I-880 Cypress Viaduct Construction (part 2 of 5)

Part 2 of 5- Columns

1950s video from California Division of Highways (later Caltrans) showing the construction of the Cypress Street Viaduct in Oakland, CA.

This highway was originally part of CA-17 but was later I-880 until its destruction on October 17, 1989, in the Loma Prieta earthquake resulting in 42 fatalities when the upper deck collapsed onto the lower deck.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• cypress
• street
• viaduct
• oakland
• nimitz
• freeway
• I-880
• CA-17
• caltrans
• division
• highways
• mandela
• parkway
• columns

[capriceforever]

Wow. I never realized the colums for the upper deck were poured seperately and rested on the lower columns. I would think having that inherent weakness of a joint in the middle would have amplified the lateral shaking of the upper deck. Amazing footage. Thanks for posting. And yeah they were skimping on the rebar!

[moulons]

It's shocking to see they are not using enough rebar on the columns! Nor are they tieing them together! It's a shame they didn't have the technology building a structure like this in earthquake prone areas in the 50's however, the fact that this double deck was built on land fill, past or present standards, this project was doomed and so were the lives of those innocent people 30 years later.