Shocking seeing it on the news and heart felt condolences to the families of the construction workers who lost their lives.
I was gobsmacked at how easily the bridge collapsed and how much of it fell down 
Surely these kind of structures must be designed to take an impact even from ships of that size?
Well clearly not in this case. |
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By (user no longer on site) 41 weeks ago
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Yeah i was shocked too and didn't comprehend it was the actual bridge at first... Seems the ship had multiple power failures
Amazed part of the engineering process doesn't involve someone saying what if a ship crashes into it, what will the impact be  |
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"Hundreds of thousands of tons. The bridge stood no chance it's probably 100 years old"
they started building it in 1972 and it was opened in 1977.. not that old for a bridge,,,, only way to stop a ship that size is sandbank type under water defences...  accidents like this have happened before and will happen again,,, |
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The size of some of these container ships are immense it's not hard to work out what is going to happen if it crashes Into a static structure such as a bridge.
I would have assumed that the shipping channel is in the middle and the intentionally keep it shallower to avoid such situations around the plinths/ supports? |
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By *orny-DJMan 41 weeks ago
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"Yeah i was shocked too and didn't comprehend it was the actual bridge at first... Seems the ship had multiple power failures
Amazed part of the engineering process doesn't involve someone saying what if a ship crashes into it, what will the impact be "
Interestingly, the QE2 Bridge over the Thames, not that far from me has been designed to withstand an impact by vessels up 65,000 tons at up to 11.5 mph.
The ship involved in the Baltimore bridge incident is a little over 91,000 tons and I understand was moving at around 8 knots.
Unfortunately, what is often the case is that such structures are built within certain parameters but are not future proof as the size of cargo ships has grown considerably since this bridge was built in the 70's |
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By (user no longer on site) 41 weeks ago
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"Yeah i was shocked too and didn't comprehend it was the actual bridge at first... Seems the ship had multiple power failures
Amazed part of the engineering process doesn't involve someone saying what if a ship crashes into it, what will the impact be "
That question is always asked, but it's the answer to another that counts: what is the probability of it happening and how much does it cost to insure against it? |
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