from Hacker News

I-10 closure in California prompts state of emergency

by akeck on 11/12/23, 11:39 PM with 54 comments

  • by jedberg on 11/13/23, 1:29 AM

    When the Northridge quake hit in 1994 and took out a section of I-10 (it literally fell and crumbled), they had it rebuilt in 31 days, using the state of emergency bureaucratic "fast pass".

    I have a feeling this will be reopened by Thanksgiving.

  • by lgleason on 11/13/23, 2:36 AM

    You would think that after what happened in Atlanta with 85 a few years ago, which was ironically storage owned by the state where a homeless person set some stuff on fire, they would have known better than to allow any storage under a bridge like this, especially private. Just from a national security standpoint, taking out a few bridges like this could cause havoc.

    They did rush the construction to get it back open but it was crazy for a while. Another great reason to support remote work :).

  • by prpl on 11/13/23, 3:16 AM

    There’s some large encampments under bart in East Oakland, in addition to other overpasses, underpasses, and other raised concrete infrastructure.

    I’m surprised more didn’t happen with the 580 (880?) overpass when there was a big fire near west oakland a few years ago, but they did finally take that as an opportunity to clean some things up. It really is irresponsible to let these things slide

  • by fnordpiglet on 11/13/23, 1:46 AM

    Ok - sucks about the closed interstate.

    But that robot fire fighter in the lead photo - wow that’s awesome!

  • by lamroger on 11/13/23, 1:24 AM

    Philly replaced a burnt bridge pretty quickly. Not sure how different the sizes are but hoping for a speedy fix.

    https://www.businessinsider.com/philadelphia-turns-heads-spe...

  • by angmarsbane on 11/13/23, 12:24 AM

    Native Californian, and Angelino here. It took me a minute to realize all the headlines about I-10 meant THE 10 freeway.

  • by bryogenic on 11/13/23, 3:01 AM

    Excellent video on the pain points and tradeoffs related to freeway bridge designs and fire safety.

    Practical Engineering: Why fires destroy bridges

    Philadelphia I-95 Bridge Collapse Explained

    https://youtu.be/iKNw1mnA5M0

  • by radar1310 on 11/13/23, 4:13 AM

    How ridiculous that this even happened. It happened in Atlanta 3 years ago. Don’t we learn from huge mistakes like this anymore? The circumstances are exactly the same. Look it up. It’s really stupid that this was allowed to happen again.

  • by dimmu_bourgeois on 11/13/23, 2:46 AM

    > People are advised to take public transit if traveling in and around downtown Los Angeles

    I know HN asks that we post thoughtful comments, but the only thing that comes to mind when I read this sentence is "lmfao"

  • by kermatt on 11/13/23, 1:57 AM

    Seems like storage of flammable materials under busy freeways is not always a great idea: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_85_bridge_collapse