Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Bridge collapse in Baltimore

"A container ship rammed into a major bridge in Baltimore early Tuesday, causing it to snap and plunge into the river below. Several vehicles fell into the chilly waters, and rescuers searched for survivors."

Video at link. A terrible accident.

20 comments:

JeffS said...

Ugh. That's a very bad thing ... ... absolutely no warning for anyone on the bridge. It went down like a house of cards.

Paco said...

I don't see how that vessel managed to do that; I hope we ultimately find out. Also, I hope the authorities can rescue the people who went into the drink.

RebeccaH said...

Bridges and overpasses have always made me nervous.

tom said...

Latest update says that warnings from the ship did allow authorities to stop the bridge traffic; repair crews were working on the bridge, a number of them were thrown into the very cold water; All the hazardous stuff and trucks that can't go through the Harbor Tunnels use it to get around Baltimore, it goes around to the East and is shorter than going around Baltimore to the West; those trucks will have to go the long way now.

Veeshir said...

How did that bridge go down like that?
It's kinda scary that one support can take down a nearly 2 mile long bridge in seconds.

JeffS said...

As always, the INTERNET is alive with goofy theories about how this happened. Dynamite, cyberattacks, you name it. At least some people are applying practical sarcasm to the loons (X is an interesting read this morning).

We won't know everything for a long time. If ever.

That said, here's a plausible analysis of what happened by a genuine mariner:

https://youtu.be/qZbUXewlQDk

And one X poster made these points:

1) If it had been a genuine attack, they'd have timed it for max rush hour deaths, during daylight. Hundreds of people in the water, versus a dozen.

2) Mayday issued from the ship apparently caused officials at the bridge to halt as much traffic as possible, before the ship hit the pylon. Thank goodness!

3) The problem with our current climate is we are all feeling so burned by so many things, constantly, all the time, we never know when to just let a spade be a spade. And no more than that.

4) It'll probably take months, or even years, to clear the Patapsco. Much less put the bridge back up. Port of Baltimore is going to be stricken. Eastern seaboard shipping in general will also be impacted.

5) NTSB is going to have a real job on its hands investigating the how and the why. I wonder what changes (if any?) will result for cargo shipping to U.S. ports?


https://x.com/BradRTorgersen/status/1772679530894832119?s=20


JeffS said...

How did that bridge go down like that?
It's kinda scary that one support can take down a nearly 2 mile long bridge in seconds.


Veeshir, that's the vulnerability of a wide span truss bridge. Truss bridges can carry large loads with less material, but if one part fails, the rest cascade along with it.

And it's a wide span -- the ship hit a pier, the ONLY support for a long distance. The bridge could do nothing but go down, alas.

Stephen A Skubinna said...

Some clowns are talking about the ship's systems being hacked... because of course they are. I await the leftosphere lecturing us that this was caused by whiteness or systemic racism or late stage capitalism.

But the video is pretty straightforward. You see the ship go dark momentarily and then the lights come back on. Then black smoke from the funnel and the ship begins to twist. My guess is that they tried backing down hard to take the way off the vessel. The problem with that is, in a single screw ship with a fixed pitch right handed prop, backing is going to cause the stern to walk to the left and thus the bow swings right. Given enough room you can actually walk a ship around clockwise that way. It all depends upon how much way you have on the ship and how wide is the area you're working in.

Not enough room, and you just swing to the right as we saw here.

rinardman said...

I don't know how long it'll take to rebuild the bridge, but I'm pretty sure part of the process will include demands to rename the bridge.

Being named for an old-time, racist, white man just won't do.

tom said...

So if they tried to slow it down by reversing, it made it worse because the front of the ship swung to the right and in the direction of the support; then having no support under the long span gravity did its thing and the weight of all that steel pulled the rest of the connected steel down.

"Anybody can build a bridge, it takes a Civil Engineer to build a bridge that just barely stands."
isn't that how that joke goes?

bruce said...

Good explanations here, far better than the MSM. Thanks all.

JeffS said...

"Anybody can build a bridge, it takes a Civil Engineer to build a bridge that just barely stands."

Speaking as a civil engineer, tom ... ... yep, pretty much. And more so since computer assisted designing became available. The idea being, the less materials you use, the lower the cost. That's not a bad thing, but it is a humorous way of looking at it.

r-man, I've heard 7 years, but I expect longer. Especially if the feds are involved, as pResident S**t For Brains has threatened. Congressional funding approval (HAW!), DOT buffoonery and red tape, environmental impact statements, you name it, the feds will do their best to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Paco said...

Colonel Nicholson: "Here, we'll have a go at it, won't we lads?"

rinardman said...

With advances in tunneling, maybe it would be better to go under this time.

Mick said...

I reckon it was climate change that done it.

I saw a picture from a chopper this morning. It looked like they dropped the port anchor and dragged it, maybe to pull it back into the channel.

tom said...

they have tunnels already, 4 bores; this bridge served the industrial areas east of the city and were the alternative for hazardous stuff and oversized loads; now they'll have to go west around the city.

Mick said...

Just saw your fearless (clueless?) leader say he had driven and travelled by train across the Key bridge many times. Mmmm slight problem there.
He was probably driving his 22 wheeler and going to Cornpop's house.

Gregoryno6 said...

As rerefenced by Jeff:

“It’s my intention that we will pay for the entire cost of reconstructing that bridge. I expect the Congress to support my effort,” Biden said in a White House press conference. “It’s gonna take some time. And the people of Baltimore can count on us, though, to stick with that every step of the way until the port is reopened and the bridge is rebuilt. We’re not leaving until this job is done."

The bridge gets all the attention and the border can go to hell.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/03/26/joe-biden-government-will-pay-entire-cost-of-rebuilding-baltimore-bridge/

JeffS said...

With advances in tunneling, maybe it would be better to go under this time.

From what I read, this was proposed as the original design. But it was rejected as being too expensive.

Saved a lot of money, didn't they?

JeffS said...

Missed your comment, tom. And I am not familiar with the Baltimore area.

Yeah, hazmat items would be an issue in tunnels, hmmm?