YAY! Right!?  ... Yeah that wasn't the first thing that came to my mind either.  But, this weekend we have events, we have parades, we have major road closures... we just have a lot going on.  Here's the rundown. 

EVENTS:

Saturday, June 1st

Roosevelt Neighborhood Parade: 2-4pm. Here is the route.

Parade Route: Starts at NE 68th Street and 12th Ave NE; heads west on 68th to Roosevelt Way NE; south t NE 64th Street; east on 64th to 12th AVE NE; north on 12th AVE NE to NE 69th St; east on 69th to 15th AVE NE; north on 15th to NE 70th; east on 70th to 20th AVE NE; south on 20th to NE 68th St; west on 68th to 15th Ave NE; south on 15th to NE 66th St; west on 66th to 12th AVE NE; north on 12th into the Roosevelt High parking lot.  Police will be escourting and only rolling slowdowns will happen to help the parade through.

Kenny Chesney at Century Link Field: 4-11pm

Eucharistic Adoration: 5-6pm.  1,500 participants will head out on streets around the Vietnamese Martyrs Parish, police will escourt.

Sunday, June 2nd

2013 Komen Puget Sound Race for the Cure: 8-9am.

13,500 participants will race from Mercer and Third starting at 8am.

Streets Closed: Mercer Street from Third to Fifth Ave N from 6:30am-11am.  Fifth Ave N, Cedar Street and Second Ave from 7:30am-11am. 

AAAaaaaand here is our Major Road Construction for the weekend:

SR520 from Montlake to I405 will be CLOSED from 11pm Friday through 5am Monday.

Drive happy, and be SAFE out there!

-The Divas

We are compiling some of the best quotes from state & national officials as well as loal media regarding the collapse of the Skagit River Bridge.  While we are not trying to make light of the situation, we also recognize humor when we see it.  Keep in mind, these are quotes given during press conferences, news interviews, etc. and are meant to be serious.......enjoy.....

Gov Inslee - "we want to discourage drivers from crashing their trucks into state bridges."........apparently that needed to be said.

Another quote from Inslee  "we are focused like laser beams on detours at the moment."....would saying "we are very focused on detours" not have gotten the point across. All I can think of is Dr. Evil and Sharks with fricking laser beams on their heads...

Here is another gem from Debbie Hersman, Chairman of NTSB, they "don't expect Interstate bridges to drop into the water below them." Seems that would be the purpose of a bridge.....to remain intact, above the water.....

According to the DOT;  "to clarify, functionally obsolete doesn't have anything to do with structural integrity".......but it doesn't sound good

Unnamed reporter asked a witness who was looking at the bridge- When you look up at the bridge right now; what do you think? The witness' response, well, I think it's gone. To which the reporter then asked if she goes over the bridge often.  The witness then said, yeah, I drive over it everyday.  The reporter's last question was this; are you worried about driving over that bridge right now? The witness' response; it's not there.

Another unnamed reporter asked a bystander and his son if they were thankful to not be on the bridge.......you can't make this stuff up.

 Q13 Anchor declares ‘All Hands on Dick’ Situation at Skagit Bridge Collapse...simple slip of the tongue, but it's still funny.

One thing we have learned is that social media & the desire to be first to report something causes incorrect information to be reported without confirmation; here are some examples:

A news outlet reported witnesses saw a blanket being placed over what could have been a body; this was actually a person who was rescued with a thermal blanket on them.

Other sources reported that there were bodies floating down the river.....it was the inside of a mattress........

Now, just for fun, here are some gems from our favorite tweeter @alexssn

Screw that. Go hard! RT @KING5Seattle: @GovInslee 'we want to discourage drivers from crashing their trucks into state bridges."

No, but seriously, maybe don't crash your trucks into bridges.

Let's go bridgeless. Ballsy tactic, but it just may work. RT @komonews DOT: No intent at this time to rebuild the entire bridge

We could also just post a sign on I-5 that reads, "Gap ahead. It's really not that big of a gap. Don't bitch out."

And this delight from one of Alex's disciples (aka) followers,  @A_Dollar_Short to alexSSN "bridges are the number 1 cause of bridge failure, eliminating a threat by going bridgeless"

On a side note; Google maps is now missing a chunk of I-5 over Skagit River. They're quick!!

Last night around 7pm, part of the I5 bridge over the Skagit River collapsed into the water, carrying 2 cars and 3 people with it. Amazingly, within a few hours, all three people had been rescued safely, and there were no fatalities.  Looking at the mangled steel beams in the water, it seems like a miracle.

Since the event, there has been a ton of speculation, there have been guesses as to what exactly happened, and a lot of misinformation floating around.  So, here is a bullet list of everything we have confirmed so far.  (Photo: Jessie Barnhart/KOMO)

EVENT INFO: Updated 11:05am Friday

-Around 7pm last night, roughly a quarter of the I5 bridge over the Skagit River collapsed, sending 2 vehicles into the water.  3 people were rescued within hours of the incident, therewere no fatalities.

-Dan Sligh and his wife were in one vehicle.  He said he escaped with some cuts and bruises, and was taken to the hopsital as a precaution.  He also said his wife suffered some internal bleeding, but was also going to be fine.  Third victim is already home from the hospital as well.

-Crews are still investigating what caused the bridge to crumble.  WSDOT has NOT confirmed what caused the collapse, although they have stated that they are investigating a semi that witnesses claimed hit multiple girders.

-WSP Trooper Mark Francis said that Troopers found the semi believed to have hit multiple girders on the bridge just before it fell.  The driver is cooperating with investigators.  In this video, though, WSP Chief John Batiste does say that the cause was the semi.  Still, a DOT investigation is happening, so it has not been confirmed by all parties.

-The semi in question was from Canada, traveling to Vancouver, BC.  The trucking company, Mullen Trucking out of Alberta, says received a state-issued permit to carry its oversized load across the Skagit River bridge.

-Google Maps already has updated their system to show that the bridge does not actually cross the water.

ABOUT the BRIDGE: Updated 8:01am Friday

-The bridge was built in 1955, it was inspected twice last year, the last time being in November.

-According to the National Bridge Inventory Database:

-Deck condition rating: Satisfactory Condition

-Superstructure condition rating: Fair Condition

-Substructure condition rating: Satisfactory Condition

-Structural Evaluation: Somewhat better than minimum adequacy to tolerate being left in place as is.

-Sufficiency rating: 57.4 (out of 100)

-Status: Functionally Obsolete. (According to the DOT's definition of 'functionally obsolete': “…A bridge can be categorized functionally obsolete a number of ways like having substandard lane widths, or narrow shoulders. Another example would be a bridge that doesn’t have enough vertical clearance for large trucks to pass under, causing repeat hits and damage to the bridge.”)

DETOUR INFO: Updated 11:06am Friday

The detours are, as they always are, not ideal.  We just got word of construction on SR9, north of Arlington with traffic alternating in ONE lane.  We've also been told by the DOT that they have reports of a commuter from Bellingham to south of downtown Mt Vernon taking 70 minutes.   Essentially, at the moment, its sit in heavy traffic on I5, or sit in heavy traffic on SR9. We want to stress that this seems to change every few minutes, so be prepared for whatever.  We would budget an extra hour if we were traveling that way. 

Here is detour info from the DOT:  "I-5 is closed in both directions in Skagit County south of Burlington. Traffic is being diverted off southbound I-5 at Exit 230. For an alternate route, take eastbound SR 20, then south on S. Burlington Blvd. and west on E. College Way (SR 538) to southbound I-5. Northbound I-5 traffic must exit at Exit 227. An alternate route is east to E. College Way to northbound Riverside Drive-S. Burlington Boulevard, then west on George Hopper Road to I-5. To use SR 9 as an alternate northbound route, bypassing Mount Vernon, take Exit 221 at SR 534 east to northbound SR 9 to SR 20 westbound to I-5."

Recap:

SB is forced off I5 at Exit 230

NB is forced off I5 at Exit 227

REPLACEMENT PLANS: Updated 9:32am

-Gov. Jay Inslee tweeted that the federal government will be putting $1 million of emergency fund towards the bridge replacement. Inslee says after speaking with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on Friday morning, they figure the replacement brigde will cost $15 million.  Sec. LaHood has promised full support to get this fixed ASAP.

Here is the press release from the NTSB (National Traffic Safety Board).

Long story short, everyone is OK, but this is going to seriously complicate our commute for a long time.  PLEASE be safe and patient out there.

-The Divas