Fiery crash collapses Bay Area freeway

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Joolz
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Fiery crash collapses Bay Area freeway

Post by Joolz » 04-29-2007 09:53 PM

OMG! Nobody was seriously hurt, thank goodness, but go check out the picture of the freeway at this link! It looks like special effects from some disaster flick! (Click on it to enlarge it for a better view.)

Fiery crash collapses Bay Area freeway

By MARCUS WOHLSEN, Associated Press Writer
11 minutes ago

OAKLAND, Calif. - A gasoline tanker crashed and burst into flames near the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge on Sunday, creating such intense heat that a stretch of highway melted and collapsed. Officials predicted a traffic nightmare for Bay Area commuters for weeks or months to come.

Flames shot 200 feet in the air, but the truck's driver walked away from the scene with second-degree burns. No other injuries were reported in the 3:45 a.m. crash, which officials said could have been deadly had it occurred at a busier time.

"I've never seen anything like it," Officer Trent Cross of the California Highway Patrol said of the crumpled interchange. "I'm looking at this thinking, 'Wow, no one died' — that's amazing. It's just very fortunate."

Authorities said the damage could take months to repair, and that it would cause the worst disruption for Bay Area commuters since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake damaged a section of the Bay Bridge itself.

Nearly 75,000 vehicles use the portion of the road every day. But because the accident occured where three highways converge, authorities said it could cause commuting problems for hundreds of thousands of people. State transportation officials said 280,000 commuters take the bridge into San Francisco each day.

On Sunday the collapse doubled the half-hour trip drivers normally face getting to and from San Francisco and the eastern suburbs — even though many didn't even attempt the trip because of the crash. Traffic appeared light on the bridge itself, but motorists looking to get on and off were backed up on both sides.

Transportation officials said they already had added trains to the Bay Area Rapid Transit rail system that takes commuters across San Francisco Bay, and were urging people to telecommute if possible. In preparation for rush hour, Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger authorized funding so that ferries, buses and the rail system could carry commuters free of charge during Monday's commute.

State officials said motorists who try to take alternate routes Monday instead of relying on public transportation would face nightmarish commutes.

The tanker carrying 8,600 gallons of gasoline ignited after crashing into a pylon on the interchange, which connects westbound lanes of Interstate 80 to southbound I-880, on the edge of downtown Oakland about half a mile from the Bay Bridge's toll plaza.

The driver, James Mosqueda, 51, of Woodland, was headed from a refinery in Benecia to a gas station near the Oakland Airport when the accident occurred, according to the California Highway Patrol.

A preliminary investigation indicated he may have been speeding on the curving road, Cross said. Mosqueda was being treated in a hospital for burns Sunday; the hospital would not transfer media calls to his room.

Witnesses reported flames rising up to 200 feet into the air. Heat exceeded 2,750 degrees and caused the steel beams holding up the interchange from eastbound I-80 to eastbound Interstate 580 above to buckle and bolts holding the structure together to melt, leading to the collapse, California Department of Transportation director Will Kempton said.

The charred section of collapsed freeway was draped at a sharp angle onto the highway beneath, exposing a web of twisted metal beneath the concrete. Officials said that altogether a 250-yard portion of the upper roadway was damaged.

The cost of the repairs would likely run into the tens of millions of dollars, and the state was seeking federal disaster aid, Kempton said. Schwarzenegger late Sunday issued an emergency declaration to allow repairs to happen faster, said Adam Mendelsohn, the governor's spokesman.

The Bay Bridge consists of two heavily traveled, double-decked bridges about two miles long straddling San Francisco Bay.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said the accident showed how fragile the Bay area's transportation network is, whether to an earthquake or terrorist attack, and has the potential to have a major economic effect on the city.

"It's another giant wakeup call," Newsom told reporters at the California Democratic Party convention in San Diego.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070430/ap_ ... y_collapse
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tiffany
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Wow Reminds Me Of The 1989 7.1 Quake

Post by tiffany » 04-29-2007 10:03 PM

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Post by Shirleypal » 04-29-2007 10:41 PM

Gosh, I can't tell you how many times I have been on that connector going to San Francisco. What a nightmare this is going to be until they get it fixed. Traffic during rush hour is already a nightmare, also glad no one was hurt. That whole Oakland Maze it a nightmare with 5 freeways merging to go to the Bay Bridge.

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Post by skydancer » 04-30-2007 01:01 PM

Its amazing that no mention of which refinery or what company was hauling the fuel that did this damage. No mention of the name of the driver or his home town. Why is that?

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Post by Shirleypal » 04-30-2007 03:35 PM

skydancer wrote: Its amazing that no mention of which refinery or what company was hauling the fuel that did this damage. No mention of the name of the driver or his home town. Why is that?


You didn't read the whole article skydancer, no article has mentioned who the refinery is.

Despite the fire, the truck's driver walked away with only second-degree burns. James Mosqueda, 51, of Woodland, went to a gas station and called a taxi for a ride to a hospital, California Highway Patrol Officer Trent Cross said

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Post by HB3 » 04-30-2007 03:52 PM

skydancer wrote: Its amazing that no mention of which refinery or what company was hauling the fuel that did this damage. No mention of the name of the driver or his home town. Why is that?


Interesting point.

Also, I thought burning fuel couldn't melt steel...remember?

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Post by mudwoman » 04-30-2007 05:08 PM

HB3 wrote: Interesting point.

Also, I thought burning fuel couldn't melt steel...remember?


Comparing the circumstances surrounding the fire and subsequent partial collapse of this bridge to the circumstances surrounding the fires and subsequent complete collapse of the towers and WTC 7 is flawed from end to end. This fact should be obvious to most people; but let's point out a few things just in case they weren't already noticed.



1. This was an open air environment where flames were able to reach their absolute maximum temperature; white-hot and shooting upwards of 200 feet in the air.

2. Those 200 foot flames were acting on a single support truss that was fastened to the two columns pictured here. That truss (and the connectors that fastened it to the columns) represents a small fraction of the steel that would have been found on a single floor of the towers or WTC 7. So again, far more heat focused on a single truss and no way to redistribute the load once that truss was weakened.

3. You'll notice that despite the intense fires ability to weaken the truss and connectors that there is NO mention of molten metal in the debris. Also, unlike the debris of the towers and WTC 7, it's not likely we're going to hear anything about thermate (specifically used to destroy steel columns) in the bridge debris.

4. You'll notice that the concrete roadway that "pancaked down" on the roadway below did not cause the lower freeway to collapse. Nor has the concrete disintegrated into a fine powder.

5. You'll notice the columns were not torn down by the collapse, nor did they evaporate into thin air, rather they are still standing (having only lost the the truss and connectors that held the roadway to them.)

So to quickly recap:

* White-hot 200 foot flames acting on a single truss (and no ability to redistribute the load once weakened.)

* No molten metal and certainly no thermate found

* No column failure

* No evaporation / pulverization of concrete

* No "pancake collapse"


For the record, few in the scientific community doubt that it's theoretically possible for a building to experience failure if it is subjected to devastating heat for a sufficient period of time. And additional factors like no fire-proofing, no sprinkler systems, insufficient steel to "bleed off" heat or inferior construction greatly increase the possibility. However, what is "doubted" (or more accurately; considered downright impossible) is that such a failure would resemble anything like what was witnessed on 9/11. -Gradual, isolated, asymmetrical failures spread out over time; perhaps -simultaneous disintegration of all load bearing columns (leaving a pile of neatly folded rubble a few stories high) -no way.

http://stopthelie.com/freeway_collapse.html

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Post by Shirleypal » 04-30-2007 05:40 PM

.

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Post by Iris » 04-30-2007 05:59 PM

NICE job, Sandy!

I watched the slide show at your link, Joolz. Horrifying pics. I'm sure glad nobody was killed; that's a miracle. I don't envy the poor folks who use this to commute. What a mess!

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Post by HB3 » 04-30-2007 06:44 PM

Posting a truther link is a nice job? Whatever.

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Post by HB3 » 04-30-2007 06:49 PM

Oh, now, looking around, I see this has developed into a big argument between skeptics and debunkers. My comment was only offhand.

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Live365
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Post by Live365 » 04-30-2007 08:28 PM

HB3 wrote: My comment was only offhand.


Well, I got it.

:D
Did you ever stop to think, and then forget to start again?

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Post by mudwoman » 04-30-2007 09:48 PM

Iris wrote: NICE job, Sandy!

I watched the slide show at your link, Joolz. Horrifying pics. I'm sure glad nobody was killed; that's a miracle. I don't envy the poor folks who use this to commute. What a mess!
;)

:D

Keep up the good work, my freind. :)

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Post by skydancer » 05-01-2007 12:50 AM

HB3 wrote: Interesting point.

Also, I thought burning fuel couldn't melt steel...remember?


I suspect it would take a tanker truck to weaken the joints on the lower deck to pancake the upper deck. Its not so much the fire as it might have been the explosion.

I just wanted to make sure the tanker driver wasn't named Mohammed

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Post by Shirleypal » 05-01-2007 01:23 AM

The driver is James Mosqueda, 51, of Woodland, Ca.

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