General

Video:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7JDeBPuFQS0&pp=ygUGQ...

Read about it this morning. Absolutely do not want to watch a video about it, as I cross a similarly sized bridge every day going to work

What does that bridge connect?

shadyfozzie wrote:


It's part of 695 which circles Baltimore.

Supposedly the ship lost power, lost control, but was able to call for help so they were able to stop some of the cars crossing. Absolutely horrifying. It came down like matchsticks...
Crossed a few big bridges today and felt like throwing up each time.

Yeah, it lost power twice. They were able to get it started both times and they tried to turn or reverse it. You can see a ton of dark exhaust (unspent fuel) coming out of the stack before impact, but even at low speeds changing course at that much weight can't be done quickly. Horrific accident that's going to have impact on the area for years to come, and likely will impact consumers all over the US. None of that is important though as there are families not knowing if they will ever be able to bury their loved ones.

As far as I know... A bridge should not disintegrate like that.
Many bridges (and other infrastructure) need to be repaired/replaced across the country.
Many are beyond their designed lifetime.
Engineers have been sounding this alarm for decades.
Our culture likes to wait for a crisis to do anything about problems like this.
Admittedly, it's going to be expensive and take a long time.

bill wrote:


I'm not saying there isn't a nationwide infrastructure issue, but it was a truss bridge. If one support pillar is taken out the rest of the truss is going down with it (as we saw) new or old. The amount of energy unleashed in seconds here is crazy.

bill wrote:

This is what I was thinking, it came down like a house of cards. This tells me it was poorly maintained or should have been replaced awhile ago, no way it was safe. But I hope they find everyone.

Finn wrote:


It was not designed to be able to handle a main support structure from failing.

That seems like an unsafe design to me.
Presumably, large cargo ships pass under this bridge often.
It doesn't seem that unlikely for one to bump into it.
I hope the new bridge that replaces it is more resilient.

It was built in the 70s so there would have been some protections against impact designed into it.

But back then the ships going through there weren't nearly as massive. Not sure if you would really be able to reasonably design a failsafe for something with that much mass behind it, and still have a navigable body of water

Well, they were working on it so it clearly needed repairs or something. They are investigating that now.

Also in the St Louis area we have had barges hit our bridges and this has not happened. It really makes you wonder what bridges are safe during an impact. It looks like in this case it was just a perfect combination for disaster, but with how it all fell apart so easily it had to have major issues.

sinnie wrote:

We have had the occasional impact on the twin bridges here, but I imagine if you have control of your vessel, that would typically only be a glancing blow as opposed to a full perpendicular impact

bill wrote:

Exactly, like oh I don't know, maybe a design that if it is indeed hit with enough force to collapse that that segment collapses and not the whole dang bridge.

I get that the Bridge is older and that ships are bigger... But could you not retrofit the base of these Bridgers with bigger barriers that absorb impacts? This bridge fell over way to easy... I wonder how it would have handled the next big storm if it had a complete and total structural failure like it did.

Apparently this bridge in Baltimore did not have any such protections in place.... That seems like a massive gaff. Had there been those 6 people may still be alive.

Yes, of course if the ship did not hit the bridge they would also be alive. But why would you not have these protections in the first place? Considering this is a major artery and has the potential to block off an important port?

These kind of things can be added later, I was reading and all bridges along the St. Lawrence River were retrofitted in 1983 with "rock" islands around the base of the bridges.