[video:youtube]http://www.cbs19.tv/story/28623084/i-35-shut-down-after-bridge-collapses-in-salado[/video]

Bush's fault (again)…..obviously.

oh, that's gonna create some headaches

pretty heavy traffic that way - commuters between Austin & Temple, plus long haul traffic between DFW - Austin - San Antonio

Man, what's up with I-35 bridges?

Here's the one in Minneapolis that let loose a few years ago.

I have crossed that bridge several times in a truck and managed to miss it every time.

Correction, after looking I went under that bridge many times not over it.

The "Open Border Commerce" proponents / instigators better be PRAYING that that's an American truck and driver.

GTC

Good chance the driver is not American.I hate driving 35 south of Dallas.Seen to much really stupid s^&t there.Its been a few years but traffic had stopped entering Desoto a small town on the south edge of Dallas.An 18 wheeler never touched his brakes and ran into and over a number of cars.Driver didnt speak english.

We went over that bridge last week (2X).

I-35 traffic (I've been told) is terrible just about all that damn time. I can tell you it is especially bad on Sunday afternoon at the end of spring break - a 4 hour drive became a 7 hour crawl.

So did I. I think a number of the guys at the 24hr Hog Hunt did so as well.

AND, yes, the traffic through Austin was terrible!

Fixt

You rarely cross the Colorado River on I-35 in
downtown Austin without a major slowdown
or total stop.

Not to mention EVERY exit and on ramp!

5 miles of 15 mph w/ stoppages then 1/2 mile of 60 mph.
Repeat.

The best thing about Austin was birdwatcher's reco for a tatooed, lesbian waitress serving breakfast!

I bypass Austin on SH 130 toll road

Mental note made just in case I ever get that way again.

Thanks round oak!

Ted Cruz supports the right of states to perform most tasks, including the building of transportation infrastructure most suitable for their needs. The Federal government traditionally puts in a lot of money to pay of this through the Highway Trust Fund, but it's broke. Today, the states must pick up the slack and Texas obvious decided that it wasn't worth the expense.

^^^This^^^

I avoid I-35 if at all possible when I'm in Austin.

You a lib? An 18 wheeler hit the support beam which caused several others to fail. That caused the bridge failure.

Don't confuse djs with facts.

I'll remember that in the future.

This is the ONLY way to travel! 85mph, little traffic, and they bill you for the tolls via mail, so you don't have to stop or carry change.

No more Austin traffic for me unless I absolutely have to go into the city.

Ed

A tad pricier in a rental car.

Boy this one is out in left field, maybe out of the park...

Did anyone listen to the trucking company owner on the news... boy what a dumbazz.... IF in the end its the trucking company at fault, and it may well be at this point, assuming the contractor did not print the wrong height, then he will loose his azz.... speak to the press, what a dumb azz

I can't thank you enough for that nugget of wisdom. I'd have lost what is left of my mind had I not hit that toll road.

Isn't 130 a tad high? I know I heard that a big tractor/trailer, basically costs a dollar a mile on the toll. Still likely better than 35....

Traffic anywhere around austin sucks, mopac, 183,.....,,

The bridge in question was actually under construction.

US 281 is the only way to go north and south in that country as it bypasses all the BS....

Holy out-of-context-quote Batman!

And our tatooed, lesbian waitress was a dood!

'twas good chow, though.

I even walked down the street to find a copy of the commie rag. All I got from that was there is a lot of music I would not appreciate and Texas is a terrible place because of Perry and Abbott.


And , sorry for the hijack.

Maybe It was a transgender. If so, It may be
on the Austin City Council soon.

There's been a rumor bouncing around Texas for years, that the Highway dep't is mostly staffed by Texas A&M Grads, and they decided to have some fun with Austin's freeways, while the little town of College Station got really well designed roads.

I tend not to believe it, because Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio also have lots of traffic problems. It's really a growth thing, and it would be horrifically expensive to widen a freeway through downtown Austin. Plus UT Austin has ~52k students near downtown, which makes for an epic rush hour.

And yes, take the 130 Toll Road to avoid downtown Austin, every chance you get. Avoid downtown Houston, too!

Right?

That's a fact! I can't get out of my neighborhood without sitting in traffic. It's become intolerable to live here.

any city became intolerable to me around 13 years of age in the late 70s in Houston....

I have not and cannot live in a city

I don't understand how folks can do it, but I"m glad they do, so the country is still less populated.

Right now I work in a town of under 5000. If they told me I had to live in the city limits to have my job I'd tell em to stick it. A few of my other fellow employees have been told same. A few have done it a few have walked. My boss is the utilities manager, has 26 years there and is about to move out, the hell with the rules. I don't blame him.

That says it all.

Oh sure, just tell everybody. Plus you can visit the shrine at Marble Falls.

I-35 from OKC to San Antone sucks and Austin is the worst. It didn't help that SXSW was in town. Everybody wanted on and off at the same exits.

Not a rumor. Tit for tat. Reason SH 21 Thru Austin district has avoided any upgrades. Past UT engineersat Austin district would not support a roadway improvements to provide for an "aggie interstate" route to College Station. Ridiculous BS in both camps. Glad I do not have to deal with any of that crap anymore.

Another reason Austin was overlooked for lots Of improvements was the other areas, Dallas houston etc sent their reps to highway commission meeting soliciting funding. Austin in their stupid enviro mentality fought improvements. Our design monies were tied up in lawsuits with a variety of enviro fringe groups!

Exits on 35 in downtown Austin are all the result of one individual. LBJ. In the middle of ROW acquisition, he stated that they would finish that roadway pronto thru "his town" or heads would roll! Now no ROW thru area from about 5th street to 38th. With 10 foot entrance/ exit ramps. A nightmare.

Bob, from the late 60's onward I have wondered why a city of that size had so few major roads. Your filling in the blanks.
I use a route similar to Oki to get down south, as I hate the drive on 35. Very crowded from Austin to the split at I-35e and I-35 West. I only went that way to stop at Buc-ee's. Never again. Did see your exit in Austin to the SE.

We tried to finish the SH 45 corridor west and SH 71 west to little avail. Millions of tax dollars wasted tied up in court. We redirected most funds ahead of time to finish IH 35/ SH 71 interchange (Ben White) which is a very good design. Unfortunately too little too late.

More new news on the bridge. Owner of trucking firm owns 2 tractors with flat beds.
So we know it's a real small business. Bet if he had a liability policy, was for min of 1,000,000. That will not cover it. So all of the damaged cars/trucks will have to use their own insurance to cover damages. Contractor on bridge will loose, state will loose, feds may even loose for funds to rebuild this section of Interstate again.

Next stop up (happening today) will be in Forth Worth where I-35 is being rebuilt from 2 lanes to 4 with new service roads.
5/6 year project, billions of state dollars.

The thing that bit Austin in the azz was the arrival of the high tech industry en masse. All projected roadway improvement designs done prior to the late 80's were done off of projected traffic counts made in the early to mid 70's. In those days I was one of the chumps stretching a traffic counter hose across a road trying to get data for some engineer back I. The office. There was no way the explosion of people moving here could have been predicted on the scale that it occurred. Which that explosion came a lot of different mindsets. These were the fringe groups who opposed any additional construction. The city reaping what they sowed!

And the owner of the trucking company, as best as I could understand his tex mex, blamed TXDOT for issuing him a permit to travle tehre, since they should know the height of his load and the height of all the bridges.....go back home....

From what I saw he was not an oversize load! No permit required. Standard trailer height.

Every CDL driver is responsible for knowing his hight, width and weight. They are also responsible for reading every sign. There are NO excuses. If you can't do the job and do it right get your tail out of the truck and find a job you can do.

I've told the story before, but I knew one guy who had been a trucker in the 60's, in South Texas, and had an oversize permitted load, which was a large tank IIRC. They gave him his route to assure load clearance, which took him through one small town. After he got through the town he saw flashing lights in his mirror, and pulled over.

Almost instantly a furious cop appeared at his window. When the trucker, who had been driving carefully was puzzled about the stop, the cop demanded he get out and walk back with him.

It was two weeks before Christmas, and all the town's Christmas decorations - which were hanging above the highway - were wrapped around the load. The trucker was horrified, and the cop was still furious. The trucker showed his permits, indicating that he'd carefully followed the route he'd been given.

The cop finally realized it wasn't the trucker's fault, and said, "all right, help me fix this", and the two of them untangled the seasonal decorations, and laid them beside the road. The cop told the trucker to have a safe trip.

If they're building this bridge - why wasn't it designed, and built, high enough for normal (or slightly overheight) loads to clear?

After the bridge is complete the roadway under it will get reworked and will be 5 inches lower than it is now.The height was posted for 2 miles.Driver screwed up.

Did some checking.The bridge was 14 feet 1/2 inch.Posted height was13 feet 6 inches.

Not sure what you saw, they kept showing a box trailer damaged under there.

The truck that hit was on teh side somewhere, access road or such, flatbed, hauling some type of excavator or crane looking thing... sure looked like the highest part of it, was not mcuh, but was high and looked like it had that white concrete dust/debri on it.

Would assume, but not know, that would make it overheight.

As noted that crazy owner said he should have have gotten the permit if it was legal... not funny since someone died but to blame eveyrthing on governmetn is typical, especially the folks that come here from south, but have no clue.

From the news article, the above is true. ending height is going to be 16' 5 ".
Rost wish I knew the correct name for that piece of equipment.
For those in the know it's the unit with a basket on the end for a man to stand in that extends out to say 30' or so. They control it from the basket. 4x4 wheel drive at the bottom. Used in the oil field all the time. Each drilling rig rents one for each well drilled. Used many other places also in reaching up for some repair.
The basket part caught the bridge looks like to me.

Called a boom lift here, used in construction.

Thanks JDM, boom lift sounds about right to me.
Need a trucker now to tell up the normal height of a empty flat bed 18 wheel trailer. Put the boom lift on top in traveling mode. That's a tall unit, but don't know the height of a tractor trailer unit in normal mode.

Too bad they didn't dig out the road bed and pave before construction of the overpass bridge. Looks like more than 14' 5" was needed in this case.

called a man lift, we have them out on location and some of them can get you up 80ft or more.

Yea,was trying to remember what Texas considers min.Its something like 14'6".Its not law just common practice.Service road dosnt apply just the main highway.

All structures even finished ones are posted with a lower height. For a margin of error.

They need to post the #s in spanish..
like everything else.

Interstates are different. I believe the min is 16'. I just don't remember.

Good point it is an interstate.

Wonder what the min. is under a construction zone?
That's the key to who will be sued. Trucking company or the contractor, sure all will be sued and will settle out of court of course.

So I looked up Man lift. Found that and boom lift depending on size.
Boom lift has only a straight crane type arm, straight.
Others have a arm with a break in the middle.

Construction zones are a different critter.

OOPS! That will cost some highway engineer or contractor a job. Depends if signing the change was in the plans or contract.

if the bridge was 14 feet and 1/2 inch clearance but the signs said 13 feet 6 inches clearance and you cleared 13/6, how could you not clear 14? Am I missing something? Which is very possible.

I could see it if the sign said 14 but clearance was 13/6

What? They always post it as less than actual. Repaving etc etc.

Nothing wrong with that posting.

Yep, I really messed that one up, read it backwards.

I always figure it was Aggies responsible for the synchronization of traffic lights, or lack thereof, on the main drags through B/CS.

I was walking back from campus around 3am on account of some Grad student-related thing, mostly deserted streets at that hour, when I heard a guy stopped at yet another red light yell "F&&&&&&K!!I'M ALREADY AN HOUR LATE AND I GOT ANOTHER F&&&&KING RED LIGHT!!"

Trust me, I could feel his pain.

Birdwatcher

In lots of rules besides height. miles

Plenty are grandfathered in. New standards don't match across the board.

In the end, so long as the distance wasn't less than the sign stated, it all falls on the driver as far as I'm concerned.

Agreed, but you can't imagine how many are hit because of the driver. I did a survey to lower the road in El Dorado, Arkansas because the log truck drivers kept hitting it with their top layer of logs. The correct height was posted and had been for many years. Most times the top layer was small logs and simply knocked them off and made a traffic hazard, but sometime they were large and did damage to the bridge. miles

Loggers are the worse by a goodly margin. We have a pulp mill not far and the loggers are a real PIA.

Gravel trucks are close. They both have the motto, Load heavy and drive fast. In the case of pulp trucks, they have to get tall to be heavy, at times. miles