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OT: I-695 Bridge in Baltimore has collapsed after being struck by a large ship sending many into water

Harvard Gamecock

Harvard Gamecock

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I can not even imagine how terrifying it would have been, to be one of the inhabitants of those vehicles that fell in the river.
 
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USMC1974

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A few thoughts on this:
1. The news coverage has been terrible, with everyone wanting to find fault with whomever built or maintained the bridge. The bridge worked as designed. It was not designed to withstand a collision with a container ship that weighs in at approx 100,000 tons. Still confused? Please see the laws of physics.
2. They should switch from rescue to recovery. If they haven't pulled people from the water by now, it's too late.
3. The next bridge will be better than the last... engineering technology has advanced since 1977. That doesn't mean it will be unbreakable. Again... the laws of physics apply.
4. The harbor is shut down until the wreckage can be cleared. It won't be quick. Nothing is coming in or going out. The amount of wreckage is staggering. If you made your livelihood in the harbor proper, get ready to file for unemployment... tough bullet to chew.
5. Norfolk and Philadelphia will have to expand their capacity to load/unload cargo until Baltimore is back up and running. Good news: none of our Navy assets are home-ported in Baltimore. All the same, Baltimore's port facilities are a strategic asset, and they are off-line indefinitely.
6. While terrorism is not really on the radar as a cause for this event, it is certainly a lesson on how to cripple a major seaport. We should take a hard look at our infrastructure around our major Navy bases and determine how to minimize our strategic liabilities.
7. Could have been worse... rush hour traffic.
 
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KingWard

KingWard

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Harvard Gamecock said:
Skyway Bridge in Tampa Bay. When I cross that bride my toes curl up. Not for the faint at hear.
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I agree with that. I cross that bridge often as my family vacations down there almost every year. But to tell you the truth, the Arthur Ravenel bridge in Charleston is vulnerable to the same type incident with most of the big ship traffic now going to and coming from upriver. As for the Skyway Bridge, they have put in some pretty good protection for its supports in light of that horrible accident years ago that took out its predecessor.
 
Baltcock96

Baltcock96

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I had a view of the bridge from my office on a clear day. Pretty surreal.
 
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DeutschRock

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KingWard said:
I agree with that. I cross that bridge often as my family vacations down there almost every year. But to tell you the truth, the Arthur Ravenel bridge in Charleston is vulnerable to the same type incident with most of the big ship traffic now going to and coming from upriver. As for the Skyway Bridge, they have put in some pretty good protection for its supports in light of that horrible accident years ago that took out its predecessor.
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Arthur Ravenel Bridge:

To protect the bridge from errant ships, the towers are flanked by one-acre (0.40 ha) rock islands.
 
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KingWard

KingWard

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DeutschRock said:
Arthur Ravenel Bridge:

To protect the bridge from errant ships, the towers are flanked by one-acre (0.40 ha) rock islands.
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I would think that such would be efficacious. That disaster in St. Petersburg evidently reverberated.
 
18IsTheMan

18IsTheMan

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Jan 19, 2022
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Wild, right up the road from us. If you watch the video, there is a car that passes right over the spot where the ship hit and exits the bridge 10 seconds prior to impact.

Itā€™s crazy how the entire bridge more or less instantly collapsed.
 
Forkcock

Forkcock

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I sold forklifts and container handlers to the Port of SC in Charleston for 15 years. Iā€™ve always known the danger of container ships passing underneath the bridges in Charleston. When and where possible, I have always avoided crossing a a bridge here when a container ship was approaching.
 
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GCJerryUSC

GCJerryUSC

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Prestonyte said:
Bridge collapse puts Buttigieg over the edge. Needs a break to figure out his response.
babylonbee.com

Babylon Bee - Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg Holds Emergency Press Conference To Announce He Is Taking 3 More Months Maternity Leave

Babylon Bee is the definitive source of fake news you can trust.
babylonbee.com babylonbee.com
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You used a horrible event like this to take a shot at PB. You are trying to put yourself forward as a better person than PB. Guess what? You are contemptible and you certainly are not better than he.
 
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ToddFlanders

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These openings under bridges may seem big, but when you're trying to inch a 200,000+ ton ship through them the margin of error is so small - because your ability to correct issues is so small given the speed and weight of the ships.

They do everything thing they can to reduce the risks (like only having local harbor pilots move every ship in and out of the port), but accidents always happen with even the most seasoned pilots.

I do have to say though, that bridge design seems like the worst possible for a bridge that will have container ships passing under it. You can only make the ingress/egress so wide with that design, and as we've seen, you hit one of the pillars the whole thing folds like a house of cards. I expect some sort of cable supported bridge next time.
 
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CWW

CWW

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Sparklecity said:
Biden said we were going to pay to build it back. Why wouldn't the shipping company or their insurance pay to build it back?
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It will be tied up in court for years. Baltimore is desperate for it to be rebuilt as soon as possible. The settlement will go toward the costā€¦whenever the court cases are over. But rebuilding has to begin immediately.
 
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Harvard Gamecock

Harvard Gamecock

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Sparklecity said:
Biden said we were going to pay to build it back. Why wouldn't the shipping company or their insurance pay to build it back?
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I totally agree with your statement.
Eventually, I expect those 2 entities you mentioned will reimburse the US. However, that will be a long protracted process, and will not even begin till the official investigation is complete, and the insurance company also completes their own investigation. This process can easily take 1-3 years.
 
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Huntsvillecock

Huntsvillecock

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Impacts my company for sure. We have a couple of aircraft headed to Baltimore next week to ship to Europe. No doubt will reroute possibly to Brunswick, GA.

The whole industry is in shambles. Worldwide economies have cut back on shipments, leading shipping lines to reduce the number of ships and raise prices. Many of the container ships are owned in the Nordic countries and they are cautious about shipping items that support Russia, Ukraine or Belarus. Want to maintain neutrality in that mess.

We use to ship out of Savannah a good bit but they have moved more towards containers, as has Charleston. Brunswick offloads a lot of cars where we can access RORO vessels. Norfolk for example utilizes tunnels ILO bridge gates. But I have had ships run up on sandbars at low tide off Cape Charles accessing Baltimore.

Insurance has gotten stupid. My peers in the industry say much of this is related to electric cars and ships burning to the waterline.
 
Prestonyte

Prestonyte

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GCJerryUSC said:
You used a horrible event like this to take a shot at PB. You are trying to put yourself forward as a better person than PB. Guess what? You are contemptible and you certainly are not better than he.
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In case you've failed to notice or already forgotten, PB's performance as head of DOT is another example of the many DEI appointments in the Biden administration. Compare this response to the East Palestine response and the response to the death of the GA student killed by an illegal and you understand where we are as a country under this administration. At least Babylon Bee is using satire to point out things half the country ignores, and think is normal and acceptable.
 
Sparklecity

Sparklecity

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GCJerryUSC said:
You used a horrible event like this to take a shot at PB. You are trying to put yourself forward as a better person than PB. Guess what? You are contemptible and you certainly are not better than he.
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Did you watch his, the mayor and governor's news conference yesterday. They didn't mind using a bad situation to pat themselves on the back. I thought I was watching an award show speech after winning an award. " I would like to thank so and so and so and so and so and so".
 
Prestonyte

Prestonyte

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Sparklecity said:
Did you watch his, the mayor and governor's news conference yesterday. They didn't mind using a bad situation to pat themselves on the back. I thought I was watching an award show speech after winning an award. " I would like to thank so and so and so and so and so and so".
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I noticed it and they were not MIA like East Palestine. Some disasters are award worthy, and some are obviously not.
The rebuild is going to be another taxpayer money grab with no guardrails. If we can pull the DOJ away from Trump mania and they use the same zeal to go after the shipping company and their insurers the taxpayers can get a break.
 
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USCEE82

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Heard today that there are millions and millions of dollars still unspent from the infrastructure bill a couple years ago. That would be the first place to start and then have the shipping company reimburse including the lost wages for all the port workers who will lose their livelihood until the wreckage is removed and the port reopened.
 
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RUMMENIGGE

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CWW said:
It will be tied up in court for years. Baltimore is desperate for it to be rebuilt as soon as possible. The settlement will go toward the costā€¦whenever the court cases are over. But rebuilding has to begin immediately.
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Exactly what I was thinking.
 
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uscfan1981

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GCJerryUSC said:
You used a horrible event like this to take a shot at PB. You are trying to put yourself forward as a better person than PB. Guess what? You are contemptible and you certainly are not better than he.
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I don't know the OP. However, I'm willing to bet everything I own the OP is a better person and would make a better Transportation Secretary than PB.
 
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athenscock3

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Fortunately the ship put out a warning and the police stopped traffic or it could have been a lot worse. The unfortunate ones were the 6 construction workers who were unable to escape in time. What I heard a lot of was the mayor praising divers who were in the water risking their lives in the tangled mess looking for victims. Unfortunately the workers bodies are trapped under concrete and sharp pieces of steel and it's too dangerous to get them out. It's sad posters use a tragedy like this to take political shots.
 
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