What bridge closure would cause the most chaos/disruption?

[JREwing78]

Our former pastor used to live in Houghton, and they did baptisms in Lake Superior.

Speaking of Houghton, the scope of this thread warrants a mention of US 41/M-26 across Portage Lake, since there are no other road crossings and it would cut the northern half of the Keweenaw Peninsula off from all land access.

Wow, I think I'd be hesitant to live on the other side of that bridge. I'm guessing there's no hospital on the north side.

Both local hospitals are north of the bridge. Next closest is in Baraga.

SM-G991U

[GaryV]

The hospital is on the north side of the Portage, in Hancock.

The airport, too.

[TheOneKEA]

Several posters have already mentioned the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, the Millard Tydings Bridge and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Maryland. I would also add the following bridges to the list for consideration:

- US 340 across the Potomac River
- US 15 across the Potomac River
- American Legion Bridge
- US 29 across the Rocky Gorge Reservoir
- US 50 across the Nanticoke River
- US 50 across Sinepuxent Bay
- MD 213 across the C&D Canal

[Dirt Roads]

- US 340 across the Potomac River
- US 15 across the Potomac River

Not as bad as one might think.  There is the Brunswick Bridge connecting VA-287 and MD-17 at Brunswick, Maryland.  However, you do need to take SR-671 all the way down to VA-9 west of Hillsboro to get around the US-340 bridge.  As tempted as you might be to go all the way to Wheatland and pick up VA-287, take Mountain Road north on the other side of Hillsboro as it is one of the most scenic roads in the entire state.  For a US-15 detour, Lovettsville Road is a bit winding but not that far out of the way.

[sparker]

All I can say is it's fortunate both Interstate crossings of the Carquinez Strait (I-80, I-680) feature twin spans; if one is out of service, removing some K-rail above/below the point where the directions rejoin would allow the use of one of the spans for bidirectional traffic.  Since those effectively carry most of the commercial traffic heading to Sacramento or the PNW, not to mention farther east via I-80, loss of even one span out of four would cause congestion and backup all the way to San Jose on the south and Sacramento to the northeast.  A San Rafael Bridge/CA 37 detour would clog up quickly; the long haul over 580 and the Altamont Pass via Stockton just isn't feasible for any extended time. 

[fillup420]

closure of the I-95 bridge over Lake Marion in SC would be a headache to navigate around. The closest crossing to the north is US 378, 32 miles straight-line. To the south is US 52, 27 miles straight-line. Both detours require long deviations from 95.

[Daniel Fiddler]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this one.  The Sunshine Skyway would require a detour for St. Petersburg to / from southwest Florida requiring an extra 30+ miles.

[kkt]

All I can say is it's fortunate both Interstate crossings of the Carquinez Strait (I-80, I-680) feature twin spans; if one is out of service, removing some K-rail above/below the point where the directions rejoin would allow the use of one of the spans for bidirectional traffic.  Since those effectively carry most of the commercial traffic heading to Sacramento or the PNW, not to mention farther east via I-80, loss of even one span out of four would cause congestion and backup all the way to San Jose on the south and Sacramento to the northeast.  A San Rafael Bridge/CA 37 detour would clog up quickly; the long haul over 580 and the Altamont Pass via Stockton just isn't feasible for any extended time. 

Yes, Caltrans did the right thing by making them twin bridges.  The other alternative would be north on 101 to Petaluma and then 116 and 12 to I-80 at Cordelia.  It's kind of a long way around too, and with a lot of 2-lane roads that would get crowded quickly if there was an extended closure.

[sparker]

All I can say is it's fortunate both Interstate crossings of the Carquinez Strait (I-80, I-680) feature twin spans; if one is out of service, removing some K-rail above/below the point where the directions rejoin would allow the use of one of the spans for bidirectional traffic.  Since those effectively carry most of the commercial traffic heading to Sacramento or the PNW, not to mention farther east via I-80, loss of even one span out of four would cause congestion and backup all the way to San Jose on the south and Sacramento to the northeast.  A San Rafael Bridge/CA 37 detour would clog up quickly; the long haul over 580 and the Altamont Pass via Stockton just isn't feasible for any extended time. 

Yes, Caltrans did the right thing by making them twin bridges.  The other alternative would be north on 101 to Petaluma and then 116 and 12 to I-80 at Cordelia.  It's kind of a long way around too, and with a lot of 2-lane roads that would get crowded quickly if there was an extended closure.

I lived in Napa circa 1990-91; frequent incidents on CA 37 would result in drivers, particulary during commute times, to detour onto 121 from Sears Point to Napa and then segue onto CA 12 (and the inverse WB), most of which was 2-lane at the time (and much of which still is!).  All I can say about that congestion was "holy shit!".  Shoehorning 2 lanes of traffic from 37 to 121 was bad enough, but drivers trying to enter from 12 and 116 south of Sonoma would sit for 15-20 minutes before encountering a break.  It's really not a viable alternative under simply local circumstances; a bridge breakdown would be catastrophic if a span (or two) would be out of service.   

[allniter89]

Our former pastor used to live in Houghton, and they did baptisms in Lake Superior.

For what it's worth, the water temperature in Los Angeles today is about one degree colder than in Sault Ste Marie.

Meanwhile the Gulf of Mexico water temp at Pensacola, FL is 87°.
I'm not a beach person but it doesnt seem possible that 87° water & 94° +air temp 106°heat index would be coooling.

[kphoger]

I'm not a beach person but it doesnt seem possible that 87° water & 94° +air temp 106°heat index would be coooling.

I'm sure some evaporation still takes place when you get out of the water.

[Hobart]

I'm gonna throw my hat in the ring here.
I have to say the Interstate 80 bridge over the Des Plaines River in Joliet would cause a lot of chaos if it were to fall into the river right now.

Many trucks use the bridge to get to an inland port in nearby Elwood, and a lot of people use that stretch of I-80 to either get to work, or to get across the country. Truck traffic is heavy, and the stretch of highway near the bridge is a choke point for three crowded lanes of traffic in just east of there.

Most alternative routes would either run people down Interstate 355, a toll highway, a bunch of two-lane roads south of Joliet not built for heavy volumes of traffic, or run people through a bunch of suburbs. If people were too cheap to pay tolls but didn't want to leave the interstate, they would need to take Interstate 55 all the way to Chicago's loop, and take Interstate 94 back out of it. Any one of these options would cause even more chaos than the bridge does now.

[kphoger]

If people were too cheap to pay tolls ...

Or simply don't have a toll pass on the windshield.

[Flint1979]

I think the Bill Buckner Bridge in Boston (actually named the Zakim Bridge but called the Bill Buckner because you go through the legs of the bridge just like the ball went through Buckner's legs in 1986) fits this bill.

[kkt]

I think the Bill Buckner Bridge in Boston (actually named the Zakim Bridge but called the Bill Buckner because you go through the legs of the bridge just like the ball went through Buckner's legs in 1986) fits this bill.

Great naming story for the bridge

[Flint1979]

I think the Bill Buckner Bridge in Boston (actually named the Zakim Bridge but called the Bill Buckner because you go through the legs of the bridge just like the ball went through Buckner's legs in 1986) fits this bill.

Great naming story for the bridge

I thought it was quite amusing. Imagine Buckner's legs right here https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3683432,-71.0629828,3a,75y,124.24h,89.61t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sqLXsasWq3wzRnVSzcbAsFw!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DqLXsasWq3wzRnVSzcbAsFw%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D39.45758%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192

[US20IL64]

If people were too cheap to pay tolls ...

Or simply don't have a toll pass on the windshield.

Can pay online, and if not tech savvy, call a kid,

[Roadgeekteen]

Bumping this to ask Marylanders and others in the area often- how much disruption has the key bridge collapse caused?

[Great Lakes Roads]

Black Hawk Bridge in Lansing, IA.

[kphoger]

If people were too cheap to pay tolls ...

Or simply don't have a toll pass on the windshield.

Can pay online, and if not tech savvy, call a kid,

Or simply don't want to bother figuring out how to pay online.  Which has nothing to do with being cheap.

[ElishaGOtis]

This teeny-tiny bridge on I-4 at the massive Chokepoint since there're very few alternative routes over Reedy Creek, and the ones that do exist also get backed up on a daily basis... I-4 here already gets an AADT of around 140k...

https://maps.app.goo.gl/1E2Le3c8RFt92WRk7?g_st=ipc

Buckman and Fuller Warren Bridges are also close contenders in terms of AADT, but they have somewhat tolerable alternative routes...

[bwana39]

The I-20 bridge over the Mississippi River. Sure they could reopen the old bridge in a week or less, but the detours to avoid that backup could take HOURS per vehicle.

They could probably open the bridge in much less time (2-3 days, no repaving, just striping the current road, and adding temporary traffic signals because 2 lanes of traffic aren't fitting on there) if needed, but the real problem would be the rail line. I can't imagine that road traffic and trains would be allowed to cross at the same time, and seeing as how the bridge is owned by the rail line, and the track seems to be used quite regularly, traffic would probably be stopped quite frequently. I imagine that for all intents and purposes, all traffic would be routed away from the bridge, and only local traffic would be allowed to use it.

The way the bridge is built,the traffic and the trains are fully separated. You might stop the traffic for the trains, but back in the day, they did not.  The real holdup is on the Louisiana side where about 100 feet of the pavement has been removed by a bulldozer. My take would be it all would need to be repaved from  from the bridge to HWY 80's current split from I-20. Yes, it would be alternating single direction traffic like it was pre-1970's. I once drove across it WB at freeway speed when the new bridge was shut for some sort of maintenance. That was nearly 50 years ago.: 1976. The freeway was still open EB.

[webny99]

Bumping this to ask Marylanders and others in the area often- how much disruption has the key bridge collapse caused?

I'm not from Maryland, but the effects seem to have been manageable once people adjusted to new traffic patterns. AADT on the Key Bridge was only around 40k, and it helps that there are still two Interstate tunnels across the harbor.