I-5 Bridge collapse, Mt. Vernon - Burlington WA

Correct, this bridge predates the idea of Interstate highways, and it shows. Very little crown, exposed superstructure, no soft failure modes, too low to the river, (which may have saved lives) bad approaches, etc.

A well reasoned replacement would have routed I-5 out of downtown Mt Vernon to a less flood prone location, now they will have to rush and build in place.

 

I-5 bridge collapse captured on security video |
KING5.com Seattle

 

Sure but a major highway is closed, and commuters need a Bridge to get to work and deliver goods. The detour is ugly. Politics aside a Solution is needed. It is these times that test Washington States elected leadership

 

Here is an interesting picture of the bridge. Note that each failed area is very rusted looking, if it's rust it's much too much rust to have formed in a day. It looks like there was a coating on the bridge hiding the rust and the coating flaked off when the bridge collapsed and the failed areas plasticly deformed. I'm not saying they "painted" over serious rust. More likely there was a "protective" coating on the bridge that captured moisture and allowed corrosion to proceed hidden by the coating.

 

I have been to San Jan Islands in WA on vacation and it looks like everything is rusting. Don't get me wrong the place is beautiful but they get plenty of rain almost daily. I would see cars with rust spots etc. metal buildings with rust. That rust could have Occurred after the collapse that is how fast rust appears on exposed metal

 

First, the Orange you are seeing at the failure points is where the member failed, causing the paint to fail, revealing the primer underneath. This is a good thing.

Second, as to tolling, yea, if we are not going to collect enough road taxes to pay for our road systems than tolling is certainly an option, but one needs to be rational about it. A couple of examples. Example one being the Indiana toll road "the Mainstreet of the Midwest" Built at public expense, both state and federal, and supported by tolls for 50 years. Then what happened? The moronic government of Indiana decided it would make thier (short term) budget look better if the state divested itself of the toll road. They then sold the rights to the road to private industry, because, as we all know, private industry does EVERY thing better. The private company now pockets the profit sand who knows what shape this formerly public asset will BR when it returns to public hands...in 99 years!

Second example, the Evergreen Point floating bridge in Seattle. it opened in 1963 with a small toll. The toll was removed (in a feat of brilliant government foresight) in about 1980 many years early because...wait for it...the bonds were paid off early because of much heavier use than projected!

So, instead of having a rational plan for the future, the state let all those Microsoft commuters free passage for 30 years, allowing mushroom growth on the suburban east side of Lake Washington. Now the city and the state don't have the money (nor the willing body politic) to properly pay for a new, much needed structure so, they are returning to tolling, only this time, not a modest toll, but a pretty massive one. Much to the chagrin of many in the area!

If they had simply kept the original modest toll, stair stepped it for inflation invested the cash in a "lock box" they now would have the cash to build the new one, with out the interest cost of borrowing...that would have been a rational toll strategy that showed foresight, but NO, politicians didn't have the political courage to do what should have been done, but rather they gave the voters a little break for a little while,and then when the bills cam due, the public got stuck with the (much bigger) bill.

Sort of make you wonder what they re going to do in Alaska when the "permanent" fund runs out of input from the oil patch!

Icarus

 

The upper failure that is shown best has a variation in the rust or primer that looks like long term corrosion. Hard to tell from the low resolution pictures.

 

^Seeing it on HD and it is clearly primer, an opinion seconded by an engineer interview on Tv today.

Icarus

 

Ok the Primer is Orange. That is not rust but Orange Paint

 

I read they are considering a Bailey Bridge used by the Military can be set up in a very short amount of time as a temporary fix until a permanent replacement can be completed.

Bailey bridge - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


A permanent replacement will cost an estimated 15 million

 

^Clearly you know more about the ins and outs of the Evergreen Point tolling than I do. ht said, even if it was (at the time) illegal to continue to collect toll as you say , the legislature could have acted THEN to change the law it could have been solved much easier,and much easier.

My broader point is, most politicicians (and by extension the body politic) takes the cheap solution today instead of truly investing in the future. We are sold on cheap first cost, obvious to life cycle costs, which is part of the reason that people have a hard time investing in energy efficiencies...costs too much up front!

Icarus

 

They did the same thing on the Coronado bridge in San Diego, however the Verrazano Bridge was paid off in the 90's and still collecting tolls.

Tolls are unpopular but sometimes a necessary evil if left no other choice. 15 million does not seem like it will break the bank of the State of Washington. They just need to bite the bullet and get the Bailey Bridge in this weekend and start the ball on the permanent replacement

 

That is an unusually low number for such a major structure. It sounds like a lot to the average viewer, but is actually too low to be a realistic number.

 

Truck GVW is capped at 80k. Anything more needs permits to travel, depending on the locality.

 

There should be some sort of "fair share" system in place, kind of like the hybrid tax here in VA. A toll to cover the bridge would be an obvious choice, or adding to the registration or property taxes levied in the surrounding localities.

 

Th figure came from the Seattle Times. You may be correct