A portion of the Interstate 5 bridge in the US State of Washington was submerged in water after it collapsed into the Skagit River north of Seattle on Thursday, May 23, 2013.
A major US bridge in the northwestern Washington State has collapsed, dumping vehicles and people into the river below as three wounded folks were pulled out of the chilly waterway.
Authorities said the Thursday evening collapse of the heavily travelled Interstate 5 bridge over the Skagit River north of city of Seattle did not appear to involve any fatalities.
The incident, however, prompted questions about the safety of the aging structure and the interruption of the key route between the major US city and Canada.
A man and a woman were reportedly in stable condition with non-life-threatening injuries at an area hospital while another man was also reported in stable condition at a different hospital, located near the collapsed bridge.
Survivors Dan Sligh and his wife said they were driving their pickup truck when the bridge disappeared before them in a “big puff of dust.”
State authorities emphasized that traffic along the heavily-travelled route may be seriously affected for a considerable period.
“The I-5 corridor is totally disrupted,” said Washington Governor Jay Inslee, who visited the scene Thursday night.
He added that efforts to design a detour around the site has already started, but state Transportation Secretary Lynn Peterson asked people to avoid I-5 in the area for the next several days.
Meanwhile, it was not yet clear what caused the bridge collapse, but according to press reports, State Patrol detectives and the patrol’s commercial vehicle enforcement bureau troopers were speaking to a commercial truck driver whose rig was believed to have struck the bridge.
Although the bridge is not considered structurally deficient, it is listed as being “functionally obsolete” – a category that means its design is outdated, such as having narrow shoulders and low clearance underneath, according to a database compiled by the Federal Highway Administration.
The bridge was built in 1955 and has a sufficiency rating of 57.4 out of 100, according to federal records. However, 759 bridges in the state have an even lower sufficiency score.
Washington State, according to local press reports, was given a C grade in the American Society of Civil Engineers’ 2013 infrastructure report card and a C- for the state’s bridges.
The group further said more than a quarter of Washington’s 7,840 bridges are considered structurally deficient of functionally obsolete.
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This article originally appeared on: Press TV