I don't know if this has "gone viral" in other areas or not, but it is dominating the TV news here. The I-5 bridge over the Skagit River near Mount Vernon (about 50 miles south of the Canadian border) collapsed last night about 7pm. Both north- and south-bound sides are shut down and probably will be for several months. Several cars went into the water, but amazingly no one was killed or even seriously hurt. Apparently an over-sized truck hit part of the structure which caused that section of steel bridge span to fail in a catastrophic fashion.
There is a TFR established overhead, 2 NM radus up to 2,000' MSL. I was planning on flying over there today to check it out-- luckily someone posted about the TFR on a local aviation discussion site because it never even occurred to me to check for one.

hotrod150 wrote:I don't know if this has "gone viral" in other areas or not, but it is dominating the TV news here. The I-5 bridge over the Skagit River near Mount Vernon (about 50 miles south of the Canadian border) collapsed last night about 7pm. Both north- and south-bound sides are shut down and probably will be for several months. Several cars went into the water, but amazingly no one was killed or even seriously hurt. Apparently an over-sized truck hit part of the structure which caused that section of steel bridge span to fail in a catastrophic fashion.
There is a TFR established overhead, 2 NM radus up to 2,000' MSL. I was planning on flying over there today to check it out-- luckily someone posted about the TFR on a local aviation discussion site because it never even occurred to me to check for one.

I saw that and my first thought was it was the I-5 bridge over the Columbia. Somebody's insurance is going to be pretty upset.

EB

Thanks for that post...I was going to fly down to KBFI tomorrow and I thought about swinging by to look at it. I am "sure' I would have seen the TFR, but it is always nice to get the word. Wonder why is there a TFR over it? It doesn't make sense...but I guess it doesn't have to...

Before anyone jumps to nefarious intent conclusions, it was an Alberta truck driver with an oversize load. Canadians!
I heard I-5 is backed up with colourful VW vans all heading to the Sasquatch thing at the Gorge. BCP'ers can fly I guess.

Hmmmmm..

That's strange.. The TFR does not show up on the FAA's site..

http://tfr.faa.gov/tfr_map_ims/html/index.html

Karmutzen wrote:Before anyone jumps to nefarious intent conclusions, it was an Alberta truck driver with an oversize load. Canadians!
I heard I-5 is backed up with colourful VW vans all heading to the Sasquatch thing at the Gorge. BCP'ers can fly I guess.

Hey now, you cant put us all in the same bunch. I know the company whose truck it was and can say that im honestly not surprised. Ran tow dozer on a few rig moves that their trucks were on. Complete gong show.

Ya know... Maybe these bridges are trying to tell us something.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05 ... lapse?lite

Gump

GumpAir wrote:Ya know... Maybe these bridges are trying to tell us something.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05 ... lapse?lite

Gump

Don't hit us with large heavy moving objects?

Isnt vehicle insurance in Canada from the gov. like health care?
So does that mean the Canadian Gov gets to buy us a new bridge.

Throttle Pusher wrote:Isnt vehicle insurance in Canada from the gov. like health care?
So does that mean the Canadian Gov gets to buy us a new bridge.

Sorry, but we pay our own insurance just like you guys. So Mullen, the company, or their insirance gets to buy you guys a new bridge.

What I can't figure out is

1- How did the truck, with so little damage, knock down the damn bridge ....

2- Why didn't the truck go into the drink with the other cars...

Flight service said the TFR was cancelled last night. I called today about 14:00 local.
Crazy incident and a HUGE PITA for getting around the valley!

I overflew the bridge yesterday afternoon. In case you had any doubts-- yup, it collapsed. It looks a lot more impressive in person, even from 1,000 AGL, than it does on TV. Southbound traffic was extremely light so zero backup, but there was a pretty good line of northbound cars backed up from the last exit before the bridge. Although they seemed to be making good progress detouring off the freeway, crossing the river on Riverside Drive, then maneuvering back up onto the freeway....it's gonna be a mess come tuesday. This will probably be real tough on the local business-- the through traffic won't be stopping to shop, and the locals will probably avoid the area like the plaque due to congestion..