Francis Scott Key Bridge (Baltimore) hit by Cargo Ship and Collapsed

eljefino said:
They rebuilt the Minneapolis and Philadelphia bridges in pretty good time.

Yes I know the Philly one was a cheat, they dumped dirt there and closed the road underneath temporarily.

I bet contractors are staging equipment already waiting for the "go." There are only so many contractors set up for something this heavy and it can take weeks to even get the stuff there.
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Would think they prefab sections in a big shipyard - then barge them in …
 
eljefino said:
They rebuilt the Minneapolis and Philadelphia bridges in pretty good time.

Yes I know the Philly one was a cheat, they dumped dirt there and closed the road underneath temporarily.

I bet contractors are staging equipment already waiting for the "go." There are only so many contractors set up for something this heavy and it can take weeks to even get the stuff there.
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The ravenol bridge took 4+ years and cost $700M in 2005. However it is 8 lanes and has a bunch of architectural features that Likely complicated it. It also has a longer main span.
 
I drove through Baltimore on I-95 N (coming from Florida back to NY) at approximately noon yesterday and traffic was pretty normal. I knew nothing about this mishap until later on as I was listening to CDs. I'm surprised I didn't see an increase in traffic on I-95.

I didn't read all 7 pages of posts so it's probably already been mentioned that the ship gave a 'Mayday' when it lost control and that caused authorities to stop traffic on the bridge which most likely saved many lives.
 
A few stills from the drone footage:

Obliterated tower (It takes a LOT of energy to completely mangle a reinforced concrete structure like this)

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Kira said:
I bet they can clear the wreckage, leaving open channels. Cars will get through OK.....and McCormick spices.
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I suspect that once recovery is done they'll clear the channel quickly. Probably already have crane vessels underway.

That ship certainly won't be sitting there as long as the one that sat outside St. Simons down here in GA did. Took them something like 2 years to get that thing cut up and taken out.
 
Exhaustgases said:
then why where there no tug boats
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News story showed a vessel tracker and (2) tugs did push it out of dock and got it turned around and once it was pointed in the right direction in the ~middle of the river, the tugs left. They weren't clear about this part but it looked like one of the tugs turned around and chased after the ship as if there was an indication they needed help earlier.

Story also indicated they dropped their anchor in an attempt to slow down.
 
Exhaustgases said:
If this is not an independent azipod and bow thruster steered ship, then why where there no tug boats, especially in that channel with a bridge? So what is or would be the main engine, a big direct coupled to the prop Wartsila?

It looks like the power was very high and was cut just before going into the bridge, if it was in full reverse there would be no reason to cut the power so soon.

I'd like to know why no talk about the boats insurance footing the bill to fix that?

One news person said it was a steering failure, obvious ! And another news person said it was a power failure, yeah just as it turned into it.

Looks to me like they need to buy a few old ferry boats to handle some of the traffic.
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The main propulsion engine is an HHI licensed MAN - M/V Dali has a single bow thruster I will assume is VFD* … it has two primary and two secondary power gens - so something in the PMS went sideways …
*requires high voltage
 
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SC Maintenance said:
Sri Lanka is sort of a crossroads of the sea. Likely the first stop of many to offload some and re load others. As much as 60% of those containers may have been empty. Pretty common to ship empty containers back to Asia as there are no goods going from here to there.
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I or other warehouses will easily get the same container sometimes twice a year but at least once every 1-2 years. It just goes right back to the same place.
 
pbm said:
I drove through Baltimore on I-95 N (coming from Florida back to NY) at approximately noon yesterday and traffic was pretty normal. I knew nothing about this mishap until later on as I was listening to CDs. I'm surprised I didn't see an increase in traffic on I-95.

I didn't read all 7 pages of posts so it's probably already been mentioned that the ship gave a 'Mayday' when it lost control and that caused authorities to stop traffic on the bridge which most likely saved many lives.
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I passed through the I-95 tunnel south bound at around 4PM yesterday, very little traffic, but I was going against traffic.

Since it's a toll bridge you would think that they would know how many vehicles were on at least one side of the span and who they were.
 
SC Maintenance said:
This article says they have maybe $3B in liability insurance. I don’t think you get a bridge for that?

www.insurancebusinessmag.com

Major (re)insurers and P&I club on hook for Baltimore bridge disaster

Collapse expected to drive "one of the largest claims" ever for marine market
www.insurancebusinessmag.com www.insurancebusinessmag.com
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It's a bridge repair not a complete replacement. This is going to probably be within the insured amount. However I suspect that one or more of the insured parties might declare bankruptcy to get out of paying.
 
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