Not a chance! Apparently they did try dropping an anchor, but but it was (far) too little, too late.

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"I drank WHAT?" (Socrates)

It's somehow reassuring to see that Facebook isn't the only place where graduates of the Wikipedia School of Bridge Design and the Google Maritime Academy figured everything out before the NTSB even arrived on the scene...

Sorry for the sarcasm (not), but everybody in this area is just overwhelmed by this right now. That bridge is down in the main shipping channel of the Baltimore Harbor; nothing can get in or out of the port until the channel is cleared, and that is likely to take weeks. Baltimore Harbor has about 40 miles of shoreline, with businesses ranging from Domino Sugar to chemical companies to the busiest vehicle import/export terminal in the country...and all of them are out of business until the bridge debris is removed and the channel is cleared.

Six workers were on the bridge doing road maintenance when it collapsed. Two of them were found by divers today, in a pickup truck at a depth of 25 feet. Because of the extreme danger to divers, the USCG announced tonight that recovery of the remaining victims' bodies will happen during salvage operations, when that process begins.

To get north or south of Baltimore, vehicles can go through the city; or through one of two tunnels; or around the western side of the city on I-695 (the Baltimore Beltway); or around the east side on I-695, of which the Key Bridge is part. Hazardous Materials are prohibited from using either tunnel, so with the bridge out, those trucks, and many of the other 30,000 vehicles that use the Key Bridge daily, will detour around the city to the west...which will make a bad daily traffic situation even worse. My own forty-minute commute has been an hour each way since the collapse.

According to people with expertise in this sort of thing, getting this bridge rebuilt is going to take at least several years, and possibly as long as a decade. And there will be arguments and fights over everything from hiring the "right" contractors to changing the name.

There were bright spots in this tragedy. The Maryland Transportation Authority Police officers who closed the approaches to the bridge as soon as they learned a ship was headed toward it undoubtedly saved many lives. And my brothers from the Baltimore City Fire Department performed brilliantly as they arrived on the scene, sized up a truly hellish sight, and gathered the necessary resources to start to mitigate it. In the hours since the collapse, other local, state, and federal government agencies have proven to be invaluable in coordinating the response to this incident.

I've gifted the latest Post article on this situation to this page, so you can read it.

https://wapo.st/3TElD9M

https://wapo.st/3TElD9M

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Where Law Ends, Tyranny Begins

Thank you!
Just a thought about internet comments. The best way to learn is to declare something and allow for subsequent contradiction or. In class you do that, and the professor corrects you not thinking anything disparaging about you since you have a relationship, and your body language will convey teachableness.
I have developed the habit of adding the words, "Please correct me." to such forum declarations. It seems to help.
Please everyone who is able, you should contribute to rather than complain about Wiki entries. Fix them!

Kind regards and again thanks!
BrianD

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696-6906-457-38-3913-CS40-411

Major wreck and it is amazing that more people didn't die

Lots of variables on how well and how fast an anchor will hook up and stop you The composition of the bottom, how much slope it has and how your anchor will drag on it. How much scope you have when it does hook up.

While they do work for an emergency brake, most anchor gear isn't set up to take the kind of forces that occur when dropped and any speed.

The same forces that struck that bridge would have ended up on that anchor gear if it had hooked up solid. I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere near any of it. Because unless the hook drug long enough to slow you way down before it came taunt something was gonna give in a dramatic fashion. I saw an anchor winch get its shaft busted because the deck hand didn't use the brake instead of the drive and that happened just idling back to set the hook. The bang was Impressive. It was a major pain to recover the anchor gear.

In 2013 a bridge on I5 where I used to live north of Seattle had a support struck by a over height semi and it collapsed into a fair sized river. Luckily it was not rush hour. That one only took a hit from a semi truck to bring down.

The design of river bridges is a balance between purpose, cost, aesthetics, and what the local conditions allow. There are many bridges built like this one where the failure of one span will likely result in a total collapse. It's easy in hindsight to say "they needed a more solid bridge", but in a tidal river I suspect the "ground" conditions under the river bed would preclude such construction. You can't build huge, weighty bridge supports if there is insufficient support underneath.

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Release the Kraken

Like everything else, some only think their sources are real. The facts will come out eventually. Maybe.

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Sure you did

There is also expansion and contraction that has to be factored in. Each failure was most likely at these points along the span.

The Dali was carrying 4700 containers. At 8-10 knots that's a lot of energy transfer.

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

There was NO COLLISION. This was an Allision-big difference as I found out years ago when fighting insurance coverage or more importantly lack thereof. A maritime policy covering collision ain't gonna cover allision.

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Forum consigliere

What is that in Joules???

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Forum consigliere

Ah. Allision. I knew I had come across that scenario somewhere earlier: Navy Ship vs. Lighthouse - YouTube

A foreign flagged ship, leased to a third party, with the ship's crew from India. Kind of begs the question. "What maintenance?"

1440 Daily Digest News Link:

Early analysis suggests the 100,000-ton freighter lost power—possibly due to clogged engine filters from tainted fuel—and drifted at roughly 9 miles per hour into the bridge's support column (watch expert analysis). The latest inspection of the ship in September identified no deficiencies, though a June check in Chile flagged issues with its propulsive machinery. In 2016, the vessel was repaired after hitting a wall in a Belgium port.

The timeline for reconstruction is unclear, and Maryland lawmakers announced legislation to provide income support to the port's 15,000 workers.

Officials said police had 90 seconds to clear (w/video) the bridge of traffic after receiving a mayday signal from the ship.

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S&WHF 366

The link below will take you to the recording of the radio traffic for Baltimore City Fire Department units as they responded to the Key Bridge collapse. It’s an interesting glimpse into what was going on when this first happened.

This was initially reported and dispatched at 0140 hours as a water rescue, with people in the water at the bridge; there was no report that the bridge itself had fallen. Three minutes later, the dispatcher informs responding units that there may be up to 13 victims in the water.

The Key Bridge is — or was — located at the extreme southern edge of the City of Baltimore. The western end is in the City, the eastern end is in Baltimore County, and it’s just north of Anne Arundel County. Response times are long.

Engine 57 arrived near the scene at 0150, and could not get close to the bridge due to jammed traffic. It was they who reported being told the bridge had collapsed. SOC5 (Special Operations Command) arrived at Fort Armstead Park, next to the bridge, at 0152, and was the first unit to confirm that the bridge was down.

For those who listen to this…Car 1 is the Chief of the BCFD, James Wallace. Foxtrot is the Baltimore Police helicopter, which was out of service. MSP refers to the Maryland State Police helicopter based in nearby Baltimore County.

The quick thinking and action of those first units on the scene was remarkable. Rescue 1 was responding from downtown; when they arrived at the park, the members had donned their wetsuits, but did not yet have their breathing apparatus, only snorkels. Nonetheless, they got a police boat to take them out into the harbor, where, in the dark, they entered the water, dove, and searched for victims among the twisted steel, submerged vehicles, and hazardous materials that had been dumped from the ship into the water.

3/26/24 - Baltimore City Fire - Francis Scott Key Bridge Collapse - Radio Traffic - First 90 Minutes - YouTube

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Where Law Ends, Tyranny Begins

About the same as it is in Houma.

Note that these are long tons (shipping), 2240 pounds.

A New York Times reporter rode on a USCG vessel out to the collapse site...his account of what he saw is linked below, gifted to the Forum so you can read it.

A Close-Up View of the Baltimore Bridge Collapse A Close-Up View of the Baltimore Bridge Collapse - The New York Times

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Where Law Ends, Tyranny Begins

Thanks BeemerG.

The US Army Corps of Engineers has released their plan to clear the Baltimore Harbor of the Key Bridge debris...

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers leading effort to clear Fort McHenry Channel following Key Bridge collapse

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Where Law Ends, Tyranny Begins

Bloody well done. Class acts, both.

Orioles, Ravens make $10M donation after bridge collapse - ESPN

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Interesting article here from the Washington Post, with great graphics, on how the US Army Corps of Engineers plans to remove the collapsed Key Bridge, and reopen Baltimore’s harbor. These folks are true professionals, experts at what they do…

I’ve gifted this article to the Forum so you can read it…

https://wapo.st/43LFBnI

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Where Law Ends, Tyranny Begins

Something like this can happen anywhere in the country. We need to help each other. Get this cleaned up and fixed and figure out how to pay for it later. As long as this is not fixed areas far from this bridge will be affected economically. Those closer to it will be affected even more. Somewhere along the line the insurance will probably go back to Lord's of London and their many re-insurers. If the ship's insurance is capped at around 45 million that might pay the damages to those killed in this incident. As mentioned above, lawsuits will be flying for decades.

Lloyd's is but one of the insurers.

From CNN:

"Around 80 different reinsurers provide around $3 billion in coverage to the Dali’s insurers, according to Moody’s analyst Brendan Holmes. Since the losses will be spread across so many insurers, it’s unlikely to bankrupt any of the companies or cause a major bump in insurance prices, he said.

Miklus told CNN that these P&I insurance clubs collectively pool losses, but they also buy “an extensive reinsurance program.”

“So, when we start talking about losses of a billion or more, this is being spread through the whole global reinsurance market,” Miklus added."

From the linked article:

"The Dali had liability insurance through Britannia, part of the International Group of P&I Clubs. Together, the group has upwards of $3 billion of reinsurance cover, sources said. AXA XL is said to lead the first layer of cover for IGP&I’s reinsurance program, with other global reinsurers also in the frame."

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

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

That's a very good read. There's also a good article on the BBC website:

Baltimore bridge salvage: 'This is a game of Jenga you don't want to lose'

"US Army Colonel Estee Pinchasin looks out at the thousands of tonnes of twisted, broken steel and concrete jutting out from the dark waters of Maryland's Patapsco river, and delivers her assessment: an "unforgiving mangled mess"...


Sonar images taken by the US Navy show vast quantities of debris sitting underwater (highlighted in yellow)

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"I drank WHAT?" (Socrates)

Excellent points, Charlie…thank you.

I’ve been astonished at the positions some folks have taken on the subject of rebuilding the Key Bridge…acting as if this is a purely local issue, something that only Baltimore and Maryland need to deal with and pay for.

The Francis Scott Key Bridge is part of the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, which most of us call simply the Interstate Highway System. The Key Bridge is not a local road; it’s part of I-695, the Baltimore Beltway, which is the Interstate Highway that encircles the City of Baltimore.

The Key Bridge carries more than 30,000 vehicles per day, much of it truck traffic from out of state carrying hazardous materials. Hazmat carriers cannot use the two tunnels (also part of the Interstate Highway System) that run under the Baltimore Harbor, so without the Bridge, those trucks are limited to using the western side of the Beltway to go around Baltimore.

The US Government helped to pay for the original construction of the Key Bridge, and there is a legitimate federal interest in rebuilding it. Any argument to the contrary is specious in the extreme.

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Where Law Ends, Tyranny Begins

Orioles, Ravens make $10M donation after bridge collapse - ESPN

Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't $10M = $10,000?? I see this all the time and wonder if lazy or mis-informed reporters don't know the difference between $M and $MM?

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Gary
SWCA 2515

I think that 10K is ten thousand.

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John

Yup. $10M = $10 million. High finance can be confusing.

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"I drank WHAT?" (Socrates)

So nobody really knows? Accounting standards are below:

Definition of M - The Roman numeral M is used to indicate one thousand.
The letter k is also used represent one thousand. For example, an annual salary of $60,000 might appear as $60k which is the same amount as $60M.

Definition of MM - The Roman numerals MM are used to indicate one million. Example of MM - Sales of $3,000,000 might be written as $3MM.

So technically the Orioles and Ravens each donated $10,000.

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Gary
SWCA 2515

Hot off the press:

Baltimore Ravens, Orioles combine to donate $10 million to Key Bridge Emergency Fund - CBSSports.com

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Music/Sports/Beer fan

Absolutely correct that it is a national issue especially considering the commerce that goes under that bridge.
We must get that port/waterway open NOW! It would be nice to also get traffic across the new bridge too.

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696-6906-457-38-3913-CS40-411

Maybe in Mexico, but not here.

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Release the Kraken

Looks like that bridge will be renamed according to some.

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Sure you did

Considering what I have seen in the last few years you probably have a good working crystal ball.

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14 S&W Revs none with locks!

If you are dealing in SI (aka “Metric Stuff”) M is Mega- which is millions or 10^6.

In finance, Imperial, and some older systems, M is the Roman numeral 1,000.

So, you do need to have context when you see it used.

Everyone being very tight-lipped about it, though. May be a standard procedure in a case of this magnitude.

Gift WaPo article here.

The FBI has opened a criminal investigation focusing on the massive container ship that brought down the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore last month — a probe that will look at least in part at whether the crew left the port knowing the vessel had serious systems problems, according to two U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

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"I drank WHAT?" (Socrates)

‘We’re a dead ship’: Hundreds of cargo ships lost propulsion in U.S. waters in recent years

Less than two weeks after Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge was destroyed by an out-of-control cargo ship, another huge container ship passed beneath a busy bridge connecting New York and New Jersey and then suddenly decelerated in a narrow artery of one of the nation’s largest ports.

“We’re a dead ship,” said a voice over the maritime radio a short time later, invoking an industry term that often refers to a ship that is unable to move on its own.

Three tug boats helped shepherd the APL Qingdao — a vessel more than 1,100 feet long and flying under the flag of Malta — from where it lost propulsion near the Bayonne Bridge to a safe location, authorities said. The ship dropped anchor just upstream from the even busier Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, which carries about 200,000 vehicles per day.

The April 5 incident is one of hundreds in which massive cargo ships lost propulsion, many near bridges and ports, according to a Washington Post analysis of Coast Guard records...

...Around Baltimore alone, ships lost propulsion nearly two dozen times in the three years before the tragedy last month, the Post review found — including a November 2021 incident in which a 981-foot container ship lost propulsion for 15 minutes soon after it passed under the Key Bridge...

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"I drank WHAT?" (Socrates)

Can't say I'm surprised. Merchant ships are built to a price, so they are not fitted out for graceful degradation. Many have a single large diesel as the prime mover. If that chokes, chaos follows.

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Release the Kraken