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the bridge is not structurally deficient
Posted: May 24, 2013
“This is just bad luck of where it hit and how it hit,” said Washington Transportation Secretary Lynn Peterson. “Based on our inspections, the bridge is not structurally deficient.”
Seriously? Do these people just pull comments that like out of their badonkadonk? Incredible that it took and hour and a half for anybody to get there to help them. :-(
;
Bridge - Been there
[ In Reply To ..]Of course it took that long for help to arrive, it's the middle of Interstate 5 and in what would be considered a rural area. EMTs from Seattle and Everett, which are the closest cities, were probably at least an hour away. The bridge was built in 1955 so it was old but for the time it was built, it was not structurally deficient. Bridges in Washington State are inspected every 2 years and it has passed inspections. The fact that an oversized rig hit one of the girders played a huge part in the accident, so Lynn Peterson makes a good point. I wondered how long it would take one of you to jump all over this and blow things out of proportion. I've traveled that section of highway many times and know exactly where it occurred. I'm thankful no one was killed and that it was not during rush hour; the response time would have been even slower.
been there - Roseanne
[ In Reply To ..]And I wondered how long it would take "one of you" to shoot back with some sanctimonious hooey. A bridge collapses and they can't spare a helicopter? I live in a rural area. There was an accident on the blacktop involving fatalities. They had a helo there in 20 minutes. Give me a break.
another thought been there - Roseanne
[ In Reply To ..]I really don't want your rationalizations or your explanations. I want the Republicans in Congress who sequestered funds to our first responders to be held accountable. But then, if frog's had wings they wouldn't bump their badonkadonk every time they jumped.
So you think a total bridge collapse after a "bump" to one girder - is up to acceptable standard?
[ In Reply To ..]Hello. Bridges are not built structurally deficient. They become structurally deficient with age. If by "blowing things out of proportion," you mean WA state drivers and their families shouldn't expect to be able to safely traverse the bridge without taking their lives into their hands, they I guess you've made a point.
On behalf of my husband, who drives an 11-car carrier 18-wheeler tractor-trailer, and bends over backwards every day of his life to be in US DOT, FMCSA and state transportation agency compliance, I think that notion is absurd. Commercial drivers pay big, big bucks to use those roads to make a living. One tiny infraction, like failing to return a safety audit phone call for example, can mean being put out-of-service for 30 days or more. If they are mandated to observe those regs OR ELSE, then it's really not too much to ask that the state who assesses the taxes, endless fees, fines and penalties do the same. Their budgets are a tad bit bigger than a trucker's household bank account.
Accidents happen - Been there
[ In Reply To ..]It was a freak accident and eventually it will all be sorted out. Apparently, one oversize rig and one semi were involved and apparently it was more than one girder. I wasn't there and neither were you. It seems there is plenty of blame to go around. The locals think the truck drivers were Canadian and "everyone knows" Canadians are bad drivers. Under normal circumstances the bridge was safe. In 1955 no one anticipated the heavy vehicle weights over oversize vehicles we encounter today. Common sense should tell you that no state has enough money in their budget to rebuild every bridge. I wasn't there and neither were you, but you are the expert. Instead of blaming everyone, how about a prayer or some empathy for the people involved in the accident? I can tell you right now that if you are blaming the response team because you think it took them too long to get there you can forget about it. It takes a while to travel by boat and reach the people in the river.
"Everyone knows" Canadians are bad drivers? - What?
[ In Reply To ..]Then after making such an absurd statement, you're admonishing me to say a prayer "instead of blaming everyone?"
One does not have to be an eyewitness to be able to assess the facts of the case as reported by a number of local law enforcement, state and federal transport agents. Let's examine them, shall we?
Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste said the vertical clearance from the roadway to the beam is 14.6 feet.
The truck made it off the bridge and the driver (singular) remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators. He VOLUNTARILY gave a blood sample for a drug and alcohol test and was not arrested. Two other vehicles went into the water as the structure CRUMBLED.
The trucking company was in full compliance with US regs. It applied for a state permit to carry its oversized load across the bridge and was approved. Truck company management said the STATE Department of Transportation had approved of the company's plan to drive the equipment along I-5 to Vancouver, Washington.
In addition, the company hired a local escort to help navigate the route, an extra precaution they were not required to do. The driver was well-experienced with handling oversized loads. The company manger said, "This is what we do for a living. We pride ourselves in doing things the proper way."
Mike Allende, a state DOT spokesman, confirmed the truck had its permit. "We're still trying to figure out why it hit the bridge," he said. "It's ultimately up to the trucking company to figure out whether it can get through. It's their responsibility to make sure the load they have can travel on that route."
That said, state officials who issue those oversize permits require gross truck weight, load weight, axle weight distribution, and load dimensions to process that permit application. They also have route designation, so one would think they too would have a vested interest in determining whether or not that load was hazardous BEFORE the permit release, not after the bridge collapse, especially in view of the $15 million in damages the incident created.
Dave Chesson, a state DOT spokesman, said there were NO SIGNS leading up to the bridge warning about its clearance height. That tiny detail would suggest that it would be extremely difficult for any driver, Canadian or otherwise, to precisely assess the truck's ability to safely cross the bridge with the APPROVED oversize load.
This was no freak accident. Without proper signage and with the documented federal bridge designation as "functionally obsolete" (which the state chose to either ignore or oppose), it was an accident waiting to happen.
BTW, my posts have made no mention of first responders, but I do agree with the point the other poster made about sequester funding cuts. Neither one of us is placing blame anywhere near them for their response time.
http://news.yahoo.com/horrified-trucker-watches-5-bridge-collapse-190133698.html
since you raised the issue of common sense - sm
[ In Reply To ..]it should be pointed out that accidents on bridges are NOT supposed to collapse the bridge! If that were the case, we would be pulling people out of rivers day and night. Thanks for the tip about Canadians, though.
Everyone knows Canadians are bad drivers? - I didn't.
[ In Reply To ..]My family is Canadian, and I have to say I've never heard this particular generalization. My uncle was an ice truck driver in Canada. I'd like to see one of us go up there and try to do that job!!!
Yeah, must have been cuz he was Canadian! - Darn foreigners.
[ In Reply To ..]Good Lord.
Exactly, and this isn't the only one. - sm
[ In Reply To ..]Bridges all over America are aging and unsafe.
I could be mistaken (I'm weary and not feeling up to a lot of research), but wasn't rebuilding infrastructure, bridges, roads, etc., included in the jobs bill Obama introduced, but rejected by Congress?
Good work for those who lack a formal education and good work for those who do. Plus more taxes paid because more people working. People safer. People happier.
Makes ya wonder who Congress is representing when they reject a bill that prevents us from falling through unsafe structures.
My best to you and your husband. I don't know how they drive those things!! I have trouble parking my Honda ;-)
You're right about the jobs bill - rejected by Congress
[ In Reply To ..]Thanks for the kind words. My sister calls my husband's rig The Possum. Here's why.
Because the republicans in Congress are trying - sm
[ In Reply To ..]to NOT keep Americans safe. They don't care about the "average Joe." They have made that ("47%") comment, and from watching the POLITICIANS speak the words they do, expressing their desire to cater to the rich, while cutting things like Meals on Wheels, cancer patients being turned away, Head Start, Medicaid, food stamps, etc., etc., etc.
Many people have gone from the middle class to the poor class in this country.
If the project that Obama wanted, where he would focus on the infrastructure, there would be MANY people put back to work. I guess it's easier for the republicans to hate Obama than it is to actually work for the people in Congress.
and we like to kill babies too - oh wait, that's not us. - nm
[ In Reply To ..]nm
This must mean you can't justify the GOP position - jobs, nor their
[ In Reply To ..]utter disregard for responsible maintenance of the nation's infrastructure and human services programs. Got it!
Yeppers!! - nm
[ In Reply To ..]
What does "kill babies" have to do with infrastructure? - nm
[ In Reply To ..]
Not a thing. I was just adding to the laundry list of - bad deeds.
[ In Reply To ..]nm
Isn't this changing the topic? Two Con posters of late have admonished Dems - for changing subject
[ In Reply To ..]But I guess the Reps are above their own "rules."
She's right. Not deficient. Functionally obsolete. - Fed vs state determinations
[ In Reply To ..]
Fox guards the hen house. Not a pretty sights.
Here's a link to another truss bridge collapse (I-35 Mississippi Bridge, 2007) up close and personal. Live video.
Fox guards the hen house. Not a pretty sight.
Here's a link to another truss bridge collapse (I-35 Mississippi Bridge, 2007) up close and personal. Live video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osocGiofdvc
There are 84,748 functionally obsolete bridges in the country, according to the Federal Highway Administration.
Please let me clear some things up - Empirelady
[ In Reply To ..]First, it didn't take an hour and a half for help to arrive. It took that long to get them out of the river SAFELY. You don't just hoist someone up with a helicopter on a swinging line out of tangled metal.
Secondly, Mt. Vernon is not a big city, but it isn't in the back of beyond either. Contrary to what a lot of folks in other parts of the country believe, we're not the wild, wild west out here; we have all the modern amenities. :) The closest hospitals are 15 and 20 minutes away in Mt. Vernon (where some injured were taken), Sedro Woolley Hospital where another was taken and Anacortes respectively. Not to mention Providence Hospital in Everett - 30 minutes away and the hospitals in Bellingham, 30 minutes the other way.
The rescue teams did a TOP NOTCH JOB on the rescue, taking as long as they did to ensure everyone, including the rescuers, were gotten out of deep and swiftly moving currents due to spring runoff beginning up here.
This bridge is 30 minutes away from where I live, so I do know whereof I speak on this one.
As to the infrastructure, I will definitely agree that a great deal of our infrastructure needs major work.
Every person who can think clearly agrees that - sm
[ In Reply To ..]the infrastructure in this country needs major work, and it has for years.
Talk about denial with some people!!
Thanks for your post.
If that's the case, why does Obama spend (sm) - me
[ In Reply To ..]money on Solyndra and shrimp running treadmills. Fix it, STUPID!!
Obama TRIED. It was in his jobs program that - sm
[ In Reply To ..]was, as usual, rejected by the republicans.
I don't see the republicans with any kind of jobs bill. Do you?
Of course you didn''t. Dirty Harry wouldn't bring - them up for votes in the Senate.
[ In Reply To ..]nm
Piffle. Hamstrung by the repulsive bunch of - filibustering obstruction-destruction-ists. nm
[ In Reply To ..]
I don't know what piffle is. However, it is a (sm) - Just the facts
[ In Reply To ..]fact that the "repulsive, filibustering obstructionists" have sent many jobs bills to the Senate only to have Harry Reid and the rest of the liberal Communists over there discard them out of hand. Wouldn't bring up for a vote. Fact.
Not fact. Incomplete claim. - sm
[ In Reply To ..]What they've sent to Reid's desk is measure after measure after measure with some absurdly ridiculous mark-up or amendment attached to it like repeal of Obamacare, making Ws tax cuts permanent, freezing the debt limit, etc....whatever the flavor of the day is their base is craving. These are transparent political ploys designed to kill the bill before it gets out of the chute so their supporters can get up on forums like this and try to sell the same malarkey found in the post to which I now reply.
Oh, you mean kind of like people saying (sm) - Repubs wouldn't (sm)
[ In Reply To ..]say yes on Sandy relief? Democrats had them packed solid full of pork. You mean like that?
So you're admitting to GOP deliberate kill-bill tactics - on jobs initiatives, huh?
[ In Reply To ..]Staying on task here. We already covered the Sandy vs Katrina pork a few days back in an entirely separate and unrelated thread. Besides, IMO there's a difference between pork and party kill-bill measures they know very well will destroy any chance of passage.
Maybe this bridge was a - shovel-ready project...
[ In Reply To ..]that wasn't so shovel-ready.
There were tons of those!! - You may be right
[ In Reply To ..]nm
What I don't understand is - sm
[ In Reply To ..]the attempt to portray the first responder part of this discussion as though the responders themselves are under attack. They are not, so there is no need to defend the way they handled this situation. This statement is clear enough about the responder issue.
"I want the Republicans in Congress who sequestered funds to our first responders to be held accountable."
That is what needs clarification. How much longer is it going to take the GOP to wake up and realize how many people are paying the HIGHEST PRICES imaginable for their ill-advised big-business/corporate pimp status? The first responders are not the only ones mentioned here. We've also tried to open discussions on truckers, drivers and their families, seniors, cancer patients, disadvantaged children, the disabled and abjectly poor, the hungry, etc.
These beating-around-the-bush distractions do nothing to advance those discussions, do not make those problems disappear, and certainly do not go unnoticed by the electorate-at-large. It is apparent that the GOP has NO justifications to offer up in this regard. That is why we see them deflect as far off topic as they can possibly get whenever they are called upon to confront these issues.
Can you clear up any of those expressed concerns?
Excellent post! - nm
[ In Reply To ..]
If I could clear up issues regarding politicians - Empirelady
[ In Reply To ..]and their justifications for what they would do, I suspect I would be elected the next President of the United States.
I'm not going to enter into this one side versus the other (frankly, I think most of them are crooks).
I'm not trying to make this about anything; I merely wanted to clear up the misconceptions of what went on with the bridge situation. That way you all can go forward with the political aspect of it fully informed of the facts.
Now, you all can duke it out about the politics. It's my day off, and I'm going to go do crafty and constructive things for the farmer's market and enjoy my day.
Carry on...
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