Currently there are rescuers looking for at least seven people in the water.
Baffled at how this even happens.
Currently there are rescuers looking for at least seven people in the water.
Baffled at how this even happens.
Just saw this. Holy F, traffic is going to be berkeleyed for a long time.
Video of the ship hitting it:
https://foxbaltimore.com/news/local/breaking-news-key-bridge-collapsed
Apparently protective piers are not required for bridges spanning waterways that see hazards like barge traffic. It was suggested that more heavily used bridges be protected after a barge hit took down the I-40 span over the Arkansas River 20 years ago, but since the FSK bridge has to be one of the busiest, it doesn't look like that ever happened.
edit: Interestingly, daylight photos also include the power lines that span the harbor, and they appear to be surrounded by substantial protective piers.
Sorry, I have to go right to the structural/engineering questions, because that bridge has always terrified me so I cannot think about the people who were on it.
Margie
Ohh my. What a mess.
In reply to Marjorie Suddard :
Well, it'll get them now.
Mrs. VCH hates driving over large bridges, to the point where if she's driving and one is coming up, we'll pull over and swap so I can drive us over the bridge.
This is not going to help that anxiety.
I've been under that bridge on a container ship in the middle of the night. I just heard that Maryland DOT is stating the crew radioed a loss of propulsion casualty shortly before the ship hit the bridge support. I'm hearing reports of the ship being 900 feet long / 155,000 tons displacement loaded, that's a lot of inertia.
Baltimore harbor is effectively shut down.
Horrific video. It folded like sticks.
Not to make light and I understand there is no intentional explosion but watching the news video made me think there should have been a high pitched train horn overdubbed.
That's going to be one expensive insurance claim.
In reply to 11GTCS :
Mrs. VCH saw a post from a friend to that affect. Mechanical failure seems like the most likely culprit. Otherwise it would be gross negligence or intentional action.
Good night, imagine if that had happened at 8 am...or 4 pm.
Listening to 100.7 The Bay...it's all they're talking about. I suspect it's all anyone is talking about in B-more this morning.
<dad hat on>. Couple years ago we had two young women go missing. Found out that they went into a retention pond in the winter. Couldn't get out and drowned. Bought these. In my car now. </dad hat off>
resqme. Designed by a fire fighter made in USA.
Not that falling off a bridge that big would allow us to survive. But you know.
There's a lot of smoke in the air just before the ship struck the bridge. I wonder if they had an engine shut down and had just gotten it to fire up again.
11GTCS said:I just heard that Maryland DOT is stating the crew radioed a loss of propulsion casualty shortly before the ship hit the bridge support.
In the video it appears the lights on the ship went out just before it hit, so maybe there was some malfunction.
Not sure how there was never additional protection added to bridges like this after the Skyway disaster. I mean, it was pretty recent...oh wait.
In reply to Woody (Forum Supportum) :
I can't find anything on that specific ship (so far) beyond basic dimensions / registry and year built. Most of these ships have a single direct drive low speed diesel engine burning heavy fuel oil. Starting the engine requires a lot of compressed air, I'm guessing the smoke is the result of attempting to start the engine in reverse to attempt to stop the ship. From what I can see they were 300 ish feet outside the normal shipping channel when they hit and had been underway for about 20 minutes.
Edit to add Wiki link on the ship: MV Dali - Wikipedia Single screw diesel with what appears to be the description of a bow thruster.
I've been across that bridge a number of times.
Woke up and saw this news a couple hours ago. From the long shot it looked like a fire under the pier, so I hoped there had been time to clear the bridge. But from a closer angle it was obviously the orange deck lighting of the ship, and the collapse was instantaneous.
Thank goodness it happened in the middle of the night. My thoughts to the victims and families.
That is the go to route for vehicles with propane, so we use it when going south with the camper. It is a terrifying ride on a windy day, the height above water is rather large.
The bridges across the Cooper River in Charleston have been hit several times over the last 100 years. The worst dropped almost 300' of the roadway into the harbor and killed an entire family. There have also been several ships that were shoved up on mud flats by tugs when they lost power coming into the harbor. IIRC, Charleston requires all ships to be Ford Econoboxed by tugs under the bridges to make sure this doesn't happen.
It's terrible that the entire structure came down. That's going to be a mess to clean up. My condolences go out to the families of the missing people.
Imagine if this happened at rush hour instead of 1:30 am.
For comments on no protection: I suspect it would be a practical impossibly to protect against a direct hit from a loaded cargo ship. Dolphins/fenders are (were?) likely already there to take a glancing blow, but from the video, that was no glancing blow.
porschenut said:That is the go to route for vehicles with propane, so we use it when going south with the camper. It is a terrifying ride on a windy day, the height above water is rather large.
Hazmat that can't go through the two tunnels is going to have to go ALL the way around the city counter clockwise. Oof. That's a long ride.
Edit : I believe the tunnels have height restrictions, too.
In reply to Woody (Forum Supportum) :
Most of those ships have to shut down the engine and crank it in the other direction to go into reverse. It could be they lost steerage and cranked in reverse to try to not hit the bridge.
Charleston Harbor Ford Econoboxs ships through the bridges with tugs. They have shoved several up on the mud flats that lost steerage coming into the harbor.
Sure, no car over the bridge for a long time, but they will find another route. However, no ships under the bridge until cleanup and there is no other route!
Lots of import cars come in to Baltimore via ship!
Livestream link from Port of Baltimore
Lights go on and off on the ship from 01:25 to 01:27, impact is a minute later.
scary how fast the whole thing fell, not even enough time to jump out of your car if you just noticed the bridge shaking.
Spearfishin said:For comments on no protection: I suspect it would be a practical impossibly to protect against a direct hit from a loaded cargo ship. Dolphins/fenders are (were?) likely already there to take a glancing blow, but from the video, that was no glancing blow.
Looked at the new Skyway vs. this bridge. 1 dolphin per side in the main channel, nothing else. Skyway has TONS of dolphins and the primary piers have large piles of rocks surrounding them. Looks like there are 3 channels, which would prevent the pile o' rocks concept, but a single bumper on each side is ridiculous.
But, one massive bridge collapse every 40+ years may be the calculation that people have accepted.
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