Major bridge connecting US to Canada collapses
Published: 2013 May 24 07:14:23 (4499 Views)
A major highway bridge linking Seattle with Canada and the rest of the Pacific Northwest region collapsed on Thursday evening, dumping a handful of vehicles and people into a river, according to the Washington State Patrol.
Authorities said there were no deaths, and three people were rescued and taken to hospitals.
The four-lane Interstate 5 bridge - more than half a century old - collapsed about halfway between Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia, Trooper Mark Francis said.
Francis said he did not know what caused the collapse, which came at the start of one of the country's busiest holiday weekends of the year. The collapse came before sundown on a clear day.
Xavier Grospe, who lives near the river, said he could see three partially submerged cars, and the apparent drivers were sitting either on top of the vehicles or on the edge of open windows.
"It doesn't look like anybody's in danger right now," Grospe said.
Helicopter footage aired by KOMO-TV in Seattle showed one rescue boat leaving the scene with one person strapped into a stretcher. A damaged red car and a damaged pickup truck were visible in the water, which appeared so shallow it barely reached the top of the car's hood.
A man told the local Skagit Valley Herald newspaper he felt a vibration and looked in his rear view mirror to see that the part of bridge he had just crossed was no longer behind him. "I thought something was wrong with my car at first," he said.
The bridge that collapsed on Thursday is not considered structurally deficient but is listed as being "functionally obsolete" - meaning that its design is outdated, according to a database compiled by the Federal Highway Administration.
The bridge was built in 1955 and has a sufficiency rating of 57.4 out of 100, according to federal records. That is well below the state-wide average rating of 80, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal data.
The American Society of Civil Engineers' latest infrastructure report card said more than a quarter of Washington state's 7 840 bridges were considered structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.
- News24
Authorities said there were no deaths, and three people were rescued and taken to hospitals.
The four-lane Interstate 5 bridge - more than half a century old - collapsed about halfway between Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia, Trooper Mark Francis said.
Francis said he did not know what caused the collapse, which came at the start of one of the country's busiest holiday weekends of the year. The collapse came before sundown on a clear day.
Xavier Grospe, who lives near the river, said he could see three partially submerged cars, and the apparent drivers were sitting either on top of the vehicles or on the edge of open windows.
"It doesn't look like anybody's in danger right now," Grospe said.
Helicopter footage aired by KOMO-TV in Seattle showed one rescue boat leaving the scene with one person strapped into a stretcher. A damaged red car and a damaged pickup truck were visible in the water, which appeared so shallow it barely reached the top of the car's hood.
A man told the local Skagit Valley Herald newspaper he felt a vibration and looked in his rear view mirror to see that the part of bridge he had just crossed was no longer behind him. "I thought something was wrong with my car at first," he said.
The bridge that collapsed on Thursday is not considered structurally deficient but is listed as being "functionally obsolete" - meaning that its design is outdated, according to a database compiled by the Federal Highway Administration.
The bridge was built in 1955 and has a sufficiency rating of 57.4 out of 100, according to federal records. That is well below the state-wide average rating of 80, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal data.
The American Society of Civil Engineers' latest infrastructure report card said more than a quarter of Washington state's 7 840 bridges were considered structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.
- News24
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