Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse

I only had to go to Sparrow Point ONE time during my career with Uncle, but I remember the bridge.
Interestingly enough they were going to put in a tunnel originally in the 70's, but decided on the bridge instead because it would be faster, cheaper and they could run more traffic on more lanes. (-oops!)
The bridge took something like 5 years to build although I think they could replace it more quickly.

If I were in charge of that I would "buy once, cry once." and put in an 8-10 lane tunnel with adaptive lanes for peak traffic.

The bridge being out is NOT going to help with local traffic much, and it will probably reduce the port's container throughput.

 

Been through a lot of spans like that in my time. Always amazed there weren't more accidents. Now reports there was a power outage. Pictures showed lights flickering on ship. Went dark. Don't know if these type of ships have backup manual steering or if transits call for it to be staffed (boy that sound funny compared to manned).

 

The ship losing power I suppose will fall on lackadaisical maintenance. Had to experience multiple deaths at Disney & it's typically not the electricians &/or wrench twisters, but the administrators who put the kibosh to maintenance when it's needed - &/or maintenance frequency. All in the name of saving money. Space shuttle Challenger comes to mind
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Ships losing propulsion isn't necessarily people gundecking their maintenance.
It could have been merely OE down in the engine room....
Regardless, this sort of thing happens often enough in constrained waters that the Master should be fired and maybe charged for not having an "Oscar-Sierra" plan for maneuvering the boat when the lights go out - and the Pilot bears some responsibility for this as well!!
PROBABLY a bunch of people in the Port Authority too because It also possible (even likely!) that the ship in question DID have aux steering after the loss of propulsion and the currents just did what currents do, in which case SOMEBODY needs to answer some VERY pointed questions like:
"Why the [expletive deleted] are you not requiring TUGS to escort ships to and from the sea buoy for vessels larger than "XXXXX tonnes???"

Remember.....
We're now in the "people making stuff up" portion of the post-disaster phase.
My two favorites so far are are that (1) the ship was barrelling towards the bridge at great speed, and (b) The SECTRANS informed the Governor about the incident - which if true means that the governor needs to can some people running his ports who suck at crisis and communications management - although people on the ship DID manage to wake up somebody in MDOT and close off the Key bridge in the X number of minutes between the time that the ship started doing the "I can't steer or stop!!!!" dance and the time the bridge was struck.
The 'three minute rule' will inform the casual observer, and maybe even some journos how long the ship had to respond with a 12kt(*) SOA, and the ship's log will indicate to the moment when they lost the load down in the engine room.
Oh, and since it appears that we no longer require people to finish high school (or have much in the way of a work ethic!) in order to be a journalist, it's UAV for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle and "AUV" for autonomous underwater vehicle.

I'll give more thoughts about Governor West's response when they finish dragging people out of the water.
AND after listening to at least one of his pressers I DO HAVE thoughts!!!

I WAS something of a fan of his. (Think Obama with a war record)
HOWEVER (comma!!!) he appears to have forgotten his classes at The Point covering the Law Of Armed Conflict - but again.....time for that later.

(*) Knotts probably for brackish water and on the Big Salt, MPH inland.

 

wow, we just came through there on friday. we were on 95, not the bridge, but i've seen signs for it and possibly can see it from 95, i'm not sure. what a disaster!

 

Having worked on massive backup generators, they have been a Marvel even for the past ½ century. Last one I worked on decades ago measured electrically driven flywheel rpm that ran continually while the generator was dormant. As soon as flywheel power starts to lose electrically driven RPM the board picks that up as power failure, starts the diesel generator, & you never even have lights dimming, much less loss of power. They seem foolproof & idiot proof.
Nobody said you can't be a fool or an idiot to work aboard a ship though. Our head of quality was a 2nd in command on a sub. Surely that much power over critical people must be a can-do person. Yet - that guy really seemed to be short a few cans of a 6 pack.
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You've always been the one to "seen signs for it" when it comes to knowing about major disasters before they happen. We don't consider you our PriusChat Prophet for nothing!

 

It was a local pilot driving the ship, as is required and there's very little you can do when a ship that big loses power to the rudder and engines.

As for your tug boat demand, maybe pay attention to how lobbyists in Washington DC ensured that not a single new restrictions was put on cost-cutting profiteers to prevent another East Palestine disaster: One Year After East Palestine, Rail Safety Bill Is Languishing in Congress As in big money is protected free speech in our upside down society that eliminates safety if the CEO's can boost their salary with more profit/free speech.

 

If you want to see how bad Twitter is with disinformation these days, go look at the top posts on the bridge disaster. It's a horrific cesspool of dishonesty that's way worse than you could ever imagine.

 

Regular news is unreliable enough. Twitter is hardly the place to consider a newsfeed
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Legally, the Master was in command of the vessel, and as far as "very little you can do"....that's balloon juice as well.
The skipper is the skipper, and he can tell the pilot to STFU and stay out of the way.

If there was enough time to warn the bridge operators then there's enough time to maybe do some other stuff - and there ARE other immediate actions that can be taken during a loss of propulsion in constricted waters.
"Some" vessels have aux rudder pumps and rudder engine power supplies.
ALL vessels have anchors.
I noticed that it looked like both anchors (and MORE IMPORTANTLY!) the chains were still aboard.
Perhaps not applicable to this event, given time constraints.
We will find out.

Defication occurs on ships.
That's unavoidable.
What is unacceptable is not to have anticipated this event.
It would have been MAYBE more understandable if it had never happened before, or maybe only happened a dozen times.
How about TWO dozen times?
Is THAT enough times to maybe think about it 'left of bang?'
MY count is 35.
Almost three dozen bridges taken out by ships, 18 here in the US with well over 100 dead.

I'm not 'demanding' a tugboat (actually at least 2 for a large ship.)
I'm merely waiting for answers.

The East Palestine incident isn't even a decent strawman argument, but the point about the lobbyists is interesting.
By State law, the port is within the jurisdiction of the Maryland Port Administration.
Who would benefit from lax harbour regs?
Maybe an economically failing city whose administrators want more ship traffic at their ports?
How is that going to be working out for them while the harbor is plugged, and afterwards when containers are piling up in the Port of Baltimore due to traffic congestion?

What's Twitter?
Didn't that go away recently?

 

MV Dali

DALI, Container Ship - Details and current position - IMO 9697428 - VesselFinder

 

local news immediately announced that all ships are required to use tugs in boston harbour

 

Everyone warns people to close the barn doors after somebody's horses get out... But then the shipping industry lobbyists will intervene because the cost of tug boats will cut into their profits and a society that puts profits ahead of safety never learns its lessons the easy way, especially when they've already eliminated the government's ability to swiftly push through new legislation with a clown show.

 

yes, it's pretty impressive for massachusetts, which is notoriously corrupt

 

if that is label is used in response to it being used - but you turn around &call 'em by the correct / new name, like pronouns - conversations may go off the rail.

 

I have read that this bridge lacked structures at water level to protect structure from impact. If other bridges are like that in port waterways, I would expect them to be upgraded.

==
Rebuilding the bridge would be faster and cheaper than tunneling under, although the latter option may be explored. It would require more than a quick search to understand geology below the Patapsco riverbed but I quickly find it's Precabambrian 'really hard stuff'. So a sturdy grinder would be required. Maybe that's better than very deep goo. Goo is young (thin) in that region because of recent glacial reworking.

 

Of course rebuilding something as massive as this in a country that is driven by rich corrupt people stealing all the public funding for themselves means it will probably take 5 to 10 years to rebuild...

When it comes to building stuff like this, despite all the problems in China, their government could probably have a structure up and running in 6 months. The rapid construction abilities of China has no equal in the world. Remember back during the early days of the Pandemic? They built an entire thousand bed hospital in only 10 days while at the same time in the US SpaceX and DIY folks were trying to figure out how to build more ventilators because the profit driven medical equipment makers said they couldn't build more faster, even if they wanted to...

Some day I hope we live in a world where the best each country has to offer benefits everyone and the worst each country has to offer is no longer allowed!