SC

The Ravenel Bridge Is Closed … Again

MORE MAJOR TRAFFIC SNARLS FOR CHARLESTON, HEADACHES FOR HALEY Three days after Winter Storm Leon did its worst (which honestly wasn’t that much), the most important bridge in the South Carolina Lowcountry remains shut down. Well let’s rephrase that … the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge has been closed a second…

MORE MAJOR TRAFFIC SNARLS FOR CHARLESTON, HEADACHES FOR HALEY

Three days after Winter Storm Leon did its worst (which honestly wasn’t that much), the most important bridge in the South Carolina Lowcountry remains shut down.

Well let’s rephrase that … the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge has been closed a second time.

After briefly reopening following a two-day shutdown earlier in the week, the Ravenel Bridge was once again closed on Friday morning at 10:30 a.m. due to ice falling from its 120-plus overhanging cables.

Numerous vehicles were hit by the ice chunks, according to local television station WCSC TV 5 (CBS – Charleston).

“I saw a large chunk of ice falling in front of me in the middle of the lane …” one motorist told the station. “As soon as I saw that, I slowed down and then heard a large crash on top of my car.”

At least one person was injured when a falling piece of ice struck their windshield and sent glass into their eyes.

The latest closing has created another round of huge traffic delays in and around Charleston – fomenting existing rage against S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley’s Department of Transportation (SCDOT), the agency which is responsible for the bridge.

“All arteries are backed up trying to get to Mount Pleasant,” one local told FITS, referring to the town of 70,000 opposite the Cooper River from downtown Charleston, S.C.

It’s another clusterf*ck, in other words …

Earlier this week, SCDOT spokesman (and former state lawmaker) James Law told local station WCBD TV 2 (NBC – Charleston)  “I don’t think we’re going to change a whole lot” in terms of the agency’s response to future winter storms.

Wonder if he’s standing by that quote today …

Opened in 2005, the Ravenel Bridge is the third-longest cable-stayed bridge in the Western Hemisphere. More than 90,000 vehicles cross it on a daily basis. Usually …

(Banner via Holy City Helicopters)

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25 comments

Robert January 31, 2014 at 3:01 pm

So, you’d rather it stay open and cars get hit by ice chunks?

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euwe max January 31, 2014 at 5:45 pm

no.. the idea is to sit here and grouse over the idiot architect and the dumbasses who rubber stamped his design, and allocated the money to build it.

I know I’ve got nothing better to do, how about you?

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Squishy123 January 31, 2014 at 6:47 pm

So it’s been open for how long, and this problem has occurred how many times? Some people will bitch just to bitch.

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euwe max January 31, 2014 at 6:53 pm

Exactly.

And it doesn’t matter to anyone in Charleston that doesn’t have to travel on that bridge when ice is on the cables.

It’s everyone for themselves…

except us. We’re intellectuals. Instead of bitching when it happens to us – we bitch when it happens to someone else… but we’ll be fucked running before we allocate one thin dime to prevent it from happening in the first place.

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Squishy123 January 31, 2014 at 10:24 pm

You don’t come across as an intellectual, you come off as a bitter dumb-ass.

Why build high speed interstates, people are going to get killed on them.

euwe max January 31, 2014 at 10:59 pm

You don’t come across as an intellectual, you come off as a bitter dumb-ass.

———

Hey, don’t I *know* it!… but thank you, man… really. I needed to hear that. I hear you… a bitter dumb-ass… not an intellectual… I get it..

Why build high speed interstates, people are going to get killed on them.
——-
uh… gee.. I give up.. why?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPD2NG5r748

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTNVuY9gBzw

Squishy123 February 2, 2014 at 10:01 am

“uh… gee.. I give up.. why?”

Because you’re a delicate flower who quits when you don’t get your way.

euwe max February 2, 2014 at 4:05 pm

that’s why we should build high speed interstates, people are going to get killed on them?

because *I’m* a delicate flower who quits when I don’t get my way?

You’re going to have to explain that one.

RageOnIce January 31, 2014 at 3:16 pm

it was opened despite the safety warnings because people were complaining, cars get hit with ice and now the gripe is about traffic delays. You people have lost your damn minds. Maybe getting hit with a chunk of ice will reset your common sense.

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Doubting Thomas January 31, 2014 at 7:11 pm

“Maybe getting hit with a chunk of ice will reset your common sense.”

Doubtful.

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SCBlueWoman January 31, 2014 at 3:22 pm

Probably closed because of embarrassment over the reality show on Bravo which showcases cokehead Ravenel. Talk about stooping low.

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TontoBubbaGoldstein January 31, 2014 at 4:27 pm

Overheard that he and Richard Coen were still in ICU suffering from “acute nasal frostbite”…somehow related to a misunderstanding involving “Leon’s snowstorm”.

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dwb619 January 31, 2014 at 3:33 pm

Call in the electricians, MUST heat trace all the overhead cables.
We simply cannot afford a “half back’ being set upon.

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idcydm January 31, 2014 at 4:12 pm

Sure is a pretty bridge.

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TontoBubbaGoldstein January 31, 2014 at 4:24 pm

At least one person was injured when a falling piece of ice struck their windshield and sent glass into their eyes.

Doubtful.
Maybe a stray bullet from the East Side?

Reply
Centrist View January 31, 2014 at 4:36 pm

The bridge reopening work was contracted out to the New Jersey Port Authority and Atlanta Office of Transportation.

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shifty henry January 31, 2014 at 5:20 pm

Whose stupid-assed idea was it to name a snow event — and what happened to A – K..? Who is next — ‘Migo..??

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Hanahan January 31, 2014 at 5:51 pm

For those planning to visit the Holy City…

http://isthecooperriverbridgeclosed.com/

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jimlewisowb January 31, 2014 at 10:01 pm

Makes one wonder if the Engineers employed by the DOT got their degrees online

As I have stated before I ain’t the smoothest rock in the creek bed but even I know that if there is ice on a roadway some 180 feet in the air that there has to be something similar on the supports and wires another 180 feet higher

On second thought maybe the Engineers assumed that since the salt trucks melted the roadway that Salty Seagull Shit would take care of the super structure

Yep, seagull shit. Maybe next time DOT will import a few thousands seagulls to shit the ice away or they can simply can some the bullshit coming out of DOT in Columbia, load it into those guns that shoot T-shirts at ball games and bullshit the ice away

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Squishy123 February 1, 2014 at 10:24 am

Send a deicing truck out from the airport. Waste of time but a better solution than a t-shirt cannon.

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euwe max February 1, 2014 at 8:42 pm

State issued ice shields at the entrance collected at the exit.

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Stink Eye February 1, 2014 at 9:52 pm

so, ice forms on a bridge when the temperature is below freezing, and it’s somehow nikki haley’s fault?

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Sinjin Smyth February 2, 2014 at 2:40 pm

STUPID – STUPID – STUPID. SCDOT is totally stupid and dysfunctional. What an idiot design for a bridge where there is ice and snow. I have been across three other similar bridges and all were in areas of the States where they have no ice and snow. IDIOTS. FOOLS. CLOWNS. MORONS.

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ELCID February 4, 2014 at 12:15 am

Damn I hate to defend the dolts at the DOT, but there are many cable stayed bridges in the north: Boston, and Toledo both have similar designs.

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ELCID February 4, 2014 at 12:10 am

We tried our best to convince the Hwy Dept. that letting Joe Riley make Highway decisions that cost SC Citizens millions of dollars was a stupid damn idea. I personally pushed leaving up the Silas Pearman bridge which was not that old with 3 existing lanes. Then building another bridge next to it. Thus, having 2 bridges instead of one big one: just like we had at the time. We needed 2 bridges due to emergencies and exactly the mess we have now. It’s an “I Told You So, You Idiot.”

Joe Riley has destroyed Charleston, put the residents in danger, and tried to turn it into the love boat terminal. He’s made Charleston into his own personal Rileyville and sent the bill to the rest of the State. He should be run out of Charleston on a rail.

Reply

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