Bowgie

An early news report said plastic pipes stored under the freeways were burning.

Here are my assumptions in light of that report:

1. The pipe, and there was probablly a whole lot of it, was probably the type called "ADS". This pipe is black viny-like material that is ribbed on the outside and smooth on the inside. The stuff is very light and easy to install, but you can get it to catch fire with a lighter. Big disadvange, and bums setting camp fires in large diameter sections have been known to set it on fire.
(PVC is typically used for smaller diameters, and it doesn't burn as easily.)

2. Reinforced concrete is not resistant to a direct and intense fire. The concrete gets brittle and the rebar melts. Not surprising that the bridge span above the fire collapses.

3. Probably not the best of practices to store combustables under a bridge.

4. Driving though a black smoking fire on a bridge is dangerous to suicidal. I am amazed no one died doing that.

DiverDave

One of General Sherman's descendants set the fire.

Zorak

TOO SOON



EDIT: wow, the first time I posted this it got converted to all lowercase, maybe because TOO SOON was all caps and the emoji is colon-capital-D -- hidden FT "feature" I guess

EDIT #2 : seems this is a long-standing feature that I've just never run across. But it downcased the quoted part too. If it's smart enough to exclude the quoted part to decide if I typed in all caps shouldn't it be smart enough not to convert the quoted part also?

HDQDD

It actually happens fairly regularly. A bad enough accident (especially with a fire) can do a lot of damage. I was in DTW a few years ago when a tanker hit one of the I-75 bridges near 9-mile. Took months for the bridge to be replaced.

I do feel sorry for the ATL commuters or anyone transiting the area. Going to be a big mess for months to come.

rafalojc

Wow. That's going to be a complete mess for months. I thought driving through Atlanta was bad before... Prior proper planning many years ago would've had a bypass toll road that completely skips the entire area with no exits or entrances en route. Some private company could've made a mint charging $20 a car to bypass one of the worst planned cities.

miraclebear2003

Well, they are adding more pieces of toll roads on the Interstates in and around ATL. Here in Orlando, they did find a private consortium to build 4 toll lanes in the middle of I-4 going through town. It will be interesting to see when it is finished how much they charge (it will be variable pricing depending on the demand).

gooselee

We're not one of the worst planned cities in the world. That would imply there was some level of planning.

I've lived/worked in DC as well, which is a highly planned city. I suppose I'm biased, but I thought traffic in and around DC was far, far worse than Atlanta (under regular circumstances - both cities of course have extraordinary events like snowstorms, massive wrecks, bridges collapsing, etc.).

TheMadBrewer

LA lost two sections of I10 in 1994 due to the Northridge earthquake. At the time (and may still be) one of the busiest highways in the US.

Took 3 months to replace and that was 70 or so days ahead of schedule. Contractor was paid $200K bonus for every day early -- so he got a $14 Mil bonus.

One thing was they literally worked 24/7 -- they got exceptions from regulations about how early/late construction could go on. Some people close to the site were upset (I guess I would be too) but also got the street traffic out of their neighborhoods nearly twice as fast.

So I feel for the folks in ATL...

Orange County Commuter

Yeah I think we need to prepare to PAY to get this done ASAP! This is not a time for "low bid contracting"

rafalojc

Good point. Sprawl on the north side of Atlanta is completely of their own doing.

danielonn

Whats worse the upcoming snow storm in the Northeast, this bridge outage and opening of a new Stadium or 75 degrees weather in the SF Bay Area with clear blue skies?

KDCAflyer

Wasn't aware there was any other type of government contracting.

btonkid12345

Doesn't seem to be spontaneous.

AJC reporting three suspects in custody. At least one is suspected of setting the fire. Also reporting the three in custody are homeless.

Sad all around.

davetravels

Just add it onto Mexico's tab.

Burj

Ideally they could pre-fab the section, or at least the major pieces, off-site and then bring it in and put it together in a weekend! But alas, it is Atlanta soo.....probably not going to happen.

The Dutch built an entire TUNNEL under a busy highway in one weekend!
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/...unnel-building