Baltimore MD Bridge collapse

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nobbie48

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Best coverage I've seen on it so far is from this guy:

 
nobbie48 said:
The ship apparently lost power and hit the bridge supports. The rest of the structure went down like a house of cards. Six MIA last I heard.

www.theguardian.com

Moment bridge collapses in Baltimore after cargo ship collision – video

Mayor says rescue efforts are under way after large vessel crashed into Francis Scott Key Bridge, sending vehicles into water
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

Traffic will be chaos for the next decade.
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RIP to those killed. Apparently the quick response by police was able to clear majority of the bridge.

Traffic is one thing. The fact that Baltimore is one of the key ports on the eastern seaboard is a huge deal as it’s a major shipping hub.

Expect delays delays and more delays.
 
The deaths are a tragedy, and the loss of the bridge & disruption to shipping are both significant.

I feel like nobody is going to being able to point a finger at anyone after it all shakes out, though. The bridge pre-dates engineering practices that take shipping collisions into account, and so far it seems the crew did all they could once they lost power, but they couldn't do much. If the story about new traffic being blocked from entering the bridge is true, then at least those lives were saved
 
I saw a video from the other side of the bridge where there were less lights in the background. You can see vehicles and trucks crossing as it approaches and then just before impact it looks like there were no more vehicles. If so that was some amazing quick reaction given the likely different organizations involved (marine mayday call, police, bridge authority, close bridge, in minutes)... almost like they were prepared for something like this--not in a bad tinfoil hat way, they likely had an emergency protocol that saved lives.

Also lucky this happened at I think 1:30AM and not 5PM when the bridge was likely slammed with traffic.
 
TwistedKestrel said:
The deaths are a tragedy, and the loss of the bridge & disruption to shipping are both significant.

I feel like nobody is going to being able to point a finger at anyone after it all shakes out, though. The bridge pre-dates engineering practices that take shipping collisions into account, and so far it seems the crew did all they could once they lost power, but they couldn't do much. If the story about new traffic being blocked from entering the bridge is true, then at least those lives were saved
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I suspect after the rebuild 9 knots without tugs will not be happening until clear of the bridge. There were apparently anti-collision columns but 95,000 tons at 9 knots is an almost impossible amount of energy.

Mayday apparently gave 90 seconds of warning. No way a mobile cop got there in time. The bridge authority or similar must have had a decent plan in place to get traffic stopped that quickly.

Sucks to be the guys filling potholes that may not have had any warning. They were apparently taking a break in their vehicles.
 
RIP to those that didn't make it out alive.

This will be a huge impact on the North American economy for sure.
I wonder how quickly will they be able to build something new. I'm thinking within 5 years.

EDIT:
I wonder if those that were taking a break IN their car would have made it out alive had they been OUT of their cars.
 
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oioioi said:
EDIT:
I wonder if those that were taking a break IN their car would have made it out alive had they been OUT of their cars.
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Sounds like they were from Mexico and south America. I have no idea on what that does to the odds of knowing how to swim

I'm a good swimmer. 100' drop into <50 degree water wearing tied steel toe boots and warm clothing with no warning would greatly suck. The odds are not in your favor.
 
Well in the car would help cushion the drop but the car would plunge deep
Car would hit the water 90 KPH+ no seat belts...no good outcome

Outside of car also 90KPH+ - wonder what happened with the two that survived. :unsure:
Vehicle bobbed back up AND were wearing seatbelts?
 
GreyGhost said:
Sounds like they were from Mexico and south America. I have no idea on what that does to the odds of knowing how to swim

I'm a good swimmer. 100' drop into <50 degree water wearing tied steel toe boots and warm clothing with no warning would greatly suck. The odds are not in your favor.
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Add bits of bridge falling on you too.
 
jc100 said:
Add bits of bridge falling on you too.
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And by bits we are talking about pieces big enough to crush seacans flat like andre the giant crushing an empty pop can. It looks like most of the vehicles were on the centre span which didn't have too much falling on top of them but the parts that followed were huge and heavy.
 
125ft drop , 47degree saltwater , construction boots and winter clothing , health and safety meetings didn’t likely cover that one .
My guess if you survived the fall you have 10?15? Mins before hypothermia. Horrible

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MacDoc said:
Well in the car would help cushion the drop but the car would plunge deep
Car would hit the water 90 KPH+ no seat belts...no good outcome

Outside of car also 90KPH+ - wonder what happened with the two that survived. :unsure:
Vehicle bobbed back up AND were wearing seatbelts?
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Did they survive or were they recovered? Coast guard pretty soon went from rescue to recover. Did bodies get swept out to sea?
 
TwistedKestrel said:
If the story about new traffic being blocked from entering the bridge is true, then at least those lives were saved
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They released the radio recordings today, it was legit - from the moment they received the mayday they immediately went into "close down the bridge" mode, and fast.

oioioi said:
I wonder how quickly will they be able to build something new. I'm thinking within 5 years.
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I think we will be surprised. This is a major bridge, and Biden was on the news yesterday saying that the federal government is going to foot the bill for replacement and make it happen as fast as possible. I'd bet you see a new bridge open inside 24 months, maybe 18 if the planets align. A limitless budget and a critical project like this can do amazing things with construction timelines.

They built the Tacoma Narrows bridge in under 2 years in the 1940's.

The entire bridge didn't come down end to end in Baltimore, just the main section and a few others, there's still a lot of it standing which will be used for reconstruction I'm sure, speeding things up.
 
It took them 5+ yrs to fix the Sunshine bridge in Fla... the last US bridge to collapse after being hit
 
bitzz said:
It took them 5+ yrs to fix the Sunshine bridge in Fla... the last US bridge to collapse after being hit
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It's also something like 4x as long.

1711673478532.png

The key bridge:

1711673644482.png

See scale bottom right.

Sunshine bridge, Florida:

1711673717049.png

Big difference in the size of what they're repairing.
 
I just went back through a few years of our old cruise photos and came across a bunch of photos of the Key bridge - we have sailed out of Baltimore many, many times and been under that bridge twice on every one of those cruises. Everyones usually out on deck as it's neat to watch, always a tight fit.

This photo gives one a better idea the size of the bridge. When you look at the image above showing the downed segments you get an idea who small it is comparatively, so I think the replacement timeline will be surprisnlgy quick.

1711673983210.png

1711674110239.png
 
Apparently the conspircies theories have started with the ship black box being turned off.

The numbers will being interesting. Cost to repairs, number of lawyers, number of fingers pointed, ships rerouted, other ports overloaded, supply chain disruptions.

The clearing of the channel could take weeks or more. The waters are murky and you don't just grab chunks of bridge and yank.

The rebuilding process will be interesting. Panic budget, pressure for results. Do I hear "Cost overruns"

Someone suggeted the bridge replaced in two years. If they can do that hire them for our Eglinton cross town.
 
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