Francis Scott key bridge

It looks like the boat loses power twice before it hits. it goes completely dark, then the lights come back on, and it goes completely dark again

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AP wrote:A major bridge in Baltimore collapsed after a container ship rammed into it early Tuesday, and several vehicles fell into the river. Rescuers were searching for at least seven people in the water.

Here’s what to know:

— Collapse’s cause: Agencies received emergency calls around 1:30 a.m. local time (0530 GMT) reporting that a ship leaving Baltimore had struck a column on the bridge.

— Bridge location: The bridge, part of I-695, once spanned the Patapsco River, a vital artery that along with the Port of Baltimore is a hub for shipping on the East Coast.

— Search ongoing: Two people have been pulled from the water following the collapse; one was in serious condition.

https://apnews.com/live/baltimore-key-bridge-collapse-latest-2024#0000018e-7a4e-dcbf-a7cf-7edefd9b0000

DWags wrote:It looks like the boat loses power twice before it hits. it goes completely dark, then the lights come back on, and it goes completely dark again

[tw]1772571365331157411?s=46&t=o_-92Ldle66XHQBlJVUMFQ[/tw]

so it's safe to say we can now see by the dawn's early light.

The immediate disaster is horrible.

Replacing the bridge will take years and traffic is going to be a huge mess during that time.

Jesus. I'm nervous on bridges on a good day - it made my stomach churn to watch that. Can't imagine how terrifying it would have been to be on the bridge, start to see it collapsing in front of you, and realize that you would 100% be going in the bay.

Bridge supports are not designed to be rammed by ships.

Modern bridge designs over shipping channels are more often suspension bridges with a wide space between the supports, aka the Mackinaw Bridge, or even having the bridge supports totally away from the water, aka the Gordie Howe.

Trapper Gus wrote:Bridge supports are not designed to be rammed by ships.

Modern bridge designs over shipping channels are more often suspension bridges with a wide space between the supports, aka the Mackinaw Bridge, or even having the bridge supports totally away from the water, aka the Gordie Howe.

Thanks.

Noted boat expert chiming in here- if I had to put money on it I don’t think the lights going off is the power failing as much as it is putting every single piece of available power into not hitting the bridge

You can trust me, I saw titanic and my friend has a pontoon boat we go on sometimes

Travis of the Cosmos wrote:Noted boat expert chiming in here- if I had to put money on it I don’t think the lights going off is the power failing as much as it is putting every single piece of available power into not hitting the bridge

You can trust me, I saw titanic and my friend has a pontoon boat we go on sometimes

Possible. Even with a loss of power, though, it seems like they would still have some control of the rudder, but maybe not.

I am wondering why there were not pilings in the river around the bridge supports to keep big ships from hitting them.

Trapper Gus wrote:Bridge supports are not designed to be rammed by ships.

Modern bridge designs over shipping channels are more often suspension bridges with a wide space between the supports, aka the Mackinaw Bridge, or even having the bridge supports totally away from the water, aka the Gordie Howe.

Every bridge I have designed I have done so with boat rammings in mind.

Turtleneck wrote:

Trapper Gus wrote:Bridge supports are not designed to be rammed by ships.

Modern bridge designs over shipping channels are more often suspension bridges with a wide space between the supports, aka the Mackinaw Bridge, or even having the bridge supports totally away from the water, aka the Gordie Howe.

Every bridge I have designed I have done so with boat rammings in mind.

I only design bridges over land so they can’t get hit by boats.

The ship was carrying 200,000,000 pounds of cargo. At 3 miles an hour if you’re drifting with no power or limited power, there is an a pylon or a bridge in the United States of America that would hold up to that weight even at that slow of speed.

He’s a real stupid question: so if you’re a company that has 1020 $30 million worth of cargo on that ship, are you making calls today saying,”em, we’re really sorry about the loss of the bridge and the seven people who are dead, but do you think we can get a barge over there and unload some cargo?”

I'm sure the people who own those assets and/or make those decisions are omitting everything before the "but."

DWags wrote:He’s a real stupid question: so if you’re a company that has 1020 $30 million worth of cargo on that ship, are you making calls today saying,”em, we’re really sorry about the loss of the bridge and the seven people who are dead, but do you think we can get a barge over there and unload some cargo?”

I think they would let the ship go back to the port. And then unload, and put it on a different ship? I would imagine there will be some pressure to clear the bridge debris and get the channel open.

CaptainSlow33 wrote:

Travis of the Cosmos wrote:Noted boat expert chiming in here- if I had to put money on it I don’t think the lights going off is the power failing as much as it is putting every single piece of available power into not hitting the bridge

You can trust me, I saw titanic and my friend has a pontoon boat we go on sometimes

Possible. Even with a loss of power, though, it seems like they would still have some control of the rudder, but maybe not.

Current is a mother fucker. I don't if she's going up or down current in this situation. But if down current and no power, forget it.

Edit: She was heading out to sea/down current

The vessel was carrying cargo for the major shipping company Maersk and was headed for Sri Lanka.

Trapper Gus wrote:I am wondering why there were not pilings in the river around the bridge supports to keep big ships from hitting them.

Thought the same thing. Again, can't tell from the video if there are or not. But it they are, they were not designed well enough. Update your DFMEA.

Motown Spartan wrote:

Turtleneck wrote:

Every bridge I have designed I have done so with boat rammings in mind.

I only design bridges over land so they can’t get hit by boats.

What about dudes towing their boat in a snow storm. You ever think of that, huh?

Nordic wrote:

Trapper Gus wrote:I am wondering why there were not pilings in the river around the bridge supports to keep big ships from hitting them.

Thought the same thing. Again, can't tell from the video if there are or not. But it they are, they were not designed well enough. Update your DFMEA.

What is this, like engineering pillow talk?

Floyd Robertson wrote:

Nordic wrote:

Thought the same thing. Again, can't tell from the video if there are or not. But it they are, they were not designed well enough. Update your DFMEA.

What is this, like engineering pillow talk?

Horny engineer posting

Please do not horny post about bridges or boats.

You don’t call up Bridges R Us and get custom structural steel delivered in 6 weeks.

Bridges are things you take for granted until an accident or natural event takes them out.

Motown Spartan wrote:

Turtleneck wrote:

Every bridge I have designed I have done so with boat rammings in mind.

I only design bridges over land so they can’t get hit by boats.

Possibly you've never driven under the Pennsylvania Ave bridge in Lansing. Thing claims multiple trucks a year.

https://www.wlns.com/news/local-news/truck-gets-stuck-under-lansing-bridge/

Just stick a bunch of flat boats end to end and let cars cross that way. It’s not rocket surgery.

Motown Spartan wrote:

Turtleneck wrote:

Every bridge I have designed I have done so with boat rammings in mind.

I only design bridges over land so they can’t get hit by boats.

And all your work will be headed for the scrapyard once sea levels rise. That’s why everything I design everywhere is built to withstand getting rammed by a ship.

Just give em the gordie how bridge blue prints.

kingstonlake wrote:Just give em the gordie how bridge blue prints.

Not until the Gordie is complete. We don’t want anyone leaving early.

And we have now reached the point in this news cycle where all the politicians congratulate each other for doing their jobs at press conferences. Never let a good tragedy go to waste.

DWags wrote:The ship was carrying 200,000,000 pounds of cargo. At 3 miles an hour if you’re drifting with no power or limited power, there is an a pylon or a bridge in the United States of America that would hold up to that weight even at that slow of speed.

A big air bag?

tGreenWay wrote:Just stick a bunch of flat boats end to end and let cars cross that way. It’s not rocket surgery.

One of the freeways outside of Seattle, going across Lake Washington, uses a floating bridge.

Travis of the Cosmos wrote:Please do not horny post about bridges or boats.

Speaking of horny engineering posting...



Gotta be really impressed with those huge erections...

Was wondering what the flashing yellow lights were on the bridge in the vid.  Eight DOT workers were filling potholes when it went down.  Lucky the ship's mayday gave enough time to stop other traffic from getting on the bridge.

Trapper Gus wrote:I am wondering why there were not pilings in the river around the bridge supports to keep big ships from hitting them.

Probably wasn't "code" when the bridge was built.  They added them in Tampa, when they rebuilt that bridge.

Force = mass x acceleration

So, (957 ft long by 157 ft wide carrying 200,000,000 lbs) x 8 mph =
????

I know my dumbass didn’t even set the equation up, right. But those are the dimensions of the ship, and that is how much weight it was carrying, and that is how fast it was going.

There are a lot of smart motherfuckers on this board How much force did it hit that bridge??

I just got the tail end of a CNN report or some guy was talking about cement and steel pylons would’ve had to have been put quite a distance away from the bridge itself in order to stop the boat from hitting them he was a structural engineer and I’m sorry I didn’t get his whole story

The anchors are down in pics of the aftermath. Wonder if they dropped and dragged them when they first realized there was trouble, or if that was done later to keep the ship from moving?

NigelUno wrote:

Trapper Gus wrote:I am wondering why there were not pilings in the river around the bridge supports to keep big ships from hitting them.

Probably wasn't "code" when the bridge was built.  They added them in Tampa, when they rebuilt that bridge.

So the "good news" is that there are two bridges and only one is down. Redundancy is a wonderful leveler on a DFMEA.

Trapper Gus wrote:

NigelUno wrote:

Probably wasn't "code" when the bridge was built.  They added them in Tampa, when they rebuilt that bridge.

So the "good news" is that there are two bridges and only one is down.  Redundancy is a wonderful leveler on a DFMEA.

Not sure if that's an engineering joke.  Both pics are from Tampa.  

DWags wrote:Force = mass x acceleration

So, (957 ft long by 157 ft wide carrying 200,000,000 lbs) x 8 mph =
????

I know my dumbass didn’t even set the equation up, right. But those are the dimensions of the ship, and that is how much weight it was carrying, and that is how fast it was going.  

There are a lot of smart motherfuckers on this board   How much force did it hit that bridge??  

I just got the tail end of a CNN report or some guy was talking about cement and steel pylons would’ve had to have been put quite a distance away from the bridge itself in order to stop the boat from hitting them   he was a structural engineer and I’m sorry I didn’t get his whole story  

DWags wrote:Force = mass x acceleration

So, (957 ft long by 157 ft wide carrying 200,000,000 lbs) x 8 mph =
????

I know my dumbass didn’t even set the equation up, right. But those are the dimensions of the ship, and that is how much weight it was carrying, and that is how fast it was going.  

There are a lot of smart motherfuckers on this board   How much force did it hit that bridge??  

I just got the tail end of a CNN report or some guy was talking about cement and steel pylons would’ve had to have been put quite a distance away from the bridge itself in order to stop the boat from hitting them   he was a structural engineer and I’m sorry I didn’t get his whole story  

GD English units.

8 mph --> 12.874752km/hr --> 3.57632 m/s (meters per second)

200,000,000 lbs ---> 90,718,474 kg

F = ma but how quickly did it stop, the "a" in the equation? ... lets just say it took about 5 seconds to stop and it pushed the support 10 meters

F = (90,718,474 kg) * (10/5)  = 45,359,237 Newtons

Or converting back to pounds of force ---> 10,197,162.13 lbs-force ... about 10.2 million lbs of force

All that can be said is this numbers is wrong, too many assumptions including the most stupid one that the ship would stop all at once.  

There was a torque moment at the point of contact and the back of the ship would have rotated to be further across the river so not all the weight would have impacted the bridge in such a short time.

edit --> having watched the video this calculation is completely wrong, ship hit the support a glancing blow which didn't visibly slow the ship or change its direction.

NigelUno wrote:

Trapper Gus wrote:

So the "good news" is that there are two bridges and only one is down. Redundancy is a wonderful leveler on a DFMEA.

Not sure if that's an engineering joke. Both pics are from Tampa. And they knocked down the other side when they rebuilt it.

No just me being stupid, thought the one was a picture from Baltimore.