Collapse raises questions
Local structures in need of repair, but still safe to travel on OCEAN AVENUE Craig Stuart spends most mornings walking along the Santa Monica Pier. The steep incline from the planks to Ocean Avenue provides a good workout.
Until Wednesday, Stuart never gave much thought to the safety of his regimen. Then came the collapse of an interstate bridge in Minnesota that sent dozens of cars plummeting into the Mississippi River, killing at least five people. Between eight and 30 people are still missing, according to various reports.
“That kind of made me think,” Stuart said. “I know the (Pier) bridge is pretty old and a part of it (southern stairway) has been closed for some time because of the (Northridge) earthquake.
“I’m not really afraid to walk on it, but it definitely causes you to think a little bit about something many of us take for granted.”
State and local transportation officials on Thursday sought to reassure residents that heavily traveled structures such as the Pier Bridge and the California Incline are safe to use even though they have been labeled structurally or seismically deficient and could collapse during a major earthquake.
“We are making some changes to a report on geology, but overall, they are not in bad shape,” said David Sharkey, a civil engineer with Los Angeles County, which conducts reviews of all structures in Santa Monica every two years along with the California Department of Transportation, or Caltrans.
Doug Failing, director of Caltrans District 7, which covers Los Angeles and Ventura counties, said overpasses in Santa Monica, such as the one on Fourth Street near the Public Safety Facility, are sound.
The eight-lane bridge in Minnesota received a similar rating as the Incline — structurally deficient — as early as 1990 and during a federal inspection in 2005, but state engineers said it was not slated to be replaced until 2020.
City officials are currently working on plans to replace both the Incline and the Pier Bridge within the next two years and are in the hunt for federal funds under the Highway Bridge Replacement and Rehabilitation Program.
In the meantime, transportation officials say it is still safe to travel across the structures. They also said that California is ahead of most states in reviewing its structures because of a heightened awareness brought on by earthquakes. Many structures were retrofitted following the Northridge Earthquake in 1994, and those that were not are slated for an upgrade.
“We have always been very conscious about bridges in Southern California because of seismic activity,” Failing said. “At the state level and the local level, we are doing a good job at monitoring our bridges and other structures so I don’t expect we’ll see an increase in the requests for funding because everyone already knows which bridges should be put at the top of the list.”
Ben Franz-Knight, director of the Pier Restoration Corporation, said replacing the Pier Bridge remains a “top priority” and that alternatives should go before the City Council for consideration this fall.
Mark Cuneo, principal engineer for City Hall, said he meets with Caltrans every two weeks on the Incline project and is confident that funding will be made available soon. In the meantime, engineers are moving forward with the necessary steps to get the project rolling, such as preparing a draft environmental impact report, which is currently available for residents to review and make suggestions.
Following the collapse of the Minnesota bridge, elected officials have called for comprehensive reviews of all structures in the state.
“It should not take a tragedy like the one in Minnesota to remind us that the safety of
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 4, 2007. Read the original PDF.