Thursday, July 28, 2022

Traffic moving again after truck carrying liquid oxygen explodes on I-5 in Seattle

 https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/truck-carrying-chemical-tanks-burning-interstate-5/4VOY3ENAURA7FMS6VCV6NZJEPY/

Had the incident happened in a covered section of the I-5 in Seattle, things could have gotten very bad. 

https://www.king5.com/article/traffic/i-5-1-lane-mercer-truck-fire/281-598deb5e-a57b-4af2-bcab-358fece9082d

Of course any high volume traffic corridor has a potential for a big crash or a disaster.

https://komonews.com/news/local/portion-of-i-5-southbound-lanes-shut-down-between-mercer-lakeview-for-car-fire

https://mynorthwest.com/3578661/truck-carrying-liquid-oxygen-catches-fire-closes-sb-and-nb-i-5-at-mercer/

If anything like this should happen in a tunnel, it could become like a blast furnace. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeway_Park

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Convention_Center#Design Given as to how expensive land is, building & covering over sections of freeways has become more necessary over the years. Sometimes it's not just for new buildings, but adding new parkspace as well.  

There was the 1982 Caldecott_Tunnel fire in Oakland,_California. 

"The fire occurred shortly after midnight when there were few cars in the tunnel; had it occurred during normal commute hours, hundreds could have died. As a result of the fire, it is now illegal to transport hazardous material in a tanker truck through the tunnel, except between the light-traffic hours of 3:00 am and 5:00 am." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caldecott_Tunnel#Tunnel_fire

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caldecott_Tunnel_fire#Extent_of_damage The Caldecott has become an 8 lane tunnel system in the years after the fire.

The Vista_Ridge_Tunnels in Portland have a total of 6 lanes.


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