A cargo ship has taken out the rt 695 bridge in Balitmore.
When i say taken out I mean, like the whole bridge is either in the water or on the deck of the boat.
https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/bal...hnk/index.html

 

 

Just catching up on that news. It went down like toothpicks! Just checked in with my nephew in MD. He said he's driving over that bridge many times. Thankfully, not today!

 

Thankfully it was in the wee hours and not during rush hour.
I can't count the number of times I've sat in traffic on that bridge.

 

This is definitely the one positive to this.

 

The initial reports I have seen say the ship, under control of course by a US pilot, had a steering and power casualty. The video shows lights going on and off, the engines spooled up from the smoke and the boat appears to move sideways before striking the bridge tower.

 

Yes, the ship notified authorities that it had lost power, so they were able to close the bridge fairly quickly and probably saved lives. Def a major disaster. Cannot imagine the traffic in the two remaining tunnels.

 

Replacing that bridge will take years. It's a massive undertaking.
It will need to be brought up to current safety standards.
Then there will be the battle over who pays for it.
I pretty sure there are some folks in Lloyds of London who are a might unhappy right now.

 

Another reason I dislike big bridges!

 

Maritime buddy of mine said the 9kts the ship was making was too fast for harbors. They usually go Dead Slow Ahead which is 5-6kts. Plus the anchor was not dropped. The anchor is rigged to drop free (no power needed) and it drags on the bottom with the chain. If they knew they were shot and issued a Mayday, why not drop the anchor while you are at it? That is the crews job and they should have been standing by. 65,000 tons at 10mph will impart a lot of foot pounds of energy into a stationary object.

I also saw a comment by an engineer that commented on the Tampa Skyway bridge accident years ago. They installed underwater barriers to prevent out of control ships from contacting the bridge.