TUKWILA, Wash. - A truck spilled its cargo onto a Duwamish River bridge south of Seattle in Tukwila, damaging beams and blocking direct access to a neighborhood and a BNSF Railway freight yard.
Photos show at least two of the steel-truss members constructed in 1949 and a steel brace overhead were bent by the impact.
The bridge — crossing the river at 42nd Avenue South, close to Highway 599 — has a "fracture critical" design, meaning a failure of one key beam or joint may trigger a chain reaction collapse. A similar thing occurred in 2013 when a tall load broke one span of the Interstate 5 Skagit River Bridge.
Tukwila has plans to replace the old crossing by 2025, for at least $22 million. The contract instructions called for a temporary bridge nearby, during roughly two years of construction.
City leaders didn’t immediately reply to interview requests from the newspaper Wednesday, about how long it will take to clear and inspect the bridge, and whether it can be repaired.
"Due to damage sustained to the bridge, it will be closed for an unknown amount of time until engineers can inspect it," Tukwila police said on Twitter Wednesday afternoon.
On busy days, about 3,000 trucks and 7,000 cars cross the bridge, making it crucial to the city’s transportation network.
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