Just in time for the long weekend

dodgechargerfan

CanadianGary
Administrator
I'm so glad I've got nothing scheduled up that way next week.

Reports of minor injuries and a whole lot of "How the f*ck do I get off of this bridge now?" and "Where do I pee?"

http://www.citynews.ca/2014/07/31/t...or-days-after-truck-crashes-into-scaffolding/

BurlingtonSkyway1.jpg


and not so smart

BurlingtonSkyway2.jpg
 
..and never mind the scaffolding, he hit the ACTUAL bridge structure first.

You can see it in the second picture above.
 
Oops.

A friend of mine who is a crane operator wiped out part of a local bridge several years ago. We never let him live it down.

To this day, whenever there is a story like this, we all say "fuckin' Juan" as if he has struck again. :)
 
:eek: I know that bridge well. There are ways around but they ain't fast :(

What the hell was he doing....?

Drunk and driving with the dump raised.

People tried to wave him down to tell him about the dump being up and he sped up to get away from them.

He's facing charges and he'll lose his job. The trucking company is probably filing out the bankruptcy forms tonight.

It's still closed.

They backed a bunch of vehicles back down the bridge.

The lower bridge - the only other route through that area - was converted to have all lanes going Toronto bound for a while.

The only other way around that area is to go all the way around Hamilton harbour on a highway and two expressways.

They clog up in rush hour on a good day.

It would almost makes sense to detour around the detour routes and drive country roads as much as possible. It will still take a couple of hours but at least it's driving for two hours and not sitting for two hours.

The mayor of Burlington said (paraphrased), "It won't hurt Burlington because no one wants to go to Burlington."
Why they were even interviewing him on TV is a mystery. It's a provincial highway. The city of Burlington has nothing to do with it other than to provide emergency services when necessary.
 
Drunk and driving a HUGE dump truck....

Last time I hear something similar the dump truck derailed a train :facepalm:
 
News is reporting that the bridge is in danger of collapsing.

I don't believe them because the same news reported that shipping under the bridge is halted, yet they showed a ship going through... Yes, it was a live shot.

I am seriously starting to hate the local news media. I mean, I never liked them much before, but it seems like they start their day with a meeting about what they will screw up.
Never mind the fact that half of them can't speak without tripping over their words.

Hey, I'm not perfect, but this is their job and the incompetence is constant and it's starting to wear me down.

End rant.


At any rate, traffic is completely fucked in that area. The alternates are clogged and there were a couple of accidents on those alternates during the morning rush hour that made things even worse.

The news is saying "days or even weeks" before the bridge reopens.


No word yet on any plans to redirect traffic on the sister bridge right beside it. It has 4 lanes and could accommodate 2 lanes in each direction.



The scaffolding that is all over the damaged bridge? That's for a current contract to apply a rust resistant coating on the steel parts of the bridge. It was scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2016.

I'll have to find an alternate route to MOPARFest in the middle of April, but that shouldn't be a problem. We started taking back roads home two years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Other than that, my work schedule has me doing very little road travel for the next while. So, I hope that continues until this gets sorted out.

I can't imagine what people are going through trying to get through that area for the long weekend or just to get to and from work today. I'd lose it.
 
That is crazy dude. We have construction project going on in SoCal that I forget about weekly. It really hits me when I get through doing a gig and coming home late at realizing that I should have gone another way. Why - my normal travel route has been shutdown and I have to detour off of the freeway at some unforsakable hour some 7-8 miles from home.
 
Monday is a Civic Holiday.

Basically, we made it up so that we could have a long weekend in August.

There is talk about calling it Terry Fox Day. That'd be cool. But really, people just want to sit outside and drink. So, they could call it a Dead Slug and Hummus on a Cracker Day and it would still just be a long weekend in August.

It might be better to honour Terry on another day when people would actually pay attention.
 
They hauled the vehicles out from under the superstructure today.
Engineers will assess the damage and report on Monday.
 
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