Breaking News - I5 Bridge Collapse North of Seattle

[Duckster]

MOUNT VERNON, Wash. – The Washington State Patrol says the Interstate 5 bridge over the Skagit River at Mount Vernon has collapsed, dumping vehicles and people into the water.

Trooper Mark Francis said the four-lane bridge collapsed about 7 p.m.

Francis says he has no idea how many people are in the water or whether there are any injuries or deaths. He did not know what caused the collapse.
The incident has closed northbound and southbound traffic in the area; traffic is reportedly backed up significantly on I-5.

http://www.king5.com/news/local/Report-I-5-bridge-collapses-over-Skagit-River-cars-in-water-208758631.html
“traffic is reportedly backed up significantly on I-5.”
Johnny LA, you got a copy?

Ya think?? :smack:

[Morbo]

A few people in the water.

The reporter saw one person sitting atop one vehicle in the water and could see a second vehicle as well.

[Duckster]

News reports a 70,000 vehicles per day cross the bridge.

Not anymore.

Gonna be a mess tomorrow.

[Robot_Arm]

“traffic is reportedly backed up significantly on I-5.”

Yeah, I’ll bet.

[Snowboarder_Bo]

Fall down go sploosh!

[

An Interstate 5 bridge over a river north of Seattle collapsed Thursday evening, dumping vehicles and people into the water, the Washington State Patrol said.

The four-lane bridge over the Skagit River collapsed about 7 p.m., Trooper Mark Francis said.

Xavier Grospe, 62, who lives near the river, said he could see three cars with what appeared to be one person per vehicle. The vehicles were sitting still in the water, partially submerged and partly above the waterline, and the apparent drivers were sitting either on top of the vehicles or on the edge of open windows.

“It doesn’t look like anybody’s in danger right now,” Grospe said.

[url=http://www.komonews.com]KOMO TV has some stuff (including pics) on their site](http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_I_5_BRIDGE_COLLAPSE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-05-23-23-41-58).

[Rhiannon8404]

Friends of mine live right near there. He posted some pictures on his Facebook page. I’m so thankful neither of them were on the bridge at the moment.

[Duckster]

Got it here an hour earlier.

[standingwave]

@Snowboarder_Bo

KOMO TV has some stuff (including pics) on their site.

And a live stream here: http://www.komonews.com/live

[Dr.Drake]

@Komo News

Bart Treece with the Washington State Department of Transportation was unsure when the bridge was last inspected.

“All of our bridges in the area are pretty old,” he said.

Gee. This seems like the sort of thing where you’d keep records.

[silenus]

@Duckster

Gonna be a mess tomorrow.

Tomorrow? It’s gonna be a mess for the next few months!

I’ve driven over that bridge countless times. I have family in Mount Vernon and surrounding environs. None wet, thank Og.

[PastTense]

How long before it will be back up?

This reminds me of the bridge collapse in Minneapolis: “On Aug. 1, 2007 the I-35W Bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis collapsed. The new bridge opened at 5 a.m. on Sept. 18, 2008”

I-35W St. Anthony Falls Bridge - MnDOT

[eschereal]

Oh, I-5 is just a minor road

:eek:

[Critical1]

This is going to be ugly as sin, there are only 2 bridges nearby that also cross the river (the third is a railroad crossing) and both are smaller and require driving through a fairly small town, but hay, its only 70,000 cars per day.

[Duckster]

@PastTense

How long before it will be back up?

This reminds me of the bridge collapse in Minneapolis: “On Aug. 1, 2007 the I-35W Bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis collapsed. The new bridge opened at 5 a.m. on Sept. 18, 2008”

I-35W St. Anthony Falls Bridge - MnDOT

Politics will delay it. This is going to take federal assistance, but part of Congress today won’t want to pay for “disaster relief.”

[silenus]

Burlington is fucked, no two ways about it.

[eschereal]

70,000 cars, but is that the whole traffic count? What is the semi traffic like up that way (Seattle-Vancouver)?

[China_Guy]

Johnny LA, I hope you weren’t commuting over that today at the wrong time…post you’re still alive and kicking please

[standingwave]

Good picture here. From the @NWCN twitter feed.

[Smapti]

FWIW, I just finished my commute from Olympia to Tacoma and it hasn’t affected the traffic down this way at all yet, although my exit is 98 miles south of the collapse. The traffic advisory signs are all lit up.

[eschereal]

*While the cause of the collapse is still unknown, witnesses reported seeing a semi-truck with an oversized load crossing the bridge and striking the beams on the north end before the bridge collapsed.

“I saw it. I was less than 50 feet away from the truck when it hit it,” witness Dale Ogden told KING 5. “I had just passed it in the fast lane southbound and it had an oversized load. It was approximately 12 feet wide and over 14 feet tall. It was in the slow lane when I came by…I was behind the flag car and in front of the truck in the other lane and I saw the whip - normally tells you how high they can clear - start hitting the bridge. I looked in my rearview mirror knowing this was not going to turn out well.”

“I saw the truck strike the right corner of the bridge. It almost tipped the truck over but it came back down. It tipped it up to about a 30 degree angle to the left and it came back down on its wheels and almost instantaneously behind that I saw girders falling in my rearview mirror.”*

NWCN