Bridge Collision

[Pengwin7]

Crazy to read about this.
Silver lining for modern communication/ technology - which got a mayday signal out in enough time to keep commuters from getting on bridge.
I was watching video and thought it didn't just seem "lucky" that the flow of traffic stopped in the half minute before the impact.
https://www.npr.org/2024/03/26/12408...apse-baltimore

Very sad for all involved.

[Belexus75]

https://twitter.com/YWNReporter/stat...-UTpYSvg&s=19p

obviously impossible to say from just watching this video from this angle but it almost appears that ship turned into the supporting column...crazy

[Axeman33]

obviously impossible to say from just watching this video from this angle but it almost appears that ship turned into the supporting column...crazy

When you lose power, you lose steerage, which with no power can be affected by the tide in the harbour as well as winds, especially from a ship like that with all those cargo containers on top. Those things can act like a big ass sail. We also dont know what position the rudder was in when the power kicked back in, if even only for a brief period of time. I agree the ship seems to turn into the bridge column but so many things could cause that to happen.

It's funny reading on Twitter how a lot of people jump to conclusions that this was some sort of terror attack or intentional. A lot of people also have no clue on how a ship works and have never spent a day at sea to back up their conspiracy theories.

[Belexus75]

When you lose power, you lose steerage, which with no power can be affected by the tide in the harbour as well as winds, especially from a ship like that with all those cargo containers on top. Those things can act like a big ass sail. We also dont know what position the rudder was in when the power kicked back in, if even only for a brief period of time. I agree the ship seems to turn into the bridge column but so many things could cause that to happen.

It's funny reading on Twitter how a lot of people jump to conclusions that this was some sort of terror attack or intentional. A lot of people also have no clue on how a ship works and have never spent a day at sea to back up their conspiracy theories.

lol no i didnt think anything about terror, i just found it strange. I get that power = steering and could be a coincidence and partial power didn't help steering but if you look at that video, as soon as partial power got resorted, the ship turned into the column...again its far way, only one angle and im probably completely wrong here but it just looked that way. Almost like they tired to avoid something but caused something much worst.

[LuigiC173]

drove over this several times in the past when I lived in Virginia commuting north visiting home in upstate NY, bananas.

[butch]

the one video I watched it looked like there was a big splash behind the boat just before it hit the bridge . I wonder if that was the anchors being dropped

[Axeman33]

the one video I watched it looked like there was a big splash behind the boat just before it hit the bridge . I wonder if that was the anchors being dropped

I read that they did drop the anchor, which could have easily affected the direction of the ship as well.

[Eskimo Brother]

the one video I watched it looked like there was a big splash behind the boat just before it hit the bridge . I wonder if that was the anchors being dropped

I figured that was it basically jumping up onto the concrete pier base before actually hitting the bridge pier itself.

[random-d]

It looked like they had tried to turn to port before the 2nd power outage if they had also tried to reverse the screws it might have violently turned the ship to starboard when the power came back on.

[Rylant]

When you lose power, you lose steerage, which with no power can be affected by the tide in the harbour as well as winds, especially from a ship like that with all those cargo containers on top. Those things can act like a big ass sail. We also dont know what position the rudder was in when the power kicked back in, if even only for a brief period of time. I agree the ship seems to turn into the bridge column but so many things could cause that to happen.

It's funny reading on Twitter how a lot of people jump to conclusions that this was some sort of terror attack or intentional. A lot of people also have no clue on how a ship works and have never spent a day at sea to back up their conspiracy theories.

Ya my facebook feed is littered with posts by "experts" saying that, due to redundancy, it's not possible for a ship of this size to lose steering. Therefore, it was intentional...

Cue the conspiracy theorists...

To add to comment, I always knew that people largely underestimate the tremendous amount of force that large trains and ships move with. Watching this video, it is scary to view the force that this kind of ship has, even moving slowly.

Rylant

[Belexus75]

I read that they did drop the anchor, which could have easily affected the direction of the ship as well.

this actually makes lots of sense watching that video.....

[rataylor22]

FWIW, modern bridge building ~does~ have techniques that ~may~ allow a bridge to withstand force like that, or at least, only have a small portion of the bridge collapse rather than the whole thing as happened here. The problem in this instance is the bridge was built in 1972. A 50 year old bridge just doesn't have the same design capabilities. The problem with re-building the bridge with these techniques are threefold:

1) Time - from everything I can tell/have read, this is a major roadway. The more robust they build the bridge, the longer it takes to rebuild

2) Cost - obviously, similarly, the more robust you build the bridge, the more expensive to build the bridge. It's also an incredibly long bridge, which adds to the cost further, and with the above time crunch, making things go fast adds even more cost. Obviously America the country can afford it, but how much money will the federal/state governments give to the (comparatively) poor city of Baltimore.

3) Existing infrastructure - now, I'm a mechanical engineer rather than civil/structural, but from what I understand the existing infrastructure both cannot be used in the type of robust bridge design I described above, but also might actually get in the way of that type of design. If they need to remove all the in-place infrastructure (the columns in the water) and move/replace them, that again elongates the timeline and adds a ton of cost.

All around just, a terrible disaster and a huge mess for recovery.