Francis Scott Key bridge brought down!

Awoken to sad news this morning and my thoughts are very much with the families of those involved.
The BBC is reporting (with live images from the scene) that a stretch of the Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore was brought down by a cargo ship which struck one of its pylons.
Apparently 20 workers were on the bridge there and some cars and a truck may also have descended into the water. Water temp about 10degrees - shock-inducingly cold - and fire and coastguard people are on scene.

(How does any bridge in 21st Century have a single point of failure? I watched a program only last night about a bridge collapse in the '80s and it was said that, as a consequence, all bridges were inspected/examined for regulatory compliance. That one was on the I-95 over the Mianus River.)

 

I think in the UK, we have bridges older than the USA itself.

I think that record is where the answer lies. Shockingly awful that that is the way things are.
If only it were an election issue, as it would become in the UK, there should be improvement.

 

That was a pretty big ship, I don't think much would have stopped it with that momentum. One would have thought that there would have been a tug at the harbor that may have helped steer ..

 

It was reported here that the two pilots were on the ship. I agree that it was a big ship but today aren't they supposed to be built such that if one support is taken out, the bridge will still stand? OK, it was built before that set of regs but, still, such an important bridge, I think it should've been upgraded to meet those regs.

FI; The pilots job is to navigate the ship through waters that the captain isn't familiar with.

 

It seems they lost the engine and you can't do much steering without an engine....and so the tug to rescue, but I guess it being 1:30 AM was bad for assistance, but good that it was light on traffic.

 

Maybe unrelated butve been 2other collapses this yr abt a month apart. I forgot to jot the order of em down. But china & argentina. If theres again a 4th... This info was algorithmicly relayd to me on fb. Then when i googled it had difficulties. All3 r vessel related.

 

Oh dear...You should really be more selective about what you think is worth mentioning.

 

Left wing Baltimore and the Biden cabal are now promising 890% federal funding to rebuild this ridge just in time for elections, literally the day after it fell. Funny how the residents of solidly red East Palestine only got a Biden photo op a full year and a half after the train derailment. Proof if there ever was such a thing that Biden only cares about this election and his hold on power, he could give a shit about America and the people.

 

Quite an odd outlook you have Coach.

If he weren't to get that bridge rebuilt asap, I am sure you and/or many others would be complaining about his sluggishness and the damage he'd be doing to the whole US economy, given that Baltimore is a port of fundamental importance to the US economy.

 

Perhaps the entrance to the port is not the best location. Particularly with modern ships relying on automation, rather than a rigger adjusting the sails.
The accident makes little sense to me. They were either grossly incompetent, or they had left the berth without sufficient generators running to support the bow thrusters.
We will never know the true story, since it will be filtered by the politically correct brigade. Then the conspiracy theories will start, that will be even further form the truth.

For what it is worth, I would suggest a new bridge further upstream, beyond the heavy docks, giving time to construct a tunnel at the estuary.

Perhaps the city needs a nutty professor. Hopefully one who would not build a theatre half way through the tunnel.

 

Does a bridge not need to be built where it's needed? lol

That sort of reminds me of Dave Allen, an Irish comedian.

Did many skits, one of which was a guy in his car, asking a pedestrian for directions.
The response from the pedestrian (with an Irish accent) was, if I were you I wouldn't start from here.

Funnier if actually watched.

 

I did add, that the bridge, safely away from the container ships and tankers was a first step. This would have put time on their side, to either construct a tunnel, or a safe bridge with concrete protected structure, either of which which would take in excess or 5 years.
From then on, the bridge would serve local traffic and become a backup for the main crossing during maintenance and in event of an emergency.

PS.
I loved the Irish skit. Verbal instructions given to visitors in west Cork, had to be heard to be believed.
Over there, (without pointing). Then along the road where the old church was demolished last year. Past the shrine, but I am not quite sure which way at the next junction.

 

That was not quite what happened. They lost electrical power for a short while, so they MAY have lost control of the rudder. However the generators did not shut down, they would have taken more than 10 minutes to restart and synchronise.

I suspect that the blackout was caused by breakers tripping while they were using the bow thruster.

I imagine that they were setting the prop to full astern. This would have involved allowing it to stop with the main engines set to idle, then engaging the transfer gear.
The clouds of black smoke seen in some videos, was the engines spooling up to full astern.

Unfortunately, everything was too little too late.

 

Not disagreeing Wilsjane but 10 minutes seems to me like an awfully long time for a ship so relatively new.
My friend has backup generators at his house since 1998, which kick in in less than 30 seconds.

 

It is nothing like as simple as a stand alone generator with a starter motor.
The engine starts on compressed air to one cylinder. This involves cranking the cylinder to 2ATDC by hand. Then after the engine alternator set is running, the output needs to be synchronised before it is engaged.
The processes can be seen in this video, where the sizes are similar to the accident ship. Most people are clueless of the sheer size and complexity of everything. The video also shows the rudder control.

 

PS.
When I am onboard a ship, guess where I spend all my time.

 

Yes they need to stop this laziness!!

FIx things before something happens!!

Quite sad

 

Last night, I put my brain in gear and watched a few of the videos. This is the result.

When I saw the first video, I developed a mental image of what was happening onboard and the more I read, the more I think that my mental image was correct.


Firstly, I think that the power loss was a red herring. Generators do not stall, but if they did, the time taken to restart by inching to the starting position, applying the air, starting and then synchronising the alternators would have taken 10 times longer than the blackout. My theory is that overloading (possibly by using the bow thruster) tripped some breakers. the first ones to drop out would be the domestic, hence the loss of lighting.


Secondly, smoke. They were trying to reverse the prop. To do this, the main engine wold have been reduced to idle. Only after prop rotation stopped, would the transfer box be reversed and the engine spooled up again. This was the smoke that we saw. Only the main engine would have produced this quantity of smoke.


Finally, the anchors. These would have dropped on both sides of the ship and dragged along the sea bed, digging in and restraining the forward motion. If the RHS dug in deepest or hit a rock, the front of the ship would have swung over in this direction.

Since the drag would have been far to much to compensate by the rudder, I strongly suspect that this was the principal cause of the accident that resulted.

PS.
Now they can cancel the investigation and transfer a few million into my bank account.
Needless to say, after locking up the nit-wit who dropped the anchors and left the ship uncontrollable. Even if he had stopped the ship, the winds and water currents would probably taken it into the bridge. Ships manoeuvre at the speed they do in waterways for a reason.

PPS.
The ship was travelling a 8 knots (9mph). Why they did not simply steer the ship under the bridge completely baffles me.

 

Asleep at the wheel?