I-10 in California closed after bridge collapses

Emily Donovan | The (Palm Springs, Calif.) Desert Sun

Show Caption Hide Caption California bridge collapse closes interstate A bridge collapse in Southern California forced the closure of Interstate 10 which is a main roadway between Southern California and Phoenix. The collapse also moderately injured one person and stranded hundreds of motorists.

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — A bridge collapse in Southern California late Sunday afternoon forced the indefinite closure of Interstate 10 — the main roadway between Southern California and Phoenix. The collapse also injured one person and stranded hundreds of motorists.

A truck was headed east on I-10 when the Tex Wash bridge crumpled around 4:45 p.m. PT. Bystanders used straps from their cars to tie the truck to a guardrail to prevent it from washing away in the running water.

A passenger in the truck was able to get out, but the driver had to be rescued. Firefighters went into rapidly rising water to pull the driver out by 7 p.m.

The motorist had moderate injuries.

As it collapsed, the Tex Wash bridge struck the bridge adjacent to it on the westbound side. The westbound section of the freeway near the tiny town of Desert Center was also closed. The interstate is the major freeway through Southern California, connecting it to Arizona.

"Interstate 10 is closed completely and indefinitely," said Terri Kasinga, spokeswoman for the California Department of Transportation.

The closure will force motorists seeking to use I-10 to travel between California and Arizona to go hundreds of miles out of their way to Interstate 8 to the south or Interstate 40 to the north.

Busy I-10 is the most direct route between Los Angeles and Phoenix. An average of more than 20,000 cars per day pass through the area that is shut down, according to federal highway statistics.

The westbound roadway was intact but extremely undermined by flooding and could need just-as-extensive rebuilding, Kasinga said.

No timeframe was given for when either side would reopen as crews were diverted from other projects to examine the site.

"They won't even be able to begin assessing the damage until Monday," Kasinga said.

The Tex Wash bridge, built on the eastbound I-10 in 1967, was listed as functionally obsolete in the 2014 National Bridge Inventory. Essentially, the bridge is no longer adequate for its task; however, it was not listed as having known structural problems that need to be fixed.

Contributing: The Associated Press.