24 year oold Roosevelt bridge in Florida is 'risk of an imminent collapse' after a large crack

[Demovictory9]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/17/us/roosevelt-bridge-stuart-florida-closed-trnd/index.html

Part of a bridge in Florida is closed for repairs after a large crack appeared underneath, authorities said.

The Roosevelt Bridge in Stuart is "at risk of an imminent collapse," the US Coast Guard warned.
Officials have closed off the southbound lanes indefinitely. Northbound lanes have been split to accommodate southbound and northbound traffic. Commercial boating traffic has been halted.
The Roosevelt Bridge was built 24 years ago and spans the St. Lucie River.

"We expect heavy traffic delays during the morning commute and recommend avoiding this area. Please consider traveling on Hutchinson Island, Palm City, or Sewalls Point to enter the City of Stuart from the north," the department wrote in a statement.

[maxsolomon]

1. Same thing out here in Seattle.

With the West Seattle/Duwamish River bridge - closed on 3/23, may never re-open. Completed in 1984.

[genxlib]

2. That has been the discussion in our office today

Mind you we are Engineers including some qualified bridge Engineers.

It is always better to be safer than sorry but this looks to be an enormous over-reaction by the Coast Guard. They govern the water ways under the bridge but they have no business making alarmist comments like that. I am not sure they even have engineers saying that let alone qualified bridge engineers. I have a feeling someone is going to get their ass handed to them for making that statement.

The Florida Department of Transportation is the real agency affected here. They have qualified and responsible people in charge and access to many others in the private sector through consultants. They are assessing and will determine what the issue is. It will require repairs but that is not the same as "danger of imminent collapse".

Personally, I didn't see anything in the pictures that scared me. Concrete bridges in salt water environments will sometimes get cracking near the surface/edges. It is possible there is some damage to the internal components but it would take a lot of damage for a bridge of that shape and style to collapse.

Take a breath, make it safe, assess the problem, fix it. I don't really see it as a big deal.

[machoneman]

3. I agree! Here in Chicago we could visit 25+ bridges with far worse road deck and column damage.

Concrete chunk drops, exposed rusty steel, crumbled curbing and karge support columns about 1/4 eaten through with exposed rebar.

Not to worry!

[genxlib]

5. Ha Ha

You aren't going to believe this but I was continuing the conversation just a few minutes ago and one of my associates said "I've seen way worse in places like Chicago"

In truth, Florida has one of the best highway departments around. I have driven in dozens of states and the stuff I see appalls me compared to what I am used to here.

I actually know this bridge pretty well because I was working on its sister bridge immediately after it was finished. This bridge replaced a low level bascule bridge (draw bridge to the non-technical) which we rehabilitated for local traffic once the flyover was done.

[fleur-de-lisa]

4. Holy shit!

What happened to 'infrastructure week?'

There's never any money for public projects or health care or education, but we can always find a way to give the billionaires another tax cut!