Wolf Blitzer To NTSB Spokesperson... How about signs... (I-5 Bridge Collapse)

[Up2Late]

22. Maybe so, but it has a history of getting hit and was hit in the same spot sometime in the past...

...according to this new news report.

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Inspection-reports-Skagit-River-bridge-hit-a-number-of-times-by-big-trucks-208901691.html?tab=video&c=y

Also, it says "...The bridge is considered structurally obsolete, meaning the span built in 1955, does not meet current specifications like wider shoulders and higher superstructure...."


And now WSDOT Secretary, Lynn Peterson, is calling this "bad luck" that the bridge to a hit in the same spot!

BAD LUCK?! Sounds to me like this bridge just ran out of luck, a bridge can only take so many hits before this sort of thing happens.

And she says that, even though current law says any bridge with a clearance under 15' 3" needs to have a warning sign to let drivers know the current clearance, this bridge is "...listed clearance of just over 14 feet..., but...no height limit (is) posted on the (this) bridge..." But she says, "There are certain heights of bridges where we do not need to sign and this would have been one of those bridges."

Btw, this bridge was built in 1955, a year before The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 was even passed! Now I bet this bridge was great when it was part of U.S. 99 when it was most likely only carrying 2 lanes of traffic, but when they crammed 2 more lanes onto this bridge, they took away the extra margin for error that it originally had.

Sorry, but in the United States of America, having one of the most important interstate highways (I-5) using a bridge this old in an area with so few alternate routes between the U.S. and Canada is just outrageous and shameful.