Major screw-up with a new overpass bridge on the 60 out here (Riverside)

[SoCalDem]

It took YEARS to complete & is quite scary to traverse (it's a TALL one over several lanes)
My husband called me a while ago to tell me why he's TWO HOURS late getting home.

It seems that there are CHUNKS of concrete falling from the eastbound side of the bridge..

Somewhere there are engineers getting out the razor blades:(

When it was being built, the old one was still in use, but they tore it down.. My guess is that someone will want to shut down the other side to at least check it out.

We haven't even had any significant shakers for a while.. This might be a blessing in disguise.. but at the very least a major hassle for commuters.

[CreekDog]

1. In SF one of our freeways was later found to contain some recycled concrete

not up to spec.

they declared it safe. but the contractor made a boatload of money being paid for spec'd concrete and delivering something else.

wouldn't be surprised if it happened elsewhere.

[Codeine]

2. Is this the 60/91/215 interchange?

I live just a few blocks away from there.

[SoCalDem]

5. That's the beast...

he just got home few minutes ago & plans to take Van Buren to work tomorrow..

[Codeine]

6. I hate that interchange.

It's pure misery to navigate, and it was even worse before all that work.

I use surface streets around there as much as possible.

[david13]

3. I've been out on the 60 to Riverside, and points north and south, and

in fact, we are headed out that way tomorrow.
And in SF I frequently used the Nimitz. The east bay freeway. Every time I did, and it would shake and sway, and bobble up and down, I realized that the contractor had left out every other support tower to put more money in his pocket.
And I said it would collapse in an earthquake.
But what can you do?
They pay off the right people and don't care when people get killed. Very common in any country in the world, and also right here in the good ole usa, rah rah, woof woof, were No. 1!. But at what?
dc

[OrwellwasRight]

4. Not cool. Fucking cheating contractors.

This is one thing that has never made sense to me about government contracts. Contractors would NEVER get away with this shit in the private sector. The other business would sue and get their money back. When it's the government that gets screwed, we just pay the contractor to fix what they did wrong in the first place, and the taxpayers pay twice. I've never seen any contractor lose money on a government contract. It's not right. It's greedy. It's unsafe. It's a rip-off.


:grr: :grr: :grr: :grr:

[IDemo]

7. What could possibly go wrong?

:shrug:

[SoCalDem]

8. I thought of Sylmar when he called me

Oddly enough, I was friends with a woman who did not drive anymore because , as a 16 yr old, she ended up ON that overpass when it came down.. she saw cars go over the end of it & from that time on, was afraid to drive..she was alone in her car when it happened, and damned near had a nervous breakdown :(

[IDemo]

9. My Aunt and Uncle lived in Sylmar at the time

I believe his house was only about 1/2 mile from the hospital that had a collapsed wing.

[BeHereNow]

10. Damn... that is frightening.

I HATE driving the freeways these days for many reasons,
but you just gave me one more...

BHN

[HopeHoops]

11. I've got an old poster (brown&white simulating old-style) of a train falling through a bridge.

A guy in 19th century clothes is standing near it with one word in the caption bubble: "Shit"

Then there's the one of the two lines coming together but the rails are off - left rails meet, right rails are offset. I forget the caption.

[mike r]

12. Concrete Collapse Cripples I-215 Commute - pics:

http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/PE_News_Local_D_webconcrete.10b50a7.html

Concrete collapse cripples I-215 commute
By DUG BEGLEY
The Press-Enterprise

Transportation engineers cannot say why a piece of concrete plummeted from Interstate 215 in Riverside to the city street below, leaving a hole in a section of freeway that crews overhauled less than four years ago. A section of concrete about 3 feet long and 2 feet wide fell about 5:40 a.m. Tuesday from a bridge that spans Chicago Avenue. The freeway, some of it less than 4 years old, was rebuilt atop Chicago as part of the 60 /91 /215 interchange project.

Determining the cause is crucial to fixing it, determining whether the problem is more widespread and figuring out who is responsible, Caltrans spokesman Jason Goldman said.

The worry on Tuesday was the integrity of other work on the project, as workers closed three lanes to repair the hole. Crews wrapped up and lanes were reopened around 6 p.m. "The question is, is this an isolated incident?" said John Standiford, deputy director of the Riverside County Transportation Commission.

The bridge over Chicago was unique for the interchange project, Goldman said. To speed up construction, Caltrans approved the use of pre-cast pieces of the bridge. Normally, Caltrans would replace the bridge and build a new structure piece-by-piece, Goldman said.

[SoCalDem]

13. Good question: "Is this an isolated incident"?

My guess, is NO.

Roadwork around here is an ongoing thing, and they are always in a rush to get things done. Haste makes waste:)

They were lucky this time, but if concrete "falls" from a relatively new bridge, what happens when we get a "shakey-shakey-shakey"? This is a very high overpass & the traffic is brutally congested most of the day & night.