Baltimore Bridge Collapse

[Emotional Support Crocodile]

The Baltimore Key Bridge collapses after being hit by a cargo ship.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-u ... a-68663071

It was at about 1:30am local time that a large container ship hit this bridge and then really, the pictures tell the story - the bridge completely collapsed into the river below.

We understand the container ship is actually flagged in Singapore. Often container ships have flags from different countries - it doesn't necessarily mean they're from that country, but it's from where they are overseen.

This has been declared as a mass casualty incident - that really gives us a sense of the seriousness of the situation.

Authorities don't declare an incident to be a mass casualty event unless it is extremely serious.

ModEdit: Split out from the American Politics Thread, hence the slightly cursory OP; but felt that this warranted its own thread.

[Stellar Colonies]

The Baltimore Key Bridge collapses after being hit by a cargo ship.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-u ... a-68663071

A very nasty collapse at that.

[United Calanworie]

USCG and Baltimore Fire are on scene and conducting search operations. Twitter users have video of the collapse.

[Shrillland]

Dear God...and that's a major highway bridge at that, I-695 went over it.

[Shrillland]

Not a lot more to say right now, we know searchers are looking for at least 20 people, we'll get more news as the morning progresses.

[The Archregimancy]

I used to use the Key Bridge regularly when I lived in Maryland and Virginia. I have good friends in who live in and near Baltimore, including a friend and colleague who works for the Maryland Department of Transportation (albeit in the heritage wing, so I doubt she's directly involved).

I have no reason to believe that any of those friends and colleagues were directly impacted by the bridge collapse, but I'm still a bit shaken by events overnight.

With my mod hat on, I might split discussion of the bridge into its own thread; I think it warrants a separate discussion.

[Risottia]

Bloody hell. I'm having flashbacks from the Genova Morandi bridge collapse and from the Costa Concordia sinking.

I get that steering a container behemot isn't easy, but seriously, come on: what in blazes were the captain and the helmsman doing?

[Philjia]

Horrifying the way it just folded up like that.

Spoilers for The Wire

They killed Frank Sobotka under that bridge, I think.

[Turenia]

Craziness. Whoever was at the helm of that boat is going to be terminated.

[Essic]

Just saw it on BBC. How could this happen? The ship seemed to go so slow, yet crumbled the entirety of the Baltimore Bridge like dominoes. For now, there is not much we can do but hope and pray that not many people died and that this won't ever happen again.

[Northern Seleucia]

I've been on that bridge before. Truly unfortunate. How did that happen though? How did the ship hit the bridge???

[Risottia]

Just saw it on BBC. How could this happen? The ship seemed to go so slow, yet crumbled the entirety of the Baltimore Bridge like dominoes. For now, there is not much we can do but hope and pray that not many people died and that this won't ever happen again.

Momentum and kinetic energy both increase with speed and mass.

Let's take a fairly fast car, let's say a 1500 kg car travelling on the Autobahn at 200 km/h (55 m/s). Momentum is about 8.3·10⁴ kg·m/s, energy is about 2,3 MJ.
Let's take a Panamax freighter, carrying 50000 DWT (5·10⁷ kg)and ignoring the mass of the ship itself, sailing at very slow 5 kn (2,5 m/s). Momentum is 1,25·10⁸ kg·m/s, energy is 156 MJ.

[Turenia]

Just saw it on BBC. How could this happen? The ship seemed to go so slow, yet crumbled the entirety of the Baltimore Bridge like dominoes. For now, there is not much we can do but hope and pray that not many people died and that this won't ever happen again.

It may have been going slow, but container ships weigh in at something over 100k tons. Even going slow, it won’t slow down quickly. That, and bridges are pretty delicate in the bigger picture: just one section falling means that every other section will as well, because it holds itself up.

[Outer Sparta]

Damn, that thing fell like a literal house of cards. How big of a load can a bridge like the Key Bridge sustain, especially given its old design and the last time it underwent maintenance?

[Kernen]

Even container ships hate Baltimore.

[San Lumen]

Damn, that thing fell like a literal house of cards. How big of a load can a bridge like the Key Bridge sustain, especially given its old design and the last time it underwent maintenance?

Those ships are massive.

[Emotional Support Crocodile]

Reporting that the ship lost propulsion just before the collision.

[Forsher]

Damn, that thing fell like a literal house of cards. How big of a load can a bridge like the Key Bridge sustain, especially given its old design and the last time it underwent maintenance?

Apparently the basic idea is that bridges are designed to support downwards... physics and thus aren't robust to sideways physics. Force? Is force the word I mean? Probably.

I believe Allosaurus had a similar issue with its jaws, leading scientists to conclude it didn't bite and then hold on to its struggling prey but instead used its head as a sort of axe.

[Outer Sparta]

Damn, that thing fell like a literal house of cards. How big of a load can a bridge like the Key Bridge sustain, especially given its old design and the last time it underwent maintenance?

Those ships are massive.

Yes, Lumen, you're stating the obvious. It would be interesting to see how much force a huge container ship traveling at x speed would exert when colliding with a bridge like that.

[Haganham]

This is jsut another example of America's crumbling infrastruct...

it got hit by a boat

....oh.

Damn, that thing fell like a literal house of cards. How big of a load can a bridge like the Key Bridge sustain, especially given its old design and the last time it underwent maintenance?

Apparently the basic idea is that bridges are designed to support downwards... physics and thus aren't robust to sideways physics. Force? Is force the word I mean? Probably.

I believe Allosaurus had a similar issue with its jaws, leading scientists to conclude it didn't bite and then hold on to its struggling prey but instead used its head as a sort of axe.

I believe the word you are looking for is load.

[Tillania]

Damn, that thing fell like a literal house of cards. How big of a load can a bridge like the Key Bridge sustain, especially given its old design and the last time it underwent maintenance?

Apparently the basic idea is that bridges are designed to support downwards... physics and thus aren't robust to sideways physics. Force? Is force the word I mean? Probably.

I believe Allosaurus had a similar issue with its jaws, leading scientists to conclude it didn't bite and then hold on to its struggling prey but instead used its head as a sort of axe.

Another good comparison is the human knee, it can support your whole weight but is really vulnerable to sideways force.

[Neutraligon]

Damn, that thing fell like a literal house of cards. How big of a load can a bridge like the Key Bridge sustain, especially given its old design and the last time it underwent maintenance?

If you mean load on top a lot. This looks like it took out a pylon though and any bridge that depends on a pylon like this one does will collapse if it is taken out. Ever seen galloping gerdie? That is what happens when bridges are not built to take lateral forces and it resonates with the wind. Bridges nowadays are built to deal with the shear force of wind, but cannot deal with a full barge ramming into its supporting structure.

[Stellar Colonies]

Rescuers are searching for at least 7 people in the water after Baltimore bridge collapse, official says (CNN)

Rescuers are searching for at least seven people in the water after a massive container ship collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge early Tuesday, causing the bridge to collapse and sending people and vehicles into the frigid water, Baltimore City Fire Department Chief James Wallace said during a news conference Tuesday morning.

Two people have been pulled from the Patapsco River, Wallace said. One of them was not injured and the other was taken to a local trauma center in “very serious condition,” he said.

Several vehicles are believed to have fallen into the water, including one as large as a tractor-trailer, said Kevin Cartwright, director of communications of the Baltimore City Fire Department.

“We have an unspeakable tragedy,” Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott told CNN.

“There were individuals working on the bridge at the time. There are cars in the water – our fire department has confirmed that as they lead this search-and-rescue mission through sonar. That is where our focus is – it’s about those souls, those people we’re trying to find and get out of this water,” Scott said.

Construction workers contracted with the state transportation agency were doing repair work on the bridge at the time of the collapse, Maryland Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld said Tuesday morning. He did not specify how many workers were there.

The ship, which hit the bridge just before 1:30 a.m., was the DALI, a Singaporean-flagged container vessel, public affairs officer for the US Coast Guard’s 5th District, Kimberly Reaves, said. It is about 984-feet long, according to MarineTraffic data.

Lights on the ship flickered and a dark plume of smoke could be seen billowing from it before it veered towards a bridge pillar shortly before impact, CNN analysis of data from the MarineTraffic ship-tracking website shows.

No crew members on the ship were injured, ship management company Synergy Group said a statement.

Multiple agencies are investigating the crash, though there is currently “absolutely no indication that it was intentional,” Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley said Tuesday morning.

The 1.6-mile, four-lane bridge extends over the Patapsco River and serves as the outermost crossing of the Baltimore harbor and an essential link of I-695, or the Baltimore Beltway.

Here are the latest developments:

• Multiple air and marine units have been deployed for the search, and personnel from the local fire and police departments, as well as the Coast Guard and Baltimore FBI are on scene to assist, officials said Tuesday.
• Maryland Gov. Wes Moore declared a state of emergency Tuesday morning.
• The White house is closely monitoring the situation, an official told CNN.
• US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said he is offering federal support in response to the collapse.
• Danish Shipping company Maersk told CNN it chartered the ship, which was carrying Maersk customer cargo. The company said no Maersk personnel were onboard the vessel, which is operated by charter vessel company Synergy Group.
• The ship has been inspected 27 times since its was built in 2015 and has had two “deficiencies,” including one for structural damage, according to records from the Electronic Quality Shipping Information System.

Rescue effort underway

Dive operations in the search and rescue effort have begun, Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski told CNN.

“The conditions are difficult,” Olszewski said. “We’re talking about a deep channel port. It’s 40, 50 feet of water, strong currents. The weather is windy, the water is cold. And so we certainly worry about those who are in the water, not to mention the fall from the bridge.”

Teams were working “methodically and safely” to ensure “everyone operating here on the scene is safe and that we’re able to make progress without causing adverse harm to anyone else,” Cartwright said.

High tide could present a challenge for rescuers looking for people, Wallace, the fire chief, said.

Officials will rely on the expert divers assisting with the search “to tell us when they believe we’ve reached that non-survivability point,” Wallace said.

All traffic is being detoured away from the bridge, said the Maryland Transportation Authority.

Video of the collision shows a towering boat headed directly toward one of the bridge’s support columns before colliding with it, sending a massive stretch of the bridge crashing into the water below in mere seconds. The impact immediately triggered the collapse of adjacent portions of the bridge.

The crash sent large plumes of smoke and fire into the air and part of the bridge appeared to collapse over the front of the boat, video footage showed. Dark smoke continued to rise into the air for several minutes.

The bridge’s namesake, Francis Scott Key, is believed to have sat near the site of the bridge as he witnessed the bombardment of Fort McHenry in 1814, inspiring him to write the words of the “Star Spangled Banner.”

[Nlarhyalo]

Judgment of God for making the bridge a toll road?

[Kernen]

Judgment of God for making the bridge a toll road?

Judgment for being Baltimore is my guess.