The Cypress Street Viaduct in Oakland, California collapsed in the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake and killed 42 people.  The Viaduct’s lack of earthquake resistance was well-known within the structural engineering community.  There is no doubt that this was also known to Caltrans administrators and engineers.  But, nothing was done to remedy the situation.  Caltrans was busy installing cable ties across the supports of multi-span bridges, so that the individual spans would not pull away from the supports and fall down.  By doing this relatively inexpensive and easy-to-do fix, they appeared to be very busy preparing for an earthquake, while avoiding the bigger, more difficult, and more-expensive-to-solve problems.

Earlier, in “Seeing, Believing, and Earthquake Preparedness” I wrote about how seeing what earthquakes (and tsunamis) can do should make a believer out of those who do not know about or take such disasters seriously, and hopefully, should encourage them to prepare for the next “Big One.”  It was wishful thinking on my part, as I have seen over and over how people (particularly,  the politicians) get excited after a disaster, but in a year or two they forget all about it.  Things go back to normal:  they have more important things to worry about and spend money on.

This article in The Economist: “Fingers Crossed- A row over a rickety viaduct” discusses a similar situation developing in Seattle, Washington.  There is this “Alaskan Way Viaduct,” which they know is vulnerable to a large earthquake.  Apparently, the experts estimate that “the odds of an earthquake bringing it down are one in ten over the next decade.”  And, 110,000 vehicles use this viaduct every day! As they will have a new tunnel to replace the viaduct, they will let 110,000 vehicles drive over it every day until 2016, when supposedly the tunnel will be finished.  The Mayor of Seattle apparently proposed to close the viaduct next year, but he immediately was accused of “fear mongering” and “endangering the local commerce.”  Apparently, the compromise solution was to install new gates on the viaduct that will “automatically block access―one minute after a quake is detected.”  No thank you; if I am ever in Seattle,  I will do my best to avoid driving on that viaduct.