A large beam lies under the Whittier Bridge.
Posted on 07/17/2008 12:06:53 PM PDT by george76
Rotting holes in steel support beams, enormous rust patches, small splits in steel girders and broken bracing are evident all along the underside of the John Greenleaf Whittier Bridge, the heavily traveled Interstate 95 span that crosses the Merrimack River between Amesbury and Newburyport.
A just-released state safety report filed in the wake of last year's disastrous collapse of the similarly designed Interstate 35 bridge in Minneapolis gave the 57-year-old Whittier Bridge "poor" ratings due to deterioration. On a 10-step ranking system, the rating is just two steps above the point where engineers consider closing a bridge due to safety concerns.
Despite its current condition, the overall structure remains safe, and the motorists who travel across it each day have no need to worry, senior Massachusetts Highway Department officials said ...
"The bridge is safe," chief engineer Frank Tramontozzi said. "If it wasn't safe, it would have been closed."
On a rating system of 0 to 9 (zero being failure and 9 as excellent), the Whitter's superstructure got a 4 — or "poor" — primarily due to problems with its stringers, floor beams and lateral bracing.
The deck also rated a 4 due to problems with railings, catwalks, parapets and overall condition of the deck itself.
The heavily redacted version of the report — provided to The Daily News after the newspaper reported on four 30-foot beams that had corroded and broken — describes numerous problems with the bridge and provides several photos of major support beams that have partly rotten through.
(Excerpt) Read more at newburyportnews.com ...
Bridge gets poor marks in state report Engineers say despite rot and rust, Whittier Bridge is safe for motorists
“The bridge is safe,” chief engineer Frank Tramontozzi said. “If it wasn’t safe, it would have been closed.”
I guess Baghdad Bob has assumed a new identity
Any concerns on a long, rusty metal beam that appeared to have fallen from the bridge ?
This must be one of the reasons Deval Patrick has proposed a several-fold increase in CCW license fees—to raise money for infrastructure investment.
A large beam lies under the Whittier Bridge.
State officials were unaware the beam had fallen until North of Boston Media Group photographed it and sent electronic copies to the Highway Department.
After viewing the photos, officials said the bridge is safe for motorists — although it may be a hazard for boaters.
http://www.newburyportnews.com/archivesearch/local_story_182001545.html
Looks safe to me. I’m not an engineer but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
Good grief. I hope they sue this guy’s sorry *ss off when the bridge collapses. And Deval Patrick as well.
I don’t go that way when I drive up or down the coast, but I think there must be some heavy commuter use at times.
I suppose they can’t spare any money from the Big Dig fiasco.
Is this on the way to Maine ?
I think it’s near the border between Massachusetts and Rhode Island. I’ve only been that way once, for a conference in Southern Massachusetts many years ago.
Fix the way they do other bridges in that state...cribbing to hold it up.
Its near the border of Mass and NH.
As a corrosion engineer, I say that’s a beautiful thing.
As the operator of an automobile, I say you gotta be kidding me.
Keep in mind that Massachussetts has socked away all its highway funds for to pay for the Big Dig.
Yes, you’re right. I got some wrong info earlier from google about where the Merrimack River is, I guess.
We have gone over that bridge occasionally, to visit my son outside of Boston or pick up someone at Logan Airport. It’s pretty busy, from what I’ve seen of it.
Thanks
Big Dig cost is now calculated to be 22 Billion simoleons, including interest. That's an additional 7 Billion.
A billion here, a billion there. Pretty soon you're talking real money.
Maybe you should go around this one.
The first photo, aside from the fallen beam (!) could be passed off as surface rust, but Photo 17 is really disconcerting. Are there any more like that in the photo collection?
LOL - ouch.
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