion damage from storm water. It led to years of sniping over whether to rebuild the road, turn it into a bike path or other multi-use trail, or what. They still haven't done anything one way or the other, although trail funding was in a recent city budget.

These pictures make it pretty obvious that reopening it as a road would not be a simple reconstruction.

[myosh_tino]

Here are some photos of damaged roads caused by a 6.0 quake that struck the S.F. Bay Area (Napa/American Canyon to be exact) Sunday morning...

[adventurernumber1]

Here are some photos of damaged roads caused by a 6.0 quake that struck the S.F. Bay Area (Napa/American Canyon to be exact) Sunday morning...

Wow..I heard about that earthquake. Hope everyone who was injured is alright.

[myosh_tino]

Wow..I heard about that earthquake. Hope everyone who was injured is alright.

The most serious injury, as of now, was to a 13 year old boy when a chimney collapsed on him.  This morning, it was reported that he has been upgraded from critical to serious condition.

Infrastructure damage was pretty much limited to the Napa valley region but even then, the damage wasn't serious enough to force Indy Car to cancel its race at the Sonoma Raceway (located about 8-9 miles from the epicenter).

I'd say we dodged a bullet on this one because the quake occurred at 3:20 in the morning.  Had this happened at 3:20 in the afternoon, there probably would have been lives lost because of falling debris, especially in the downtown Napa area.

[SteveG1988]

Here is a good question.

Has a movable bridge ever been taken down by lightning? like it is open and gets hit by a bolt, frying the motors?

Also, what if it was caused by a manmade disaster, that was caused by a natural disaster?

Dam bursts, sending water down stream, bridge gets washed out...does that count? the dam could have burst due to faulty design, or just old age. NJ70 had a few wash out in the 2000s due to that.

[PurdueBill]

Now that is literally breaking news!

The I-88 culvert failure in 2006 had some interesting video online once of the widening washout even swallowing up the BGS for the exit, which was still standing in the pics shown at the link.

[Jim]

We had a thread a couple years ago around the 25th anniversary of the NY Thruway bridge collapse:

https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=6429

[Bruce]

Never drive on Washingtonian bridges during inclement weather:

Tacoma Narrows Bridge - November 7, 1940; collapsed during heavy winds, blamed on design of the bridge deck

Lacey V. Murrow Memorial Floating Bridge - November 25, 1990; sank during windstorm, blamed on contractors storing water inside the pontoon

[hm insulators]

The Portuguese Bend Landslide on the south side of the Palos Verdes Peninsula near L.A. is a long-term disaster. Construction to extend Crenshaw Blvd. down the south side of the hills in the mid-1950s started a large area moving, eventually destroying a number of homes. Palos Verdes Drive South crosses this area, and at least when I was living in that area was continually rebuilt. The water main runs above ground along the road to avoid breakage. I'm not sure what the current status of this area is, but I have to think the slide is of very long duration.

The ground is very unstable there and they have to constantly repair that road. That section is announced by signs that read along the lines of "CONSTANT EARTH MOVEMENT NEXT 2 MILES". I drove it as recently as last Christmas.

When I'm driving, I don't want my earth to move, I want it to stay put, thank you.