Foot of the Verrazano Bridge NYC (rocks prevent ships from hitting the bridge directly.)
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Foot of the Francis Scott Key Bridge
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Interesting report. Lives were spared by quick action.
I would also give kudos to the crew of the ship for hastily sending a distress signal that timely alerted authorities to shut down the bridge.
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Would those rocks stop a ship of that size?
I was also surprise just how fast that bridge collapsed.
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I see couple conspiracies theories out already, no this looks like legitimate accident.
Ship lost power, they radioed it in and they shut down the bridge. Last of stragglers were caught on the bridge.
That fast action did save lot of lives, just wasnât quick enough to save all of em.
So I have to say good job. Just need to find out why the ship lost power.
Am also sure theyâre going to have shipping lane reopened ASAP since 80 billion plus pass through that area.
Also it seems that bridge was rust bucket, big problem with steel bridges.
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Not so much for apparently failing to immediately drop the hook when power was lost in such a restricted waterway.
I would note that even if it was in brand new condition, a hit anywhere on any of the supporting structures under the truss would bring down the whole bridge. It is literally impossible for that type of bridge to survive the compromise of any of its supporting structures.
Which makes the lack of concrete islands around the supports a rather blatant omission of duty on the designers.
But that is a conversation for after the immediate recovery and cleanup efforts are through.
Yabut, at least it wasnât a drunk guy or something like that
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YeahâŚIâm guessing that is where weakest point of bridge.
I was just surprised how fast it collapsed.
In my work I did enough demoing, it always seem slow motion when you drop a piece/part of structural.
This just dropped immediately.
Right? I found that amazing
The did drop anchors, but it takes time for the flukes to dig in and stopping a ship of that immense size would take time even with the flukes fully dug in.
OK, thanks, had not seen that.
Ouch this sucks.
Itâs like trying to stop a fully loaded 18 wheeler with no air brakes. Itâll eventually stop but it takes a LONG time to do it.
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I know that - I was a ship driver once - just hadnât seen anywhere that they did it.
Should be interesting driving up though Baltimore to Philly for Easter.
I couldnât imagine ever driving anything that big. Iâve drove a 18 wheeler once (helped my neighbor move his into position where he could easily work on it) and that was stressful enough.
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The I-95 tunnels are likely to be a nightmare.
And even expedited, probably a year to rebuild the bridge.
Took five years to build the original structure, but as the approaches appear to be intact, they only need to rebuild the center span. Still it will be quite time consuming.
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Never did anything that big - just 3-400 ft CG cutters - but there were interesting moments doing stuff like underway fueling/replenishment and helo ops where things could go kablooie pretty quickly and easily with a loss of power or just steering.
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If one element in a truss fails, it is severely weakened. If a main support is knocked out, the whole thing can collapse like a line of dominoes. We are fortunate the collapse occured in the wee hours of the morning when there was little traffic on the bridge.
I-35W bridge that collapsed a few years was a similar design. It came down during rush hour. Here are before and after pictures from wikipedia.
I lived in Eastern Baltimore County for 35 years and traveled the FSK Bridge for 34 years to and from work and sometimes in between to the old Bethlehem Steel Works at Sparrows Point. The loss of that bridge, impact on the Harbor and the Dundalk Marine Terminal will be catastrophic.
My God what an unimaginable travesty.
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