Baltimore Bridge.

Germanshepherdsmum

If they had used tugs to take the ship out to sea this catastrophe would have been averted - maybe they will do that in future.

There were pilots on board.

There was a malfunction which was due to dirty fuel, not necessarily fuel they had just picked up. That could be because their fuel tanks hadn't been cleaned out.

If they had used tugs to take the ship out to sea this catastrophe would have been averted - maybe they will do that in future.

Even at 5 or 6 knots a ship that size is going to demolish most bridge supports. The bridge is a 50yr old box girder construction you wouldn’t build a bridge like that today, it will take a month to clear the debris and get the port running again then a new bridge will be built much stronger.

For reference

Tower Bridge 1886-94
Brooklyn Bridge. 1883
Sydney Harbour bridge 1892
San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge 1937
TBH I doubt whether any bridges built to date are designed to withstand the impact of a collision with something the size of a football stadium on water.
These massive container ships are beyond anything imagined in the past and IMO too often a catastrophe waiting to happen.
It is a miracle that more lives were not lost.

RosiesMaw 😁
Not far off 50 years, so yes quite old, haha.The bridge would have passed the test for a container ship of the time hitting it I guess.Just a relief not to have caused more casualties.

RosiesMaw

Oreo

It was a freak accident,reported it lost power, so steering gone.
The ship quickly sent out a mayday call so the bridge was closed to traffic, saving many lives.Yes, an old bridge and probably not meant for a collision with todays container ships.

I thought it was built in the 70’s - that’s not old by my standards.

The Baltimore bridge, known more simply as the Key Bridge, was opened in 1977 in honour of Francis Scott Key, a 19th Century Maryland poet

But it did go down like matchsticks didn’t it?

That’s what is the most worrying aspect I think. You’d expect the section of the bridge that was hit to fall down when hit with that weight, but it seemed like a domino effect on the structure, there can’t have been enough other supporting pillars, or it would have remained standing for more of the length of the bridge?

karmalady

Depends when it was built and the traffic it was designed for, early bridges may not have been embedded into solid rock. It went down like a pack of unsupported cards. Many states in the US are poor, I have been watching drive through videos by Joe and Nic`s road trip. They give various statistics and I was shocked to see the poor areas and there are very many. Hence they could not afford highway maintenance

I don’t think any amount of highway maintenance would withstand a collision with a 948 ft however many thousand tonne container ship do you ?
I imagine the volume of traffic, when the built was built in 1977, was not dissimilar to that a mere 50 years on.
And actually
Maryland has the highest median household income among states for 2022, according to the U.S. Census. In 2020, Maryland ranks as second in ratio of millionaire households to total households, where 9.72% had $1 million or more in assets as reported by Phoenix Marketing International's Wealth and Affluent Monitor.

Oreo

It was a freak accident,reported it lost power, so steering gone.
The ship quickly sent out a mayday call so the bridge was closed to traffic, saving many lives.Yes, an old bridge and probably not meant for a collision with todays container ships.

I thought it was built in the 70’s - that’s not old by my standards.

The Baltimore bridge, known more simply as the Key Bridge, was opened in 1977 in honour of Francis Scott Key, a 19th Century Maryland poet

But it did go down like matchsticks didn’t it?

It was a freak accident,reported it lost power, so steering gone.
The ship quickly sent out a mayday call so the bridge was closed to traffic, saving many lives.Yes, an old bridge and probably not meant for a collision with todays container ships.

It’s usual to see cargo ships loaded to that extent - I expect many goods we buy would be much more expensive without these huge cargo ships, fully laden,

I couldn't get over how much cargo is on that container ship. It's a miracle that it floats at all.
I was also astonished about how fragile that bridge was. I would have expected each segment to be self-contained from a safety perspective but I know nothing about engineering , civil or otherwise so will be interested to see other people's comments.

I read just now that the construction of the bridge was not the best, who knows what the investigation will reveal. Tragic for those people on the bridge at the time.

And fully laden - many, many tons.

pably15

terrible tragedy the bridge collapsed like a pack of cards, must have been hit by some force

The ship was going relatively slowly but obviously it was a very large vessel.

The fact that ships aren’t assisted by tugs in navigating through this bridge is going to be very important I think. Arguably such a system could have prevented the collision. Seeing it with my lawyer’s hat on, it’s fascinating - but in reality a terrible tragedy in which lives have been lost, less importantly money lost, and a number of parties are likely to face years of litigation.

terrible tragedy the bridge collapsed like a pack of cards, must have been hit by some force

MayBee70

Witzend

There must surely have been something seriously amiss with the design, for the whole thing to collapse like that? Once he’s home I will consult dh - retired civil engineer.

After9/11 I read that American building regulations aren’t as stringent as ours. Not sure how true that is.

Certainly our collapsing schools indicate our building regulations aren't as stringent as they should be.

She struck the southwest support column at a speed of 7.6 knots (8.7 MPH).

Cameras from the Vessel Traffic Service captured footage of the collision and subsequent collapse. The ship’s lights went out twice before the collision, indicating possible issues in the engine room. Despite the quick restoration of lighting, this suggests a full blackout occurred, prompting the emergency generator to restore basic electrical services and lighting.

Without propulsion or tugboats, a ship this size is nearly impossible to stop.

The emergency generator does not connect to propulsion but should support steering and navigation systems but the ships heading appears to have been pushed off course by the wind directly into the support column.

Ships are not required to have tugboat escorts when passing under the Francis Scott Key Bridge so they have limited ability to slow down on their own when they lose power and can not put the propeller into reverse.

gcaptain.com/ship-lost-control-before-hitting-baltimore-bridge/

How fast must this ship have been going?
It must have hit the bridge pillar with such a mighty force.

I’m sure we will learn much more as the days and weeks go by but I read that:

The Francis Scott Bridge was the third longest continuous truss bridge in the world. The longest are in Nagasaki and Astoria, Oregon.

Wiki tells us that:

A continuous truss bridge is a truss bridge which extends without hinges or joints across three or more supports. A continuous truss bridge may use less material than a series of simple trusses because a continuous truss distributes live loads across all the spans; in a series of simple trusses, each truss must be capable of supporting the entire load.

Although some continuous truss bridges resemble cantilever bridges and may be constructed using cantilever techniques, there are important differences between the two forms. Cantilever bridges need not connect rigidly mid-span, as the cantilever arms are self-supporting. Although some cantilever bridges appear continuous due to decorative trusswork at the joints, these bridges will remain standing if the connections between the cantilevers are broken, or if the suspended span (if any) is removed. Conversely, continuous truss bridges rely on rigid truss connections throughout the structure for stability. Severing a continuous truss mid-span endangers the structure.

… which is what has happened.

BBC
12:43
Dali 'lost propulsion' before hitting bridge
An unclassified memo CISA - the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency - has confirmed that the Singapore-flagged vessel Dali "lost propulsion" and collided with "a supporting tower of the bridge".

Looking at the size of the bridge and the size of the ship it seems to me that a bridge planned and built in the 1970's was never planned to be able to take this kind of collision?

According to reports, it was built in the 70s.

Depends when it was built and the traffic it was designed for, early bridges may not have been embedded into solid rock. It went down like a pack of unsupported cards. Many states in the US are poor, I have been watching drive through videos by Joe and Nic`s road trip. They give various statistics and I was shocked to see the poor areas and there are very many. Hence they could not afford highway maintenance

Sparklefizz

Shocking, absolutely shocking!

Witzend Let us know what your DH says about the engineering aspect.

He would think something seriously amiss with the design, and/or ‘economies’ made with the construction.

Given that it was intended for a presumably busy shipping route, a collision at some point was always a possibility.

Witzend

There must surely have been something seriously amiss with the design, for the whole thing to collapse like that? Once he’s home I will consult dh - retired civil engineer.

After9/11 I read that American building regulations aren’t as stringent as ours. Not sure how true that is.