City Viaduct Death Watch!
posted by on October 20 at 12:10 PM
A 25 foot piece of concrete guardrail fell off the Alaskan Way Viaduct earlier this morning after a hit and run accident.
According to Washington State Department of Transportation engineer Ron Paananen, a large vehicle—possibly a delivery truck— hit the guardrail on the Seneca Street offramp, knocking a sizable piece of concrete to the street below.
“It was a solid piece about 25 feet long or so. It’s an old piece of guardrail,” Paananen says. “The railing is not built to the standards we would build railings to today.”
WSDOT crews have removed the piece of guard rail and will close a lane of traffic at some point to install a temporary barrier.
The viaduct was closed over the weekend for a safety inspection.
Photo by cliff1066 via Flickr
Woo Hoo!
Shades of our favorite filmed-in-Seattle assassin movie!
Now if we could just get Death Race 2008 reshot here as they destroyed the Viaduct ... that would be sweet!
A meaningless picture you got from someone's FLICKR, some quotes you jacked from another website, dimensions of the piece of concrete that you jacked from another website, and no sources.
PRESTO! Journalism Spangenthal-Lee style!
fucking loser.
Thankfully, the rebuilt Viaduct will be more sturdy.
Non, shouldn't you be busy stalking Adrian Ryan somewhere?
I was actually in a neighboring building and saw this happen. We called 911 (I'm sure others did too). The car that hit the railing was a light colored suburban, not going all that fast. The railing just...fell off. Seriously scary for peds below.
So who do I thank when I'm crushed to death when the Viaduct inevitably collapses, is it Nichols, Gregoire, Olympia, the ineptitude of our elected officials regarding this is incredible. Please someone do something, I don't want any more research projects, voter input, or discussion, just do what we elected you as leaders to do, lead.
Damn. Good thing I'm not at work today, I take the viaduct (on a bus) to get there...
That thing won't be torn down until it kills someone. It's a fucking death trap waiting to happen, so all of our "leaders" just keep delaying and passing the buck in the hopes that they won't get blamed when it inevitably collapses.
The piece that fell was on the Seneca St Exit ramp. My window is right outside where the missing chunk is.
I'm glad no one was hurt, but it made quite a mess.
I asked them straight up in the early spring tour of the viaduct, "Is there anything that would make you condemn the viaduct?" and I was told that unless huge chunks come raining down for no apparent reason, it wouldn't be and would simply be torn down in 2012.
I love the 2012 deadline for the viaduct's demise. It's common knowledge that any structure damaged by an earthquake has 11 years of life left - not 10, not 12, 11. Plus 11 years of time is so valuable - think of all the infrastructure that the City, County and State will have in place to make it easier to get around the city once the viaduct is demolished... oh wait... never mind. They haven't built anything. Good use of 11 years, guys.
Anyone who drives or takes his family on the Viaduct or on the 520 bridge is an idiot who endangers the lives of his loved ones.
"Chris" Gregoire should have shut down both...sans finally replacement plan...immediately!
I hope Gregoire pays for the Viaduct teardown by garnishing John Bailo's wages for all the back taxes he owes the state.
Hah!
The sooner someone dies from the Viaduct failing in some way, the sooner we'll start on the replacement.
Until then, nothing will happen. Ditto on 520.
Personally, I suspect that it won't pancake all at once, killing hundreds, but some much smaller section will fail in a way which kills no more than a couple dozen. Such is the cost of modern life.
I'm an equal opportunist when pointing out how lazy some "reporters" can be. But now that you mention his name, I just realized that I haven't seen a post from Adrian in MONTHS! I appreciate that. Thank you, Jonah
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