CMStPnP I myself do not understand why this is a huge issue. It is a wadi in the middle of a desert, just do a little grading and route the traffic down the freeway embankment directly across the wadi stream bed (since 95% of the time it is dry) close this portion of the freeway when it rains until repairs are made. Why are they closing the freeway entirely and doing a 35-40 mile detour.....escapes me unless there is water in the stream most of the time or the soil around that area is unstable. Even still they should be able to bridge that stream in short order with a temporary bridge.
I myself do not understand why this is a huge issue. It is a wadi in the middle of a desert, just do a little grading and route the traffic down the freeway embankment directly across the wadi stream bed (since 95% of the time it is dry) close this portion of the freeway when it rains until repairs are made.
Why are they closing the freeway entirely and doing a 35-40 mile detour.....escapes me unless there is water in the stream most of the time or the soil around that area is unstable. Even still they should be able to bridge that stream in short order with a temporary bridge.
It is a sparse area. Back about 10 years ago IIRC there was a truck fire on eastbound side at that bridge and Cal Fire took 30 minutes to get out there. About all they could do when they got there was put out the brush fires around the truck and watch the truck burn. Eventually a hazmat team came up to clean the mess. It took 6-8 hours that nite to reopen the freeway.
Rgds IGN
CMStPnPI myself do not understand why this is a huge issue. It is a wadi in the middle of a desert, just do a little grading and route the traffic down the freeway embankment directly across the wadi stream bed (since 95% of the time it is dry) close this portion of the freeway when it rains until repairs are made.
These sandy stream beds would not stand up to the high volume of heavy trucks on an Interstate highway. Caltrans has enough 'splainin' to do about a class A bridge collapse, much less cars and trucks possibly stuck.
Not sure about the '35-40 mile' detour, looks like perhaps a six mile, two lane bottleneck between adjacent interchanges to me. Another reason not to travel Phoenix - LA in July!
Due to lessons learned here from recent earthquakes and other events, the replacement piers will be designed more like what you see under newer, icebound river bridges. The new bridge(s) are supposed to be operational sometime in September.
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http://usat.ly/1RZlf2m
Reopened on westbound bridge.
4-lane divided freeway . 2 EB lanes and 2 WB lanes on separare bridges. Foundation of EB bridge washed out causing bridge to collaspe. WB bridge intact but considered unsafe, so entire freeway closed. Traffic volumn 54,000 veh/day per the article (total of EB+WB). I looked at Caltrans 2014 Traffic Count http://traffic-counts.dot.ca.gov/docs/2014_aadt_volumes.pdf - looks like actually only about 24,000 veh/day in each direction so correct volumn about 48,000 veh/day.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/10-washed-bridge-california-reopen-friday-32609453
Highway expected to reopen Friday July 24, using WB bridge (1 lane each direction) Caltrans news release dated July 21 http://sv08data.dot.ca.gov/memos/files/comalert/072115_0.pdf
I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.
I don't have a leg to stand on.
The bridge collapse was between Indio and Coachella. If you want to see where look east from this location about a 1/2 mile and you will see a bridge over a dry wash. I believe this is the bridge that collapsed.
Eagle Mountain Rd & I-10, California
It is in the middle of nowhere in Riverside County on I-10.
There is not any kind of acceptable rail alternative since the tracks west of Phoenix where embargoed some years back. The tracks are there just no way to run a passenger train on them.
This is similar to what happened to I-5 north of Seattle a few years ago. Can someone give us an indication of the number of cars on route, number of lanes left on west bound bridge if it will be useable. How far from LAX is this bridge ? How many people travel daily to / from LAX ? A temporary passenger service does not seem needed ?
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