The Freaking Interstate Collapsed.......

Looking at Google's streetview and of pictures of the start of the fire today, the only thing that appeared to be stored under that bridge segment was rolls of flexible PVC pipe or conduit. And not a whole lot of it, IMO. I'm shocked that it would burn fiercely enough to take down the bridge segment.

But, if that's all it was (and assuming an accidental fire), whoever chose to store that stuff under the bridge is looking pretty stupid right now...

For those of you not from Atlanta, the fire took out the Northbound (out of Atlanta) lanes of I-85 and Hwy 400, which are two of the three main commute paths to Atlanta's Northern suburbs. Just thinking through the timelines, it is gonna be months to fix this. A lot of people and employers will be impacted...

Beyond that, I-85 is a obviously a major commercial route from Atlanta and points South up to Charlotte and NE from there.
 
I'm guessing future GADOT contracts will prohibit storing anything under a roadway.
 
EppyGA said:
I'm guessing future GADOT contracts will prohibit storing anything under a roadway.
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If that belonged to a contractor, their insurance underwriter is gonna have a few busy days...
 
I'm looking forward to watching the chaos unfold in the morning.

From my couch.
 
kyleb said:
If I worked in town, I'd be planning to telecommute an inordinate amount this summer.
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My wife works in Buckhead (coming in from the north side). I'm curious to see how she will be affected even though she doesn't use that part of 85.

I keep telling her to call in sick so she can stay home with me.

I have no idea how long it's going to take to get fixed.
 
rent a place on the south side of the bridge and commute from there....:(
 
I live in Buckhead, 2 miles from that place.
Lots of homeless people under that bridge, those spools don't ignite by themselves. I have $5 on a homeless bonfire getting out of hand (or some other form of arson).
 
To add to the highway collapse we've added trees down from storms last night.
 
It doesn't take a whole lot of a fire to weaken and collapse cement/concrete. Saw a presentation a few years back, and I was very surprised at how such little fire exposure weakens it quickly.
 
Pics or it didn't happen


Idn't dat mista bandit bastid from Atlanta ? I gonna git dat summ-bich
 
TheTraveler said:
It doesn't take a whole lot of a fire to weaken and collapse cement/concrete. Saw a presentation a few years back, and I was very surprised at how such little fire exposure weakens it quickly.
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Reminds me of 9/11, and the people that said it couldn't happen that way.
 
This really is Armageddon for many ATL commuters. Interesting to watch this thing unfold last night on the local Atlanta channels. They even brought up a couple of foam trucks from Hartsfield Airport. The fire was big and it was hot.
 

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JOhnH said:
Reminds me of 9/11, and the people that said it couldn't happen that way.
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I thought the exact same thing when I saw the presentation. It was an eye opener. Cement/concrete holds a lot of moisture. Heat it up fast and good, and you've got a disaster. Anyone who has a cement/concrete driveway sees the eventual cracks as the seasons change for the same reason. Speed that up and intensify it, and good by structural stability. In this case the heat source is directly underneath, it's like you put that overpass on a propane stove. Ouch.

Everytime I see cities where they have storage and other junk underneath a low expressway I just shake my head. When it goes up, that section of road is comin' down.
 
On the bright side, at least it wasn't the I-75 main trunk thru town, that would be a true nightmare.
 
MadseasoN said:
Well the bridge didn't disintegrate into dust before even hitting the ground. So it's a little different.
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There was a whole lot more distance to the ground at the twin towers. And the tower was a vertical structure collapsing into itself rather than a flat structure dropping unimpeded by lower floors.
 
There was a fire like that in New Jersey some years ago with similar results to a major road. They got it rebuilt in record time.
 
Cap'n Jack said:
There was a fire like that in New Jersey some years ago with similar results to a major road. They got it rebuilt in record time.
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I suspect we will see a spectacularly quick rebuild here too. But I think I would wait a while before driving on the repaired span.
 
Lance F said:
This really is Armageddon for many ATL commuters. Interesting to watch this thing unfold last night on the local Atlanta channels. They even brought up a couple of foam trucks from Hartsfield Airport. The fire was big and it was hot.
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And prolly a bit toxic. Burning PVC sounds like a really bad thing to be in the air but I'm no fire safety guy.

Edit: googled a bit, PVC might not be so bad as far as immediate effects. Breathing a little bit kills test rats but not a test baboon. The characteristic combustion gas product is HCl which is gonna be an acid when it dissolves in water...acid rain anyone?
 
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Of course was able to pick up some of the slack.
 

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JOhnH said:
There was a whole lot more distance to the ground at the twin towers. And the tower was a vertical structure collapsing into itself rather than a flat structure dropping unimpeded by lower floors.
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Yeah, perfectly into itself.

Each floor didn't fall to the ground. It allegedly fell to the next floor (pancake theory), maybe 12 feet? I guess 12 feet is far enough to disintegrate into dust. Not.
 
MadseasoN said:
Yeah, perfectly into itself.

Each floor didn't fall to the ground. It allegedly fell to the next floor (pancake theory), maybe 12 feet? I guess 12 feet is far enough to disintegrate into dust. Not.
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Perfectly into itself, yes. That's how buildings like that collapse when the floors are weakened by sagging.
It wasn't just one floor falling 12 feet, it was multiple floors and the pressure increased by every failing floor.
You can keep your tin foil hat, thankfully smart people figured out what happened.
 
mtuomi said:
Perfectly into itself, yes. That's how buildings like that collapse when the floors are weakened by sagging.
It wasn't just one floor falling 12 feet, it was multiple floors and the pressure increased by every failing floor.
You can keep your tin foil hat, thankfully smart people figured out what happened.
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Two buildings in history is not a large enough sample size to say that 'that's how buildings like that collapse'. It's still one floor at a time regardless of how many there are.

"Personal attacks are prohibited. This specifically means any text/post that is blatantly attacking another person, on or off the forum, especially in a personal way. Make your point without calling names or casting aspersions on others."
 
What's weird is that PVC is resistant to combustion, and does not like to continue burning.

There was something else under that bridge.

Sent from my SM-T700 using Tapatalk
 
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