Container Ship hits Key Bridge in Baltimore Harbor

[lrrifleman]

From what I have read, the ship allegedly lost propulsion. Is that common? I also read that the 2 pilots were from India, I always thought that the idea of putting a pilot on a vessel was to put a local (familiar with the waters) on ships entering and exiting inlandwaterways!

Rather coincidental that the collision and collapse occurred on the 47th anniversary of the bridge's opening!

 

[dockmurgw]

Unimaginable tragedy. I have a feeling that in the future, any port that has a similar bridge strike risk will augment pilots with tugs.

 

[WR Moore]

I expect there might be a job opening for a Port of Baltimore pilot. In harbor, the harbor pilot controls the ship. Pilots are qualified and supplied by the port.

If you thought the supply chain issues were clearing up, they just became exponentially worse as long as Port of Baltimore is closed by the obstruction. Reuters reports 40 vessels trapped in port, New York and Virginia ports may be able to handle at least some of the inbound traffic. How much is open to question.

Hate to be a member of Lloyds today.

 

[dockmurgw]

Evidently this is not the first time for this ship.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/worl...S&cvid=1234fcdb31e948db9579240365b3a0bd&ei=17

 

[oldbrownhat]

From what I have read, the ship allegedly lost propulsion. Is that common? I also read that the 2 pilots were from India, I always thought that the idea of putting a pilot on a vessel was to put a local (familiar with the waters) on ships entering and exiting inlandwaterways! ..

According to the WaPo coverage:

Maryland law requires cargo ships traveling the Chesapeake Bay to be piloted by a state-regulated local expert. “Each ship engaged in foreign trade coming to Maryland ports is required to take on a local ship handling specialist, known as the Pilot, to navigate the vessel safely into port,” according to the Association of Maryland Pilots. Synergy Marine Group, the ship’s owner and manager, said the vessel was “under pilotage with two pilots onboard” when the crash happened.​

But it's just happened and lots of contradicting info will be floating around for some time.

 

[oldbrownhat]

I am certainly no bridge engineer, but to this guy's eyes it seems to me that the bridge was inadequately engineered and built. For a bridge to be built so shoddy in a major trafficked passage, it was way to flimsy in my eyes. Lots of bridges on major passages are reinforced with thick concrete. For a bridge to totally collapse in less than 10 seconds it tells me someone approved an ill designed structure. Obviously I am just a non expert observer, but 10 seconds????? Really? Remember.... accidents do and will happen!

From one of the WaPo articles:

...[British bridge designer] Firth noted that the bridge, which was built in 1977, was erected at a time when ships were not as big as they are now and the flow of traffic was not as busy. These days, structures are designed with better protective measures in place, he said, though he noted that even a brand new bridge would have “come down in the same way” if it were hit by such a large vessel traveling at speed.

...He said the large container ship would not have had to be traveling “very fast” to have had such an impact, one that the bridge was simply not engineered to withstand...​

 

[Nevada Ed]

It will be interresting to see if the control of that ship was on;
manual or computer control?

I rember a bridge in the Oakland, Calif area near the C&H sugar factory, that got hit by a cargo ship, many years ago.

Most spans are wide enough for two ships to fit, so there had to be a major error made, some where.

There go the company stocks.

 

[arjay]

I suspect the ships owners will be on the hook for lax maintenance

 

[Mercury]

I am certainly no bridge engineer, but to this guy's eyes it seems to me that the bridge was inadequately engineered and built. For a bridge to be built so shoddy in a major trafficked passage, it was way to flimsy in my eyes. Lots of bridges on major passages are reinforced with thick concrete. For a bridge to totally collapse in less than 10 seconds it tells me someone approved an ill designed structure. Obviously I am just a non expert observer, but 10 seconds????? Really? Remember.... accidents do and will happen!

I thought the same thing. As already noted, the ship is huge and had a lot of momentum. But it seems to me that only the two steel sections held up by the uprights (hit by the ship) should have fallen.

Maybe additional information will show that the rest of the steel structure was pulled by the impact and that's why it also collapsed; although it doesn't appear that way from the one video.

ETA: I cringe thinking about what the victims might have gone through.

 

[DWalt]

The cause now seems obvious. Ship's engines stopped, so no steerageway. So the ship's direction could not be controlled or it's speed slowed, and it coasted into the bridge support. The big question is how and why did the engines fail? And whose fault was it?

 

[lrrifleman]

I have my take on this situation, but I don't want this thread shut down.

Apparently the victims that are the focus of the search and rescue are members of the work detail. I haven't seen an estimate of how many vehicles plunged into the river. Sadly, I fear that the casualty estimates will skyrocket.

 

[LVSteve]

A ship without propulsion just becomes a floating brick going wherever the water sends it. The lights flickering in the videos suggest a major electrical failure/attempt to get the power back on.

As for the strength of the bridge, what was the collision spec 46 years ago? Did it account for the size of the ships we have today? A ballistic calculator would come up with some interesting energy numbers for a 95,000 ton object moving at 5-10 knots. I'd guess that's a lot of side load for any bridge, given that bridges are built to resist vertical stresses.

 

[oldbrownhat]

As for the strength of the bridge, what was the collision spec 46 years ago? Did it account for the size of the ships we have today? A ballistic calculator would come up with some interesting energy numbers for a 95,000 ton object moving at 5-10 knots. I'd guess that's a lot of side load for any bridge, given that bridges are built to resist vertical stresses.

This is what the British bridge designer was saying in the excerpt from the WaPo I posted in #26 above. Scary.

 

[taz666]

chief38 ... looking at the video it seemed to me that the bridge pylon took a lateral hit. That basically pulled the bridge apart at each section.

 

[ladder13]

Check for open containers.

 

[LVSteve]

From one of the WaPo articles:

...[British bridge designer] Firth noted that the bridge, which was built in 1977, was erected at a time when ships were not as big as they are now and the flow of traffic was not as busy. These days, structures are designed with better protective measures in place, he said, though he noted that even a brand new bridge would have “come down in the same way” if it were hit by such a large vessel traveling at speed.

...He said the large container ship would NOT have had to be traveling “very fast” to have had such an impact, one that the bridge was simply not engineered to withstand...​

Your original quote of the article was missing a "not" for some reason.

 

[Rustyt1953]

 

[oldbrownhat]

Your original quote of the article was missing a "not" for some reason.

Weird! But you are correct. The original DID say "not". I'll correct it now.

 

[LVSteve]

Weird! But you are correct. The original DID say "not". I'll correct it now.

I suspect it wasn't there when you did your cut and paste, removed by a sub-editor at WaPo who thought the "not" was wrong. It was put back later when it was pointed out that he/she has no clue about physics.

 

[Fishinfool]

When you start figuring mass & speed, there is a lot of energy there. The news was reporting "power failures", and that the crew had time to send an SOS, alerting authorities with enough time to close the entrances to the bridge to further traffic.

Once up to speed, large, heavy ships like that take miles to come to a stop. Even longer when there is no reverse thrust available.

I remember years ago watching a video of a large ship coming up to a heavy commercial ships dock at about 5 mph, on course for the end of the dock (Calif. ?). There were maybe a dozen people standing there, watching. When the ship hit the dock face on, it just rolled it up like an accordian. It looked like it was moving in slow motion, as the people ran in front of the bow as the dock disintegrated behind them. A great example of momentum.

Larry