Northwest Dive Club

I've personally dove the old i90 bridge piece on the west side of i90 a few times and its kinda cool..

Also saw this video of the collapse and obviously there are tons more bridge sections that should be down there..
[youtube]http://youtu.be/gm0YQ3vuyyY[/youtube]

I know there were a few people that dove some of this not too long ago, but not knowing exactly where it is or how much of it is down there, I made the following short video of the sections showing up on NOAA Multi Beam sonar surveys of the lake..

There are clearly LOTS of stuff down there and many of those "bumps" in the data might even be cars??

[youtube]http://youtu.be/uIjmL3Z5g3g[/youtube]

Anyways, I thought this was pretty cool and worth sharing and for sure worth some diving and exploration in the Lake!

is this within rec depths, or?

most of these are 170ft and deeper.. the east side portions are shallower, but probably by boat only.

the "cars" are cable anchors

CaptnJack wrote:the "cars" are cable anchors

I wasnt specifically looking at completely symmetrically lined up blobs.. There are a myriad of stuff showing up around the general vicinity, thats not arranged in any specific immediate "pattern"..

kdupreez wrote:

CaptnJack wrote:the "cars" are cable anchors

I wasnt specifically looking at completely symmetrically lined up blobs.. There are a myriad of stuff showing up around the general vicinity, thats not arranged in any specific immediate "pattern"..

Well the bridge was closed to traffic at the time of the collapse. And it listed for quite some time before sinking. But there certainly may have been some construction equipment on the decking which slide off. There's also quite a few BFRs in the lake (big friggin rocks).

Diving underneath the bridge isn't technically prohibited, but you will probably be confronted by MI or Seattle PD's anyway. Esp. since there are various "stay back XYZ feet" signs on the bridge and its not clear that those are for boaters not divers. And of course there's the pesky Seattle city ordinance about not diving greater than 50 yards from shore without a boat with dive flag within XYZ feet. (I forget the ordinance number and I'm too lazy to look it up once again). So maybe go on a stormy day when your bubbles are less noticable and scooter from shore. Otherwise I suspect half a swat team will be on your butt when you surface.

Dcs films has done the deeper sections with chris borgen

CaptnJack wrote:Well the bridge was closed to traffic at the time of the collapse. And it listed for quite some time before sinking. But there certainly may have been some construction equipment on the decking which slide off. There's also quite a few BFRs in the lake (big friggin rocks).

Look at minute 0:51 on the news video, theres a car going down.. I could swear i saw some truck and other cars and cranes on there too that went down with the bridge.

They might have salvaged some of it you think?

DCS guys did a dive on sections of it if I recall and not sure if they had issues with officials or not.. maybe if we can get some form of approval to dive it, could be a good dive in winter.

dunno If i'd scoot it from shore though, its a helluva ways out there.

I strongly suspect any crap with diesel and oil in it was removed, since there'd probably still be a slick off and on if it weren't. I have never seen anything suggestive of a car under/around there, although its obvious lots of big stuff has hit the mud under there over the years.

Their is all kinds of stuff down their cars, trucks, all sorts of construction equipment. Pretty cool to dive. I believe it is open to dive again. They closed diving down under all bridges after 9/11 as a security thing that has been lifted. Their still is a surface restriction if you are diving from a boat you have to say X feet away.

As for the Seattle thing just put a flag in the water were you are getting in and out. That covers the city ordinance. once you are more than 50' from shore you are not their responsibility anymore. We have had the harbor patrol boat show up several times so I usually drop the flag like 12 feet off shore in the entry. That makes them happy. Have pissed them off a few times when we put in at Sand Point and get out in Kirkland and do not leave a flag. Someone up on the hill always seem to call that a swimmer had drowned. and you see the harbor patrol boat running around the other side of the lake.

kdupreez wrote:

CaptnJack wrote:Well the bridge was closed to traffic at the time of the collapse. And it listed for quite some time before sinking. But there certainly may have been some construction equipment on the decking which slide off. There's also quite a few BFRs in the lake (big friggin rocks).

Look at minute 0:51 on the news video, theres a car going down.. I could swear i saw some truck and other cars and cranes on there too that went down with the bridge.

They might have salvaged some of it you think?

DCS guys did a dive on sections of it if I recall and not sure if they had issues with officials or not.. maybe if we can get some form of approval to dive it, could be a good dive in winter.

dunno If i'd scoot it from shore though, its a helluva ways out there.

I watched it on the news when it happened. A crane definitely went into the water. I would think it would have been recovered, but maybe not.

Found an interresting photo showing trucks and cars on the sections that are about to sink..


Also, since all of this NOAA data is public domain, we are making the NOAA converted multi beam data for the i90 bridge sections available to everyone in Fledermaus format.

And since the FM software is fairly pricey, there is a full 3D viewer to view the models that can be downloaded for FREE.



Download the 3D models here: http://www.gue-seattle.org/downloads/i90_Bridge.zip

Download the FREE viewer here (Windows/Linux/Apple): http://www.qps.nl/display/fledermaus/iview

Alternatively, for your 2D viewing pleasure, we are also providing High Resolution Tiff Overlay in a GPS corrected Google Earth KMZ file!



Download the 2D Google Earth KMZ Here: http://www.gue-seattle.org/downloads/i90_Bridge.kmz

Enjoy !!

Diving under the I-90 bridge is perfectly legal. About 6 months ago I checked with the King County sheriffs department and they gave me a link to a page with all special scuba laws for the area. They assured me it was legal. I have dove the recreational sections of the bridge numerous times since then and it has never been an issue.

I saw the dive report about that last dive a few months ago. I want to do this!