Key Baltimore bridge collapses after collision

Hard to fathom how any support structure could withstand the forces involved with a strike from that type of mass, especially since it looks like the structure uses composite members to form each structure

 

Shades of the Skyway. So awful.

 

100,000 tons at speed usually wins.

 

Yep, one of those cable news channels even mentioned that this morning. I had to check out the news for this... awful and tragic indeed.

 

While I agree that long spanning bridges should have them (protective bumpers or pilons) one must recall bridges in the USA are a deteriorating infrastructure nightmare. What you are posting has billion dollar implications. It's not lack of engineering attention, it's lack of political will and money.

 

Amazing picture. And yes, they keep making these cargo ships bigger and heavier and expect bridge designs/pilons from 55+ years ago to hold up to direct hits because "they were made to sustain hits" back then.

 

Because back then when the Skyway was hit no one thought it would be an issue. All these protections sadly go in after the fact. I bet going forward these will be required on all new bridges but back in the late 70's when the Baltimore bridge was built, no such worries.

 

I was actually in Tampa at the time by coincidence. An interesting and sad case sudy. "A perfect storm" and thats not a figure of speech.
The pilot, during his approach to the bridge was hit by a violent squall at the worst possible time causing a loss of navigation, compoounded of course by the
lack of protective bumpers or pilons.

Almost like that DFW plane accident when the American Airline crash occured because of freakish weather conditions.

 

You are correct. I didn't mean to imply every bridge should be structurally reengineered, but that they should do something to protect the pilons like the bumpers the Skyway bridge has had since it opened new in 1987.

 

While I don't study bridge plans and spec's in my construction duties I suspect that the standards were changed after that accident.

 

On a bizarre personal note I have experienced recurring dreams of driving off impossibly tall bridge spans that had "fallen".
PTSD from the Skyway perhaps? I don't know, but when it happens I wake up ina cold sweat. Not kidding about that.

 

Speechless.

 

No ability to steer do to loss of power?

Not saying that is what happened. But sure looks likely.

 

Seems like a relatively simple retro fit though and something that would have been considered for such a busy shipping port.

 

I'm guilty of having blind faith on such massive and long standing structures. Just seems unfathomable to me. Blissfully ignorant i guess.

 

Very simple, however two things occur that prevent it from happening. 1. Cost, particularly when they don't have it budgeted. Now they have to replace a bridge which is vastly more expensive than some protective concrete bumpers. 2. Lax attitude. "well since it hasn't happened since 1978 it probably will never happen." So people in charge don't think about it. Bet they start.
The other thing is most of these large important bridges are part of the Fed interstate system so it falls on the federal government to take care of with some cooperation from state D.O.T. agencies.

 

Can't imagine the toll if this had happened during rush hour a few hours later.

 

If there is human error/ bad visibility here, something tells me that's less likely in daylight than in the middle of the night

 

True, but it looked like a power failure. Those port pilots that steer the ship have done it hundreds of times. We'll see.
I also can't wait for the conspiracy theorists to come up with something.

 

It’s what happens when you know too much. I know how you feel.