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View Full Version : Well my town just went onto the national spotlight. (I-5 Bridge collapse)



B5C
24th May 2013, 07:56
I-5 is the major highway connecting Seattle, WA & Vancouver, BC. Well the bridge that goes over the Skagit River just collapsed tonight. Luckily there was no deaths, but only three injuries.

http://media.komonews.com/images/130522_bridge_collapse_6a.jpg
http://media.komonews.com/images/130523_bridge_collapse_ra_9639.jpg
http://media.komonews.com/images/130522_bridge_collapse_g_9.jpg

This is what being reporting about the bridge.


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.

According to a 2012 Skagit County Public Works Department, 42 of the county's 108 bridges that are 50 years or older. The document says eight of the bridges are more than 70 years old and two are over 80.

Washington state was given a C in the American Society of Civil Engineers' 2013 infrastructure report card and a C- when it came to the state's bridges. The group said more than a quarter of Washington's 7,840 bridges are considered structurally deficient of functionally obsolete.
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Cars-bodies-in-Skagit-River-after-I-5-Bridge-collapse--208760201.htmlNow maybe our citizens in our nation will stop supporting low taxes and cutting our road budgets.

One of my friends from college just cross over that bridge just mere two mins before the collapse.

Good thing that there are three alternative routes. At 11 PM at night traffic was good. I got a good look passing by.

From the radio. It seems a overloaded semi hit one or two of the beams before the section collapse.

Blake's Baby
24th May 2013, 10:22
What's a 'semi'? Some kind of truck?

In the UK it's either 1-a type of house (where two houses are built up against each other, usually as a mirror-image, they're 'semi-detached' ie 'semis'), or 2-an erection that isn't completely hard ('watching the women's cricket wasn't very exciting, I only got a semi').

Neither of those explanations fits the context very well.

Glad your friend got over without incident by the way.

The Douche
24th May 2013, 14:24
What's a 'semi'? Some kind of truck?

In the UK it's either 1-a type of house (where two houses are built up against each other, usually as a mirror-image, they're 'semi-detached' ie 'semis'), or 2-an erection that isn't completely hard ('watching the women's cricket wasn't very exciting, I only got a semi').

Neither of those explanations fits the context very well.

Glad your friend got over without incident by the way.

A semi or tractor trailer:

http://www.dtrucks.com/sites/www.dtrucks.com/files/assets/semi-truck-X-Small.jpg

Il Medico
24th May 2013, 15:55
What's a 'semi'? Some kind of truck?

Yeah, they're the big ones used for shipping (with 18 wheels usually). You lot call them lorrys over there I believe.

B5C
24th May 2013, 16:35
Well I will give Google some credit. They already updated their maps to show the bridge is gone.

https://maps.google.com/?ll=48.444177,-122.335939&spn=0.03103,0.084543&t=m&z=14

Red Commissar
25th May 2013, 04:21
There was a pretty nutty trestle collapse around these parts too, though it didn't affect anyone...

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La GuaneƱa
28th May 2013, 02:55
I just want to say that this was reported here in Brazil.