# Breaking News - I5 Bridge Collapse North of Seattle **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 24, 2013, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-i5-bridge-collapse-north-of-seattle/659190 "2013-05-24T02:58:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2013, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-i5-bridge-collapse-north-of-seattle/659190/21 "2013-05-24T06:16:48Z")
There’s no need to detour I-5. Just install [launching ramps](http://bb.wynnear.com/pics/Jump.JPEG) on the northbound and southbound lanes. Nothing like a little wake-up shot of adrenaline on the morning commute. (No fatalities so I don’t think it’s too soon.) ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2013, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-i5-bridge-collapse-north-of-seattle/659190/22 "2013-05-24T06:26:08Z")
Wow scary… ☹ ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2013, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-i5-bridge-collapse-north-of-seattle/659190/23 "2013-05-24T06:28:17Z")
[Bridge for sale on Craigslist](http://i.imgur.com/xjekWpk.jpg). Everyone’s a comedian. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2013, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-i5-bridge-collapse-north-of-seattle/659190/24 "2013-05-24T06:30:22Z")
The good news is that this probably will never happen again. It isn’t like our infrastructure is old and crumbling or anything. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2013, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-i5-bridge-collapse-north-of-seattle/659190/25 "2013-05-24T06:45:34Z")
> [@](#): > > The bridge was built in 1955 and has a sufficiency rating of 57.4 out of 100, according to federal records. That is well below the statewide average rating of 80, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal data, but 759 bridges in the state have a lower sufficiency score. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2013, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-i5-bridge-collapse-north-of-seattle/659190/26 "2013-05-24T06:57:11Z")
> [@standingwave](#): > > [Bridge for sale on Craigslist](http://i.imgur.com/xjekWpk.jpg). > > Everyone’s a comedian. And not always a good one – the ad reads “Well used 4 lane bride”. That should sell well. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2013, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-i5-bridge-collapse-north-of-seattle/659190/27 "2013-05-24T07:41:16Z")
> [@For You](#): > > And not always a good one – the ad reads “Well used 4 lane bride”. That should sell well. That’s one wide bride. Probably has had lots of traffic. ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2013, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-i5-bridge-collapse-north-of-seattle/659190/28 "2013-05-24T10:27:31Z")
Two threads on the topic merged. No changing lanes! ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2013, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-i5-bridge-collapse-north-of-seattle/659190/29 "2013-05-24T12:05:12Z")
> [@Duckster](#): > > Johnny LA, you got a copy? > [@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 I was beat yesterday, and went to bed early. The SO woke me up sometime after 2200 to tell me about the bridge collapsing. I got up at 0430 anyway. I thought I’d turn on the news instead of going directly to the shower, so that I could turn on the news to see about alternate routes. They said there are a couple of options (College Way or SR 9). The latter is out of the way, and the former is going to be a traffic nightmare. I sent an email to my boss and my coworker to tell them I’ll be working from home today. But I’d already started the coffee, so I didn’t go back to bed. Yesterday was a telecommuting day, so I was almost 50 miles away when it happened. Can’t pin this on me! I wasn’t there, man! I heard that the bridge collapsed around 1900. I’m usually through Mt. Vernon an hour or more before that time. Y’see… This is why I need to win the lottery so that I can buy a helicopter! ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2013, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-i5-bridge-collapse-north-of-seattle/659190/30 "2013-05-24T12:41:14Z")
> [@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. NWCN says the bridge was inspected in November and found to be safe. > [@For You](#): > > 70,000 cars, but is that the whole traffic count? What is the semi traffic like up that way (Seattle-Vancouver)? 70,000 vehicles includes the trucks. NWCN says the bridge was ‘functionally obsolete’. This doesn’t mean it wasn’t safe; just that it was not sufficient for the amount of traffic. There’s a lot of transport traffic in that area, since that’s the main route to Canada. To me, it doesn’t look that busy. But remember I’m from L.A. The 5 through downtown is like five lanes wide in each direction, and the right two lanes were packed with trucks whenever I drove there. The ruts in the right-most lane must have been a foot deep. (Well, maybe not a foot – but very deep.) Up here we have two lanes in each direction, and it’s nowhere near as pack with trucks as the Santa Ana Freeway is south of downtown L.A. ---
**Author:** ![yanceylebeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yanceylebeef/32/12290_2.png) [@yanceylebeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yanceylebeef)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2013, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-i5-bridge-collapse-north-of-seattle/659190/31 "2013-05-24T13:02:46Z")
Jesus, I’ve driven that bridge thousands of times. I’m glad everyone is okay, but Burlington is going to be a mess for a couple of years. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2013, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-i5-bridge-collapse-north-of-seattle/659190/32 "2013-05-24T13:09:41Z")
Of course they keep inspection records. I pulled the Washington NBI file from the web and their 2012 data shows the bridge was inspected in August 2010. It would have been inspected in 2012 since it’s on a 24 month cycle but that wouldn’t appear on that file. The superstructure was rated 5 at that time, not a great score but nothing to be alarmed about. The term functionally obsolete is itself obsolete. The new highway bill, MAP-21, dispenses with that terminology. Basically the algorithm looks at the clearances compared to the traffic and functional class of the roadway and computes evaluations for deck geometry and underclearance and those go into the FO computation. Again, it has nothing to do with the structural adequacy (indeed, a bridge cannot be functionally obsolete if it is structurally deficient, SD trumps FO, or it used to anyway). Don’t get excited about the sufficiency rating. The FSR calculation includes many functional type data items in its computation and the widths and clearances likely accounted for most if not all of the points it lost. Even the FSR doesn’t mean much anymore, it used to be that a bridge had to have \<50 points to qualify for replacement money, and \<80 points to qualify for rehab money. Again, MAP-21 does away with those requirements. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2013, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-i5-bridge-collapse-north-of-seattle/659190/33 "2013-05-24T14:38:58Z")
Does anyone else think it’s cool that rescue crews have [hovercraft](http://www.9news.com/images/640/360/2/assetpool/photogallery/337800/Still0523_00009.jpg)? ---
**Author:** ![yanceylebeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yanceylebeef/32/12290_2.png) [@yanceylebeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yanceylebeef)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2013, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-i5-bridge-collapse-north-of-seattle/659190/34 "2013-05-24T16:01:08Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Does anyone else think it’s cool that rescue crews have [hovercraft](http://www.9news.com/images/640/360/2/assetpool/photogallery/337800/Still0523_00009.jpg)? I saw that on the news. Pretty Awesome! If I’m going to need rescuing, a hovercraft would make it instantly 10 times better! ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2013, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-i5-bridge-collapse-north-of-seattle/659190/35 "2013-05-24T16:48:03Z")
> [@yanceylebeef](#): > > If I’m going to need rescuing, a hovercraft would make it instantly 10 times better! More on the hovercraft used. Two [Neoteric rescue hovercraft operated by Snohomish County Fire District 21](http://neoterichovercraft.blogspot.com/2013/05/neoteric-hovercraft-rescue-victims-in.html) helped save the lives of several victims last night when a portion of an Interstate 5 bridge collapsed, dropping vehicles and their passengers into the Skagit River 60 miles north of Seattle. [Order yours today!](https://www.neoterichovercraft.com/shop/shopNav.php?model=rescue&assembly=fully) ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2013, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-i5-bridge-collapse-north-of-seattle/659190/36 "2013-05-24T17:05:00Z")
> [@yanceylebeef](#): > > I’m glad everyone is okay, but Burlington is going to be a mess for a couple of years. I’ll be surprised if it takes that long, really. It’s going to be a lot simpler, and more urgent, since they won’t have to work around existing traffic. I wonder if they’ll replace just the one span that fell, or the whole bridge. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2013, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-i5-bridge-collapse-north-of-seattle/659190/37 "2013-05-24T17:11:21Z")
Just found out _Hannibal_ was pre-empted by coverage of the bridge collapse. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2013, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-i5-bridge-collapse-north-of-seattle/659190/38 "2013-05-24T18:52:04Z")
Wow, driven over that many times. On a bittersweet note, the weird in-laws that live up Hwy 9 will be getting cards instead of visits for the foreseeable future. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2013, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-i5-bridge-collapse-north-of-seattle/659190/39 "2013-05-24T19:12:47Z")
The paper hinted that perhaps an over-sized truck may have hit the superstructure. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2013, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-i5-bridge-collapse-north-of-seattle/659190/40 "2013-05-24T19:43:24Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > The paper hinted that perhaps an over-sized truck may have hit the superstructure. [Yep](http://www.sfgate.com/local/article/Interstate-5-bridge-collapses-over-Skagit-River-4544826.php). > [@](#): > > One survivor confirmed that the truck hit the bridge, which has a vertical clearance from the roadway to the girder is 14 1/2 feet. > > “He hit the bridge, there was a big puff of dust and I hit the brakes. The weight of the trailer and everything else, we went right off with the bridge as it collapsed into the Skagit River,” Dan Sligh told KOMO-TV. > > Just before the accident, Sligh said he told his wife "that it seemed that load he was carrying was about 4-feet wider than the actual bridge. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-i5-bridge-collapse-north-of-seattle/659190.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/breaking-news-i5-bridge-collapse-north-of-seattle/659190.md?page=3)