Bridge Collapse in Baltimore

[EddMarkStarr]

A cargo ship lost engine power and struck a support pillar on the Interstate-695 Key bridge.

 

[rareboy]

Wow. Horrifying.

 

[pornoboy]

A real nightmare..! ​

 

[MusicMan321]

Wow that's a shocker hopefully anyone that was in that accident is ok

 

[EddMarkStarr]

Interesting comments online:

This container ship is the size of the largest aircraft carrier in the world, USS Gerald Ford at close to 1000 feet and 100,000 tons displacement. I can guarantee you that this bridge was not designed in 1977 to take a hit like this because these ships did not exist back then. Who allowed this ship known to have a faulty propulsion system (responsible for hitting another bridge in the recent past) to enter Baltimore Harbor? Criminal negligence!


Maybe you guys have seen bridge support pillars surrounded by "bumpers", I know that there are bridge piers built into man-made islands - especially where the supports are extremely far apart.

 

[EddMarkStarr]

Around the world, there are bridge towers that have protection barriers in place.
Some of the newest bridge designs have no supports in mid-span at all, those bridges use "cable stayed" designs to hold up the bridge from the shore.

 

[unloadonme]

BBC News is reporting that six maintenance workers on the bridge at the time of the collapse are missing and presumed dead.

 

[smokeshadow]

according to reports, the ship issued a Mayday call some 2 minutes before impact that they had lost power. This allowed police time to block off bridge to oncoming traffic.

Dispatch audio reveals the intense moment on-site officers realized a 984-ft ship was about to crash into Baltimore's biggest bridge

Radio archives reveal how officers scrambled to close traffic on the bridge just two minutes before it collapsed, saving commuters' lives.

currently.att.yahoo.com

and, Feaux Noise is reportedly saying that immigration issues caused the collapse although I could not find a source reporting that claim

 

[NotHardUp1]

Two of the construction workers' bodies have been recovered, young men. Trapped inside a red truck. Very sad.

 

[EJMichaels]

Aside from the immediate, tragic loss of life, the destruction of a major travel route around a major city will cost jobs, create delays in numerous ways (travel, supply chains, etc.), and close many operations at a major port – reports are saying vessel traffic is halted “indefinitely”. Baltimore has one of the very few ports equipped to receive automobiles. One web site said the port supports more than 15,000 direct jobs and more than 139,000 indirect jobs connected to the port.

I used to live in Baltimore and have driven on the bridge many times. It's difficult to think of it suddenly gone.

 

[gsdx]

On this morning's local radio news, it was reported that, in the United States, there are over 17,000 bridges which can collapse like this bridge if a single support is struck and damaged.

 

[rareboy]

I'll bet we have a lot of older bridges like this in Canada and elsewhere too...this one was particularly vulnerable though because of the type of shipping trafiic it now accommodates for the port.

One outcome is going to be assessments being done of these vulnerabilities for all shipping lane bridges handling container ships.

 

[NotHardUp1]

On this morning's local radio news, it was reported that, in the United States, there are over 17,000 bridges which can collapse like this bridge if a single support is struck and damaged.

I'm sure that's true, but not particularly relevant in the sense of risk. It takes major tonnage to displace a pediment for a bridge, and surely most of those 17,000 bridges are not spanning navigable waters that can accommodate vessels of such mass that they can bring down a bridge. Just because we don't have that many large waterways for shipping.

Take the Mississippi River, for example. River barges are a very real threat, hence the disaster that happened near Memphis decades ago when the barge caused a similar collapse, albeit of a shorter span. There are about 133 bridges spanning one of the largest rivers in the country, and not all of those are of the type mentioned. So, the vast majority of those bridges are not over major navigable waters where barges and heavy craft can pass underneath.

We do face a major problem in aging infrastructure, but this type of mishap is thankfully rare, and requires a perfect storm to cause it.

 

[rareboy]

 

[rareboy]

 

[Latimer]

From the Wall Street Journal:

"It was the devastating strike taking out one of the bridge’s concrete vertical supports, known as a pier, that caused the massive structure to cascade into the water below.

"Any span of that size suffering a comparable loss could tumble, according to engineers, making bridges that can accommodate giant ships particularly at risk."

Additionally:

"Fewer than 10 bridges in the U.S. have the clearance of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, the 1,200-foot span that collapsed after a supersize containership slammed into one of its vertical supports. All of them have a vulnerability where the failure of even a single steel component in tension along the span could cause a collapse.

"The National Transportation Safety Board flagged this condition in the Key Bridge after it fell early Tuesday morning—but the hit that destroyed the Key wasn’t a blow to one of those crucial steel components. Rather, it was the devastating strike taking out one of the bridge’s concrete vertical supports, known as a pier, that caused the massive structure to cascade into the water below."

A list of the bridges:

Tacoma Narrows Bridge, Wash.
Lewis and Clark Bridge, Ore.-Wash.
St. Johns Bridge, Ore.
San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, Calif.
Golden Gate Bridge, Calif.
George Washington Bridge, N.J.-N.Y.*
Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, N.Y.
Chesapeake Bay Bridge, Md.

https://www.wsj.com/us-news/these-eight-u-s-bridges-are-vulnerable-to-a-repeat-of-the-baltimore-crash-f2a2a057

 

[Latimer]

Makes me wonder about this bridge: