Key Bridge Collapse

Uncategorized 84 Comments

Holy Hell;

Part of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed early Tuesday morning after a 948-foot container ship, the Dali, crashed into it, sending cars and people into the water in what authorities are calling a “developing mass casualty event.”

Live from the scene.

84 Replies to “Key Bridge Collapse”

    1. “First to say Russia Russia Russia”

      Obviously it was Trump who called Baltimore a Liberal sh*thole, which then caused the Communist Chinese to get with their “Socialist” proxy ally Singapore to send the ship and decapitate the city on behalf of Trump who would otherwise end the war with Russia – Rachel Maddcow MSNBC

      1. Just an observation … but I’d dare say the Port of Baltimore is the blackest Port on American waters. Yes, even more-blacker than Oakland or Long Beach CA. But I am certain every part of the Port’s duties including inspections and Piloting rules were all executed with the utmost integrity.

    1. “Black Swan event???”

      Baltimore has less relevance than Abuja Nigeria in global geopolitics.

      3. “Black Swan Event” is getting worn out…kinda along the lines of the Boy who Cried Wolf.

    2. Black swan events are major events that are characterized by being beyond current expectations.

      I don’t think this bridge collapse is a major event in the US, let alone the world.

      And although bridge collapses seem rare, a surprising number occur:

      144 since 2000.

      8 of these due to ship/barge collisions.

      So I wouldn’t call it a black swan event.

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bridge_failures

      Note 20 of the failures had 10 or more deaths.

      1. Joe, do you have any figures as to the number of bridges in the US capable of sustaining truck traffic? It would be interesting to know the percentage failure rate, and the average longevity.

        1. Codex

          I don’t know what percentage of bridges can sustain truck traffic. But according to the ARTBA (American Road & Transportation Builders Association) 36% of America’s bridges need major work and should be replaced (apparently that’s 220,000 bridges). Estimated cost of repairs $319 billion.

          Now ARTBA might make self serving arguments, but apparently the DOT estimates 42,000 US bridges are structurally deficient.

          I suspect the DOT would present a lowball number, but I don’t know for sure.

          Source: https://www.artba.org/news/artba-2023-bridge-report-222000-u-s-bridges-need-major-repairs/#:~:text=18%20found%20that%2036%20percent,to%20make%20all%20needed%20repairs.

    3. I see what you did there GRM. But judging by the replies … I may be the only one. Must be due to my systemic racism.

    2. Yes, Maryland requires local pilots for the Port of Baltimore and to navigate Chesapeake Bay waters. Are you thinking a DEI (Didn’t Earn It) pilot at the helm? Is that why the mayor of Baltimore demanded that CNN stop showing the bridge collapse video?

      1. Looking at the photos … it appears as though there are two giant towers in the water, lit-up … just outside the boundary of the bridge … looking like guideposts for the shipping channel. The whole ship would have to be baked on marijuana not to see and steer through those markers. Hmmmm ? maybe the whole ship’s crew were taking their … medicine?

        1. If you mean the two towers upstream of the bridge, I can see how they look like some sort of channel markers, but they are actually poles for high-voltage power lines. And, no, ships wouldn’t get hung up on them because the lines are higher than the road surface of the bridge … was. (Dang, I’m going to have to get used to speaking of the bridge in the past tense.)

    2. We know it is not a terrorist event or it would have been during rush hour.

      1. Not necessarily. The damage to the economy is hard to gauge but it could be enormous. Terrorists or state actors, especially if not Islamist, might want to make it look like an accident.

  8. Shouldn’t gigantic bridges of this type/importance have some sort of first-line-of-defense barrier in the foreground – around the main supports so that any rogue ship hits these instead and stops the ship dead in its tracks, essentially acting as blockers protecting a quarterback? I mean they wouldn’t be that much more of an additional expense when compared to the total infrastructure cost of the bridge itself, correct?

    1. Gandalf and Dumbldedore were working on a fail safe but got tied up in patent and licensing disputes.

    3. I’m always surprised at that as well. The only place I have seen that is the Welland Canal. The large bridge, that carries the highway above, has huge piers that appear to be filled with boulders on the approach from each side.
      When building the latest bridge in Vancouver, I believe they were worried about scour from the current.

    4. Insanely expensive, would have to build islands. This ship was almost 1000 feet long and 95,000 tons

    5. It does seem “odd” that a ship collision would knock down that much of the bridge. Almost as if they didn’t design the bridge to survive such a collision. In the busiest harbor on the east coast of the USA, loaded with traffic every day…

  9. Interesting video showing the Baltimore harbour ship track (showing the track of the ship from the time it left the container pier), and the video feed of the harbour bridge.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N39w6aQFKSQ

    At the very end it shows all the ships waiting to get into Baltimore harbour. They’ll have to go somewhere else.

    1. I used to deliver trucks to the Port of Baltimore from Guelph Ontario. I bet there are more than 500 trucks on their way there right now that have pulled over waiting for instructions. It’s going to clog up the truck stops and rest areas for miles.

      1. Another guy who used to be involved with Hitachi ? …

        me too.

        Glad at least I don’t have anything of theirs in the port today.

    2. Thats a good clip Joe – based on early video it looked like this was intentional with the ship doing a hard right turn into the bridge pillar – but that was likely due to perspective of the video.

      This unfolded over minutes not seconds – suggestion is that the ship got power back on and may have tried reversing engines to slow down. I wonder if that caused the ship to pull to the right and into the pillar?

      1. Ward,

        I imagine the puff of smoke came from applying full astern on the propeller, but I’m guessing.

        An ex-navy friend told me that as a single screw ship slows, paddle wheel effect becomes more pronounced, in this case swinging the ship’s stern to port and moving the pivot point aft. Problem is the ship is still making headway. Drop anchor, good luck stopping a 100,000 ton ship quickly.

        I’d never heard of paddle wheel effect, so I looked it up.
        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propeller_walk
        I don’t know which direction this ship’s propeller turns to move forward. In reverse the propeller sideways walk is supposedly greater.

        It will take the full TSB investigation to determine the cause. This could take a year or more.

    3. Yup , looks like it lost power before it got close to or under the bridge.
      My theory doesn’t work.

  10. Pretty suspicious timing how Ukraine isn’t the hot item anymore when they’re losing the War there.
    Need to inflict themselves by blaming Russia now would certainly follow what our politicians tend do.
    Of course only a few people died but mass casualties will be the narrative next.

  11. the bridge looks about 50 years old. collision specs at the time wouldnt have been for 200000 tonne container ships

    makes me recall the iron ring ceremony pledge

    1. This past Saturday was the 47th anniversary of its opening, so you’re spot on with the age.

  12. Not having any knowledge about the workings of ships, but wondering if the large ones have APUs (auxiliary power units) like airliners do. Seen the videos of the Dali’s lights flickering and have now heard they did lose power. One would think an APU would be a requirement.

  13. This is going to kill most of the Port of Baltimore for a month or three. BMW and VW recently moved their port operations to just outside the bridge – in Jan. or Feb. – and a big Amazon distribution center also opened there recently, so those will keep going. But all the coal shipping (big!!! item), other car brands, all the non-Amazon container shipping, and the local Domino sugar plant will be stone dead until all the debris is cleared. And there are probably a dozen ships stuck in the port with no way out.
    Also, the ones outside that stay running will have slight delays in reaching destinations to the south and west because they will have to go the long way around I-695.

  15. Yeah but is Baltimore port staff diverse enough?

    Jokes aside, my point is that we are in the age of “couldn’t care less”. Because clearly Port Authority didn’t care, same with those pilots.
    And the same goes nowadays with airplanes, border security, … nuclear power plants? God forbid.

  16. I’ve worked on crews like the one repairing the bridge as well as sandblasting and painting bridges.
    The reported “work crews” may be involved.
    You can see lights where the crew would be working and where the ship may have been passing under at the same time.

    We often had dangling safety lines, steel cables to support swing stages and rigging.
    The tail ends may have been hanging too long by mistake and tangled the ship and pulled it off course into the piling.

    1. The ship lost power and drifted out of the channel well before it was under the bridge, so there’s no chance that any cables from the work crew caused the outage or the drifting in any way, shape, or form. And I highly doubt any tail ends of work crew rigging would be strong enough to pull a loaded cargo ship off course by any significant amount before the rigging snapped.

    2. The ship did not pass under the bridge. It hit the bridge supports (abutment) almost head on.

  17. The ship sent a mayday reporting electrical power and propulsion loss. On the video you can see all the lights aboard go out, then come back on followed by a huge cloud of black smoke as the engine starts and then the ship goes dark again before hitting the bridge. Without the screw pushing water over the rudder a ship has no steering. The tide was going out at the time (low tide occurred 45 minutes after the catastrophe) so the ship drifted into the bridge.

  18. The smoke could be from the ship’s smoke stack from the captain gunning the ship trying to get it back on course before knowing he’s hooked up.

  19. Can you imagine what it must have sounded like?
    On a ship this size, how long for anchors to take effect after they’re dropped?

    1. Dropping anchors would work but also cause damage to the ship. The crew were probably told many times in the past that any ship damage would be taken out of their hides. Instead of risking minor damage to the ship they hoped for the best while trying to restart and caused maximum destruction.

      Just to add one more thing. The claims of explosives on the bridge are crap. The flashing nav lights and flying dust are being claimed as explosions.

  21. The cables and rigging could have shorted out (ripped apart) the ships electricity as well.
    If not, it’s a huge coincidence that the ship died and impacted right where the crews were working.

  22. “Lost power and recovered power twice.”

    The ship’s crew could have been isolating parts of the damaged electrical grid and restarting the engines. The more it drifted the more it ripped apart the system, maybe.

  23. Richfisher is the best example of Dunning-Kruger this blog has seen in ages.
    “The cables and rigging could have shorted out (ripped apart) the ships electricity as well.”
    Go play with your legos.
    Frickin 75 IQ

  26. Just back that video up a couple seconds for the “explosions” sound unless, of course, you’re a hair metal lyrics thinker taking it personal.

    1. The Chesapeake Bay waters ran RED with the blood of the 6 highway workers who rode the mangled steel into the dark foreboding waters. Yeah … it WAS a bloodbath.

    1. Putin’s retaliation has begun, eh? Surely Russia possesses the capacity to send an EMP toward ships that will destroy their electronics and navigation systems. Right? Speaking of conspiracy theories. How long till what I just wrote gets published wide and far? Hello! FBI!? Start the narrative.

  32. Nonengineer here: why didn’t the steel beams buckle as they absorbed the energy of impact before they snapped?

  33. I can’t be the only one who finds the FBI’s almost immediate message saying there’s not indication of terrorism or foul play very strange. Wouldn’t that take days if not weeks to ascertain? This FBI? All Indian crew? Lots of Muslim Indians. Revenge for blowing up the Nordstream pipeline? Very suspicious to me. There are a lot of good reads on the Ace of Spades blog today. Anyway, I’m sure there are a lot of terrorists watching this story and saying, “Hmmm, why didn’t we think of that?”

Proudly powered by WordPress & Skyrocket Themes

MENU

Navigation