USA Francis Scott Key Bridge Collapse

[RedmanWasHere]

A bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, has collapsed after being hit by a container ship.

20 people unaccounted for so far.

 

[RookiePick]

Captain Steve Urkel at the helm.

Looks like vehicles went it the drink...hopefully no fatalities?

 

[Spearman]

It seemed to go down so fast. Did the ship really hit it hard, or just in the right spot? Maybe should be an inquiry on its construction.

 

[Equus]

American infrastructure has not been very well maintained. If you were to see the yearly report card competed by America Society of Civil Engineer, the score card has been terrible citing lack of investments.

 

[CD Xbow]

It seemed to go down so fast. Did the ship really hit it hard, or just in the right spot? Maybe should be an inquiry on its construction.

American infrastructure has not been very well maintained. If you were to see the yearly report card competed by America Society of Civil Engineer, the score card has been terrible citing lack of investments.

The ship just ploughed straight into one of the main pylons at a reasonable speed. Don't think there was a problem with the bridge or the infrastructure, the navigation of the ship on the other hand.....

 

[CD Xbow]

Apparently it was losing power prior to the collision and allegedly has a checkered history.

Cargo ship that caused Baltimore bridge collapse has history of issues

BALTIMORE, Md. (DC News Now) — The cargo ship that caused the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore has had a troubled past including a previous collision at a port in Belgium…

www.dcnewsnow.com

 

[owen87]

The ship just ploughed straight into one of the main pylons at a reasonable speed. Don't think there was a problem with the bridge or the infrastructure, the navigation of the ship on the other hand.....

I believe most bridges have some kind of fenders installed around critical supports to stop exactly this from happening.

 

[CD Xbow]

I believe most bridges have some kind of fenders installed around critical supports to stop exactly this from happening.

Yes they do, but it's to stop smaller boats according to folks who know about these things. Nothing is going to stop a loaded 100,000 ton container ship.

 

[mcnulty]

I’m convinced social media has doomed us as a species.

 

[Equus]

Really do think it is a case of s**t Happens.
Not some sort of convoluted conspiracy theory as some on social media suggests.

 

[CD Xbow]

The bridge did have protection. Described below.

'And indeed, there were two layers of protection: a so-called “dolphin” structure made from concrete, and a fender. The dolphins are in the water about 100 metres upstream and downstream of the piers. They are intended to be sacrificed in the event of a wayward ship, absorbing its energy and being deformed in the process but keeping the ship from hitting the bridge itself.

Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, showing the pier struck by the cargo ship and the sections of bridge which collapsed as a result. F Vasconcellos / Wikimedia, CC BY-SA

The fender is the last layer of protection. It is a structure made of timber and reinforced concrete placed around the main piers. Again, it is intended to absorb the energy of any impact.

Fenders are not intended to absorb impacts from very large vessels. And so when the MV Dali, weighing more than 100,000 tonnes, made it past the protective dolphins, it was simply far too massive for the fender to withstand.'

 

[Spearman]

Nearly 20 years ago, I was on a trip back to the States. I was in Minnesota. A few days after I got back, heard news of a bridge collapse where I had been. It was built in the 60s and was blamed on a faulty part used in the construction.
At the time, I recalled a news report from many years before that about the state of infrastructure in the US. They showed the rusted undersides of bridges, poor state of freeways, and other less than hidden problems. Who knows what couldn't be seen easily.
Over the decades little has been done to improve most of it. Local govs just didn't want to put the money, time, or political capital into something so not sexy. That's why the Biden bill was so impactful and newsworthy.
I also remember a trip back to the Seattle area where I had lived before. This was more than 15 years after leaving. The surface of the freeway looked like it had not changed at all in the time I had been gone. Same faded blacktop with patched potholes of different age and color. Cracks that looked like they were fixed with a combination adhesive tape and glue, I swear were the same ones in the same part of the road as before. It was totally disgusting and infuriating the state of it. Here the freeways get completely resurfaced every couple of years.
Don't know if practical, but a 1930s jobs program to rebuild the nation's hard infrastructure might work.

 

[Spearman]

on a lighter note
The Front Fell Off

 

[CD Xbow]

on a lighter note
The Front Fell Off

Comedy gold
'the ships been towed outside the environment'

 

[CD Xbow]

Despite being an article in the National Times, this was an interesting one by a local reporter. It had me shaking my head at peoples stupidity.

'I’d been fudging around with my camera when the sound of shouting was muted by the revving of an engine. I looked up and saw a truck force its way through the blockade. I quickly pulled out my phone and fought with its settings as it whizzed past me. Another vehicle sped by me. Then, one of the Maryland Transportation Authority guys sped past me to cut some other person off. Suddenly, a man began trucking it past the authorities and up the street wearing a T-shirt and no coat on a frigid night.

People are unhappy with the barricade first responders have set up to prevent them from driving toward a collapsed bridge. pic.twitter.com/ovmbPtcsYw
— MolotovFlicker Ignoring Your Questions Since 1902® (@MolotovFlicker) March 26, 2024

Where were they going with all their frustration and anger? There was literally nowhere to go. The bridge was demolished, the victim of a Godzilla-like attack accidentally launched by the container ship Dali. All these people were angrily speeding off toward the abyss without knowing that their actions might lead to their deaths.'

The Night The Francis Scott Key Bridge Came Down

In the end, the collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge may require more than financial surgery to repair.

nationalinterest.org

 

[sherb]

As a native Tasmanian, it brings back memories of this:

 

[Spearman]

Despite being an article in the National Times, this was an interesting one by a local reporter. It had me shaking my head at peoples stupidity.

'I’d been fudging around with my camera when the sound of shouting was muted by the revving of an engine. I looked up and saw a truck force its way through the blockade. I quickly pulled out my phone and fought with its settings as it whizzed past me. Another vehicle sped by me. Then, one of the Maryland Transportation Authority guys sped past me to cut some other person off. Suddenly, a man began trucking it past the authorities and up the street wearing a T-shirt and no coat on a frigid night.


Where were they going with all their frustration and anger? There was literally nowhere to go. The bridge was demolished, the victim of a Godzilla-like attack accidentally launched by the container ship Dali. All these people were angrily speeding off toward the abyss without knowing that their actions might lead to their deaths.'

The Night The Francis Scott Key Bridge Came Down

In the end, the collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge may require more than financial surgery to repair.

nationalinterest.org

Yeah, it's a worldwide thing I'm afraid. People too stupid to understand things for their own safety. It's probably explains why some people voted for Trump/MAGA. Eff you, you're disrupting my plans, I'm doing what I WANT!
Here we've had people at an airport, typhoon conditions losing their s**t because a flight was delayed or cancelled, and they were inconvenienced. It was literally howling outside and they were howling inside.

 

[Spearman]

As a native Tasmanian, it brings back memories of this:

obviously before my time, but from my neck of the woods in the states and I went across the rebuilt span many times. A parallel bridge was built in the 90s IIRC.

 

[Zidane98]

Could the US Govt pursue the insurer to recover the $4 billion cost to rebuild the bridge?

 

[owen87]

Could the US Govt pursue the insurer to recover the $4 billion cost to rebuild the bridge?

I assume there's an upper limit on the insurance policy, and a finite amount of money that can be recouped from any others so they might not get all of it, but I would think those ships have a pretty hefty insurance policy.

 

[Zidane98]

I assume there's an upper limit on the insurance policy, and a finite amount of money that can be recouped from any others so they might not get all of it, but I would think those ships have a pretty hefty insurance policy.

Don't see how the manufacturer of the ship could be on the hook unless there is a proven defect in the design. Not sure how loss of business claims in the port of Baltimore would go.


I actually have a good mate who is a harbormaster, he reckons there was possible fuel contamination of the engines causing a power outage / loss of control.


What apparently actually sealed the fate of the bridge collision was the captain putting the ship in full reverse in an attempt to stop because steering was lost. This had the effect of reversing the last rudder input which was to steer away from the bridge. Allegedly the reversed rudder command could not be overcome by the captain / pilot due to power issues. They would be powerless to stop the collision happening in slow motion.


Incidentally this also happened in the tasman bridge collision in the 70s.



I see the FBI is invovled now. They are looking at whether the ship operator was aware of a potential electrical issue.

 

[owen87]

Don't see how the manufacturer of the ship could be on the hook unless there is a proven defect in the design. Not sure how loss of business claims in the port of Baltimore would go.


I actually have a good mate who is a harbormaster, he reckons there was possible fuel contamination of the engines causing a power outage / loss of control.


What apparently actually sealed the fate of the bridge collision was the captain putting the ship in full reverse in an attempt to stop because steering was lost. This had the effect of reversing the last rudder input which was to steer away from the bridge. Allegedly the reversed rudder command could not be overcome by the captain / pilot due to power issues. They would be powerless to stop the collision happening in slow motion.


Incidentally this also happened in the tasman bridge collision in the 70s.



I see the FBI is invovled now. They are looking at whether the ship operator was aware of a potential electrical issue.

From memory didn’t the ship have a bit of a questionable maintenance history?

 

[Zidane98]

From memory didn’t the ship have a bit of a questionable maintenance history?

There were reports of that yes. The angle the FBI seems to be taking is that the operators were aware of the issues and proceeded anyway. Not sure why the FBI is involved though? Is it because of the scale of the disaster that it caused? Thought this is something that the local police force would look into if it was gross negligence.

 

[owen87]

There were reports of that yes. The angle the FBI seems to be taking is that the operators were aware of the issues and proceeded anyway. Not sure why the FBI is involved though? Is it because of the scale of the disaster that it caused? Thought this is something that the local police force would look into if it was gross negligence.

The below seems to have the only speculation I’ve seen in any news reports.

There’s an NTSB investigation also happening alongside it.

FBI boards ship amid investigation into what caused Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse

FBI agents on Monday boarded the Dali, the container ship that struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge nearly three weeks ago, the agency confirmed.

www.baltimoresun.com

The FBI likely is looking into whether any federal laws were broken in the lead up to the bridge disaster, experts said For example, in past American maritime disasters, federal authorities leveraged an old statute known as “seaman’s manslaughter” to prosecute people they believed to have been criminally negligent for people’s deaths.