Will Spaghetti Junction need to be replaced soon? (construction, maintenance)

[Need4Camaro]

Everytime I approach those high stacks loaded with cars some 300 feet in the air filled with families and children just trying to get to their destination I am just brought to thinking of Hollywood scenes from San Andres or 2012 where ramps come crashing to the ground loaded with cars and doomed passengers horrors and screaming and fires...

Okay in reality it would actually happen quite fast and probably with little to no warning. I'm sure atleast ONE of those sections weighs enough to flatten a tractor trailer like a coke can and the think those reinforced beams just stand there all day and night through heat and cold and enduring the load of traffic just SITTING up there, many of those are loaded tractor trailers carrying hundreds of tons...

...and as I approach it...I just cant help but wonder how long is that thing capable of staying standing and will there be any warning before it finally gives? Spaghetti Junction is LITERALLY as old as I am. It was completed in 1985 if Im not mistaken making it 32 years old in October (I "think" October is its completion date) ..Now there are other bridges that have been standing much longer..but Spaghetti Junction just looks SO overburdened when looking at it...

and then... I wonder..even if they do replace it..How on earth are they going to do it without pretty much choking off North Dekalb and Gwinnett Counties?

Oh.. one other stupid and probably pretty obvious question... If you fall off that thing, you're pretty much dead.. right? there's no chance of surviving that...is there?

[Newsboy]

I'm pretty certain engineers took all your fears into account when they designed the thing. And it's not like those bridges and overpasses don't get routine maintenance, so ...

[cqholt]

Spaghetti Junction won engineering awards when completed.

[flamadiddle]

Is it really that old? Seems like just yesterday when it was being built. Damn, I must be getting old.

[Newsboy]

Originally Posted by flamadiddle

Is it really that old? Seems like just yesterday when it was being built. Damn, I must be getting old.

It was completed in 1987 -- 30 years ago.

[sedimenjerry]

I don't think there's much that can be done there except extend merge lanes a little bit. The merges for both ramps to 85NB are ridiculous. Other than that it's really not that unsafe. 400/285 is far worse.

[architect77]

They are hollow box girders, quite light relative to their size.

The trapezoidal shape directly under the roadways is hollow in the center.

Of course the vertical columns supporting them is solid concrete.

Greater Los Angeles has dozens and dozens of similar interchanges.

Today, Spaghetti Junction would probably cost $1.5 billion to construct from scratch.

It is a beautiful interchange, and I wish they would either power wash the discoloration off the concrete guardrails or repaint the entire thing closer to its original whiter (new concrete) shade.

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by architect77

They are hollow box girders, quite light relative to their size.

The trapezoidal shape directly under the roadways is hollow in the center.

Of course the vertical columns supporting them is solid concrete.

Greater Los Angeles has dozens and dozens of similar interchanges.

Today, Spaghetti Junction would probably cost $1.5 billion to construct from scratch.

It is a beautiful interchange, and I wish they would either power wash the discoloration off the concrete guardrails or repaint the entire thing closer to its original whiter (new concrete) shade.

Would $1.5 Billion be on the cheaper or more expensive side of modern interchanges? I think the GA-400/I-285 interchange reconstruction project will cost like $1 billion.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by sedimenjerry

I don't think there's much that can be done there except extend merge lanes a little bit. The merges for both ramps to 85NB are ridiculous. Other than that it's really not that unsafe. 400/285 is far worse.

I would say the 285/20 interchanges are in far worse shape and carry more freight traffic.

[sedimenjerry]

Originally Posted by cqholt

I would say the 285/20 interchanges are in far worse shape and carry more freight traffic.

True. At least the one on the west side. I sat in traffic going outbound at 11 am on a Tuesday or Wednesday just because of all the truck traffic and that terrible steep climb up 20 WB from 285.