Key Bridge in Baltimore collapses after being hit by a container ship

Overheal

It was hardly an old ship either, built in 2015 by Hyundai shipyards in South Korea, and 'average sized' by cargo shipping trends.

https://www.thejakartapost.com/world/2024/03/26/dali-the-singapore-flagged-ship-that-brought-down-baltimore-bridge.html

2 Baltimore pilots on board at the time with 22 crew.

cnocbui

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121943607#Comment_121943607

They were. In 1972 you could watch the last of the manned moon landings, pack your bags, go to the airport, check in, no queing for security checks, removing your shoes, being groped if something went beep, just go straight from check in to the departure lounge, where if you were rich enough, you can get on a Concorde and fly the Atlantic at twice the speed of sound.

Now you get to gasp in amazement when Apple release a new iPhone that's a different shade of grey than the one last year.

odyssey06

Latest update:

6 construction workers presumed dead... “We’re going away from the search and rescue portion to a recovery operation,”

Police praised for stopping traffic going across bridge once they became aware of ship mayday, averting further loss of life.

https://www.thejournal.ie/six-workers-presumed-dead-baltimore-search-6338400-Mar2024/

VinLieger

Saw a new report this morning that they dropped their anchor when the power failed, if they dropped starboard side then that could also be what caused the turn.

Igotadose

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121944176#Comment_121944176

And smoke while you were in the plane. Some things weren't the good old days! Plus drink yourself silly for cheap.

robinph

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121944394#Comment_121944394

The pilot told them to drop the anchor and make the turn once the power went. Possible they were aiming to run a ground, but they didn't manage to do enough of a turn.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68670567

VinLieger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121944464#Comment_121944464

Very interesting now i'm wondering what caused the turn to starboard as it doesn't look like simple drifting with a centered rudder to me especially if they were trying to steer to port and had dropped an anchor.

martingriff

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121944176#Comment_121944176

In many countries that caused a lot of hijacked planes so maybe not all good eh. As for the securities make sure you are ready

SEPT 23 1989

A fairly new ship and the power just goes and no emergency generators that activate immediately in such a situation

the insurance underwriters for the billion quids worth or cargo destroyed and held up will get answers

TokTik

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121940495#Comment_121940495

He should have at least tried

One eyed Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121944464#Comment_121944464

Aye, having read the thread, and with no knowledge whatsoever of bridge engineering or ship engineering or the port in question, I’m still perplexed as to how anyone could think a mass of that size would be so easy to divert from it’s course, even if it had never lost power! It’s as though it just went into the port at the wrong angle, and then it was inevitable they were going to hit the bridge. The only question would be how much damage would be done.

I think there’s some leeway built into bridges of that size to allow for sway in the wind, but the ship hitting it must have been like pinging an already tense rubber band. I thought the footage had been sped up, with the speed at which the bridge collapsed.

Overheal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121944852#Comment_121944852

Unless I’m mistaken emergency power would only cover nav lights, radar, radio, living spaces, heating, etc. not provide sufficient power for the boats drive system. The only way you’re turning those massive screws is with direct engine drive.

No Bills

You can see the change in course on this animation from Marine Traffic. As has been suggested by previous posters, the final turn to the right (starboard) may have been caused by the anchor being dropped?

https://twitter.com/MarineTraffic/status/1772545501612671284

knucklehead6

i remember reading somewhere years ago that a fully laden supertanker travelling at full speed would take 16 miles to come to a complete stop in the event of power failure.

I know this ship wasn't travelling at full speed but that gives some idea of the type of momentum and energy that these ships have

robinph

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121945265#Comment_121945265

And this one was only carrying 4000 of it's 10,000 container capacity.

MadYaker

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121944852#Comment_121944852

Backup generators would probably just power electrical stuff I guess? Without the main diesel engines running the ship was adrift.

Hard to know if dropping the anchor helped or hindered. These big ships normally have multiple anchors I wonder were they all deployed?

Overheal

The Tampa Sunshine Skyway Bridge gets a lot of talk in this also. The original had a collision in the 80s iirc and the replacement bridge had a set of large offset pillars built around it to protect the pillars from a direct hit. Considering the drift of this cargo ship in baltimore though it’s not clear even those would have deflected a ship in this case type.

Probably the most sound type of barrier though you could argue the main pillars need more than 4 bollards protecting them (see the smaller pillars) no matter how beefy you build the island the pillar itself sits on, crashing into that will transfer all sorts of forces into the main structure, these barriers being gapped from the main structure, a collision is less likely to have an adverse effect on the bridge itself.

As for why this didn’t become a national standard y’alls guess is as good as any, I’m gonna wager politics.

prunudo

Hindsight and all that, but you'd wonder why ships are even allowed get alongside the main bridge support pillars. They all seem to have a pier or buffer directly in front. But it seems it makes more sense to have a number of buffers parallel to the direction of travel and centred away from the main bridge supports. But it doesn't seem to be the done thing.

Overheal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121946947#Comment_121946947

Some places it is. For lighter traffic idk about cargo traffic eg

Can’t do too much diversion of flow, wildlife etc.

prunudo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121946963#Comment_121946963

True, I'm sure there's a reason, and they could effect flow and cause silting of river bed. Although unfortunately it could be as simple as cost savings and not deemed a big enough risk before yesterday's tragedy.

Overheal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121947017#Comment_121947017

Oh yeah good old sedimentation. I rib on CivEs a lot but they know their dirt

Overheal

Biden urged the federal govt to front 100% of the funds to replace the bridge ASAP. Congress would have to appropriate afaik. Getting insurers etc to pony up could be a protracted process with no ETR.

https://wtop.com/baltimore/2024/03/biden-federal-government-should-pay-to-rebuild-baltimores-key-bridge-after-collapse/

In all likelihood it’s going to face a culture war from the right (who didn’t make a peep out of line when Biden pledged 100% of the costs to florida to recover from an apartment complex collapse in 2021), the right has already been calling the bridge disaster a product of “DEI” “wokeness” “open borders”, attacking the “DEI Mayor” ie. Black mayor of Baltimore, etc etc.

eightieschewbaccy

Worth noting that there are simple enough techniques to prevent such accidents. Wouldn't even require a new bridge or anything. Safety standards could make these avoidable.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/03/27/us/key-bridge-barriers-examples.html

robinph

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121947017#Comment_121947017

The main defence against bridge strikes is by having local pilots at each port to bring the ships in and out. But even then things can still go wrong.

Doubt anything much will change, and not sure there is a reason to change anything. You cannot build a bridge which survives losing a main pillar. You can build defensive blocks along the waterway, which I'm sure they will now do in Baltimore, but it's certainly not something that will be implemented in harbours worldwide to protect against bridge strikes as far too dependent on the local river as to what is possible or worth the cost.

Cheapest option is having the local pilots, and also most effective as even if you do build defensive structures you will still have to use pilots who know the waterway as you don't want people crashing into the defence walls as that still results in the closure of the port while they recover the boat.

They will put some flashing lights on sticks down the side of the water way and build a couple of big concrete blocks which they will pain orange on either side of the new bridge. Other than that worldwide shipping will not change in any way at all.

Kalyke

Apart from the severe veering it came to a very abrupt halt. It looks like the anchor stopped and swerved it. Armchair mariner comment mind you.

Overheal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121947158#Comment_121947158

I’d say the bridge did most of the stopping.

Lirange

Hamburg and Rotterdam do not have bridges that span the rivers/channels from port to sea. They use tunnels. It’s the safest option.

buried

Another key global shipping route funked for a good few months. Who wud a thunk it

Overheal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121947495#Comment_121947495

Which I sadly suspect Republicans will obstruct funding to support cleanup and replacement for because it's on "Biden's watch" and in "Biden's economy" because they have nothing else to run on.

Wapo visualized the eastern seaboard traffic heatmap, ill post the free link

https://wapo.st/3vxdg8b

volchitsa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121947608#Comment_121947608

LOL won't it just stop people from getting their cheap Chinese crap, same as you said about the Red Sea?

Or is it different when it's America being inconvenienced?

Pity about the people who died of course, but there's that risk with ships being bombed in the Red Sea too, and you didn't have a problem with that.