Well, that's one positive at least. Those drivers were very lucky
Baltimore Bridge
- Thread starter imtoooldforthis
- Start date
I think they only thing that could protect the bridge legs is a concrete island surrounding it.
Caporegime
That's crazy. Thoughts are with the families of all those who lost their lives. Going to take a long time to get a new bridge up there.
Soldato
Looks like the cargo ship had the electrics go out twice and come back, either switching to backup generators or engineers resetting circuit breakers.
Alas, on modern ships, losing electrical power means losing everything else such as rudder control and bow/stern thrusters. And once you’ve lost directional control, you’re at the mercy of your own momentum and the tides/currents.
Alas, on modern ships, losing electrical power means losing everything else such as rudder control and bow/stern thrusters. And once you’ve lost directional control, you’re at the mercy of your own momentum and the tides/currents.
Think this probably shows that watching the cents and forgetting the dollar in terms of infrastructure spending is just a cynical, malfeasant short-term ideology that ultimately at some point will always cost far, far more than any politically expedient savings and that's before we even account for people potentially dying because of it (if this was during rush hour...).
I sincerely, optimistically hope this causes some introspection (and not just in the US).
I sincerely, optimistically hope this causes some introspection (and not just in the US).
I don't see any information about barriers/deflectors online being installed between it's construction in 72-77 and today so I'm of the mind that if they existed then it could have been avoided, no?What?
I think he is saying we need to massively overspend on all infrastructure to protect against every conceivable event that could cause damage.What?
I wonder if HS2 has been built to survive magnitude 9 earthquake. Clearly too much penny pinching has been going on with that project.
Soldato
It looks like a malfunction of some type. The ship clearly tried to restart the engines. The massive amount of smoke out the stacks indicates that they’re were probably on full chat trying to slow it down or miss the bridge.
Things of that size do not turn or slow down quickly. Trains, container ships etc.
Things of that size do not turn or slow down quickly. Trains, container ships etc.
I doubt you could ever protect a bridge like that from such an impact - the forces involved are insane. You'd have to build artificial islands to put the foundations on, I doubt it would make practical sense - sometimes you have to accept some risk.
I do wonder what happened with the ship, as it did seem to experience a technical problem - will be interesting to see what comes of it.
Caporegime
I haven't seen anything that suggests that it would have been possible to protect the structure and, in fact, I've heard multiple experts saying how hard it would be to do that. It just ain't that easy to stop a hundred thousand tonnes of ship.
I'm intrigued as to the sort of barrier you envisage that would do anything of use to stop a container ship in its tracks
Soldato
Well you wouldn't - you'd have to deflect. But then how to you combat a ship that is too tall. As above you can't cover every angle. It would be better or more cost efficient to look at the cause of the issue on the ship and ensure all of them have a redundant <what ever broke>.
The hope would be that it would be slowed faster than a tug feasibly could though I suppose the issue is how long it would have to be to absorb all the energy and how that would work for passage in such a crowded area like that. Perhaps it wasn't avoidable regardless of mitigations which the investigation will ultimately answer/recommend for the next bridge.
Soldato
It would be piled dolphins and fenders upstream and downstream of the bridge and seperate from it. They would progressively collapse slowing the ship.
To me it looks like loss of power, loss of steerage way and then hitting the bridge due to the current in the river. The ship would have had a local pilot on board navigating in the river.
Why do you keep posting this crap that makes it out to be deliberate? The turn towards the pillar is where the lights start going out on the longer video. They've had electrical issues leading to a loss of control that the full astern engines (all the black smoke) couldn't stop. It's just awful timing.
Who the hell said it was 100% deliberate , it's just the first footage of where it came from and tracking..
Last edited:
The text on the Tweet: "...where it turned right into the pillar", as though it was on purpose. Although, on second reading, it could mean "right" as the direction and so I came across far too aggressivelyWho the hell said it was deliberate, it's just the first footage of where it came from and tracking..
