I-10 Bridge Collapse between Phoenix and LA 3

[JAE]

http://www.abc15.com/news/state/i-10-closed-in-middle-of-california-desert

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[cranky108]

And of course someone drives off into the river. Don't people believe in watching the road and driving slower to be able to see where they are driving?

Would a Google car do any better?

 

[JedClampett]

Had a co worker who was in California to watch the Angels game (among other things) and then drive back to Arizona.
So the same storm rained out the game (first rainout in 20 years) and screwed up his return trip.

 

[IRstuff]

"And of course someone drives off into the river. Don't people believe in watching the road and driving slower to be able to see where they are driving?"

That presumes that the failure occurred sufficiently before the stopping distance of the car. That's just not the way Mother Nature rolls.

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[IRstuff]

The location of the vehicle suggests that it was a close thing, i.e., he was going relatively slowly when the pickup went past the edge

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[JohnRBaker]

It was reported in the local news that the driver was injured when the bridge collapsed while he was driving across it. The report seemed to imply that there was nothing that he could have done to avoid this accident.

Note that my wife and I were driving back home to California from our vacation in Michigan only we were returning via I-40 Sunday afternoon. It was raining hard enough that there were times when we could barely see 100 feet in front of us. In all we were gone 18 days and drove a total of 6,001 miles (exactly), visiting a total of 11 states. It was great, except for the heavy rain across Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana going, and SoCal coming home.

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[cranky108]

Strange that the soil looks almost like sandstone.
It also looks like part of the bridge siding remained up.

Is this a busy highway, or this guy unlucky? And why not on a bigger truck?

 

[Lomarandil]

I suspect the failure was due to the flash flood scour, not the live load. So the truck's timing was just unlucky, probably not significantly related to the failure mechanism.

 

[hawkaz]

cranky- This is a very busy road (I-10) it's the main interstate highway that runs from Miami to LA.
I have heard reports of 7 inches of rain in an area that normally gets less than that in a whole year

 

[IRstuff]

That part of California is essentially high desert with less than 10 inches of rainfall per year, which, up till now, we've not even achieved. There are supposedly 25k cars/day on I-10, since it's one of two major roads between CA and AZ, with I-40 just north of it.

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[Ron]

(I-10) it's the main interstate highway that runs from Miami to LA

Uh...close. Jacksonville to LA

Almost slide rule accuracy!

 

[cranky108]

If... and only if there were an alternative road, who would use it most of the time? How would you justify building it?

Would a for profit outfit be willing to build, operate, and collect tolls for such a road?

Sorry for your luck.

Does it really matter if it goes to Miami or Jacksonville? I am guessing most of the traffic dosen't travel that far.

 

[JohnRBaker]

The highways of America are part of what many people have come to accept as the 'Commons'. That is, that which is there for all citizens to use and consequently to also be responsible for maintaining. And in this case, corporations SHOULD have the same privileges AND responsibilities. One of the problems with modern corporatism today is that when it comes to the use and abuse of the 'commons', companies often want to privatize their profits while leaving the costs wrought on the 'commons' to the public.

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[cranky108]

The tragedy of the commons.

That was not what I was talking about. Why would a corporation build a parallel road? Why would a city or state build a parallel road? Same question, and same answer. For the few times it is unavailable it's not worth building a second road.

Now that I said that, the pictures show a access road, but like the other part of the highway, it also might be damaged by the same flood.

I am supposing that the damage was from the flood, and not by some truck traffic, but if you have other information, lets hear it.
Agreed that truck traffic, which is rarely for personal use, does create most of the road damage, and it would be fair if they payed more in taxes for upkeep of the 'commons'.
See now you got me off on road taxes, and that's not what I intended at all.

 

[IRstuff]

There are existing "alternatives" such as I-40 or I-8, but either would require something like a 2-4 hr detour. There are some secondary state highway routes, but there's no guarantee of not having stop lights and the like.

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[hawkaz]

The report this morning was that they will have a detour set up within a couple days. The repair will take much longer (obviously).


Miami- Jacksonville- Whatever. It's all East of here. Thanks for the correction

 

[JAE]

Looks like it will reopen fairly quickly.

http://enr.construction.com/yb/enr/...kF3JXqboUj2bg3NAASRehPw9H7fUJO5nU6loJIoEySg**

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[JedClampett]

See the article attached. It's pretty well written, technically, for a newspaper article. Hopefully, there's not a firewall to get to it.

 

[msquared48]

A Bailey Bridge would be a good, easy and quick temporary fix...

Mike McCann, PE, SE (WA)

 

[JedClampett]

I think it's already fixed, at least enough for traffic to go over it.