The Francis Scott Key Bridge has collapsed into the Patapsco River after a cargo ship collided with it. We heard preliminary calls early this morning before 2 a.m. Crews are working to recover at least 20 people believed to be in the water. Multiple emergency crews are on the scene, assessing the damage and investigating the cause.
All lanes are currently closed and traffic is being detoured onto I-895 through the harbor tunnel or through the city.
This will be a huge impact on traffic and shipping for sure.
This wasn't on the bingo card either.
H/T to Leigh.
At first I thought it was a case of "too tall to fit", but it looks like the ship hit the bridge support column, the whole bridge collapsed like a house of cards in a hurricane. I think the captain has some 'splainin' to do. And the shipping company has a major lawsuit on its hands. I hope their Lloyds insurance is paid up, and that it's enough to rebuild a bridge as well as paying for the people (God bless them all) and vehicles that went into the river.
ReplyDeletePresident Elect B Woodman
I read a report that there were TWO pilots aboard the ship when it struck the bridge. Lloyds is going to have a litter of lizards over this. No reports of fog or other impairments to vision, so I am VERY interested in hearing how two pilots could not guide the ship past a clearly visible bridge.
DeleteThey clearly lost power (from the video). Now WHY they lost power, HOW they lost power, WHO might have been responsible for them losing power....are other questions entirely.
DeleteHeard the breaking report on my way in to work, first thing I checked was my bingo card...
ReplyDeleteSabotaged.
ReplyDelete-lg
The name of the ship was "Climate Change".
ReplyDeleteShip's captain another "diversity hire" ?
ReplyDeletei do not understand why it was not built in away that loss of one support would not cause collapse? i thought to over engineer things is an important principle in engineering--at least it is in German engineering..
ReplyDeleteNot sure how you build a bridge with that kind of redundancy, but for sure there should have been better "protections" around the base of the piers. I watch "Engineering Disasters" all the time on Discovery or whatever channel its on. In virtually EVERY bridge collapse involving a ship, the PIERS have had grossly inadequate protections from impact. But then infrastructure NEVER gets the attention it deserves. Reporters ONLY show up to cover openings and collapses, NEVER successful retrofits, improvements, required maintenance, etc. and politicians only mug for the cameras.
Deletea lot of new bridges have buffers built in front of those supports, you know like the steel pipes that stick out of the ground so you don't drive into the ATM or the speaker in the drive thru lane.
DeleteMaybe you are right that it is not simple how to over-engineer a bridge is possible..But I imagine German engineers would have figured a way. And besides that, I have seen Soviet made bridges that to me looked to be massively over-engineered--like that one in Kiev over the Dnieper River.
DeleteLooks like it lost power as it approached the bridge. Lost it's lights several times, before the hit.
ReplyDeleteWatching the video on YT I saw the container ship lose power, they restored it, lost power again and came on again.
ReplyDeleteWhen you lose power you can lose steering and the rudder can slam all the way over and the ship turns abruptly... This appears to what occurred - it hit one of the two major pylons and a full collapse of the span occurred. I rewound the video several times to see what vehicles were on the bridge at that time, I didn't see anything transiting the bridge, it looks like several cars got lucky - God watched over them.
However, there were construction workers on the bridge doing surfacing work, there are approximately 7 people (so far) unaccounted for. This is gonna suck for lives lost and a major bridge being taken out. Poor Baltimore commuters are in for A Really Bad Time. For quite some time, too!
GMTA! I too did a replay about 20 times, looking for vehicles transiting the bridge. I saw the traffic (which was super light at 1:30 in the morning!) stop just before impact. According to report, they DID broadcast an emergency (probably on channel 16) and the bridge was closed ASAP, preventing many people going in the drink.
DeleteMy condolences to the maintenance workers who didn't stand a chance.
Almost looks like the ship was steered into the bridge supports. Did anyone else notice the lights on the ship going off at about :30 and coming back on at about 1:08?
ReplyDeleteHMS Defiant said the ships power went off as the rudder was over. Then when power was restored BAM.
DeleteIncompetence in the Bridge of the Ship and or Engine Room I suspect.
Yes, Port of Baltimore inner harbor is closed.
Am i understanding correctly that this collapse closes off acces to the port?
ReplyDeleteExile1981
Was watching this on Fox's morning show at my local diner this morning. Their clip starts a bit earlier where you can see the Ship lose power and go dark. Then the lights on the ship flicker back on off before it hits the bridge. There was a work crew doing concrete work on the bridge when that happened. the two little fireballs on the right hand support were probably from two of the work trucks. I think I've been across that bridge twice during the 20 years I lived in Maryland.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like the ship was aiming for the bridge support.
ReplyDeleteTerrible for the folks traveling on that bridge. Who was driving that thing?
ReplyDeleteThe hits just keep on coming for this administration. Let's see how fast emperor poopy pants and his TRANs Secretary take to fix this thing. I'm betting it's going to be YEARS. From the camera angle, it doesn't look like the ship would have fit under the bridge anyway, but it's probably an optical delusion(no, that's NOT a typo for you grammar nazi's).
Nemo
With loss of power and steering while approaching a bridge, wouldn't dropping all anchors immediately be the prudent course of action ?
ReplyDeleteCan't drop anchor without power.
DeleteYes, you can. You HAVE to have that ability, it's in the Seaworthiness Regs.
DeleteLooking at the HD video, it appears all commuter traffic was off the bridge at the time of collapse, only the workers (sadly). An early account stated there were two recovered, one released (no injuries, which is amazing), and one in critical condition (prayers for recovery). The others will be known if "only" the workers, hence the "seven". Doesn't look like any other traffic unless a vehicle was low and unseen from the cam point.
ReplyDeleteA girder erector-style bridge is a sum of its components, and this one was 50 years old, tension was released causing the other sections to fail. The NTSB will tear into maintenance records etc, but that's not a cause (it didn't simply collapse), a massive 100ft loaded ship moving at 10-12knots - like others have said - has too much mass and momentum. Thing is, for me, why did the ship veer directly into the support? Looks like at the last minute. Unless the rudder was already set askew when they tried to correct earlier before losing power. And why no emergency comm's beforehand if an electrical problem (might be, just not released until the investigation concludes). Terrorism, not out of the question with The Morons in Charge (Weird Petey Boot-Edge-Edge might say it's globalclimatecoolingwarmingchange once he descends for his "presser")...but doubtful (altho plausible). Might be as it seemed, a terrible catastrophic systems failure at the wrong moment.
*1000ft [loaded ship]
DeleteOh say can you see a big steaming fourth world turd.
ReplyDeleteHire the wymyns construction team in FLA who built the diversity bridge that collapsed. (honk)
This bridge will never be replaced there in Lagos. (h/t-Z)
Drive the Chevy to the levy the American Pie is done.
Destroyed from within by quisling traitors.
I find it abnormal that the whole bridge would collapse even if a major area was destroyed. This indicates the bridge was not built properly, over time it needed updates, or had been sabotaged.
ReplyDeleteThis seems to be planned as we have had many problems and destruction throughout the country during Biden's Admin, such as food processing plants, railroad crashes, gas reservoirs. and other things. With high level of illegals coming in it is possible there is sabotage.
Perfectly normal construction, and (if you will) perfect collapse for that type of bridge when one of the two pylons it is resting on is compromised (damaged). One side goes down, the forces on the other side become unbalanced due to (lack of) tension, and it all falls down and goes boom.
DeleteThe Key Bridge was the HASMAT route through Baltimore. There are other limitations on the tunnels. Until the bridge is rebuilt the area is going to be a logistical nightmare. The bridge debris has shut down the harbor. Ships at dock are stuck there until the channel can be cleared.
ReplyDeleteOn the positive side, this will create a lot of jobs in the area.
Was this part of Biden's Build Back Better program?
ReplyDeleteWhy the heck didn't those drivers turn around and get off the bridge?
ReplyDeleteBaltimore/DC supply chain, bwahahaha hopefully some politicians and goobermint workers were on the bridge
ReplyDeleteIt is being reported the ship sent a mayday when they kept losing power out of berth, lost steering. Here is a guy who knows of what he is speaking, reviewing the footage, without media or conspiratorial hysteria:
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/qZbUXewlQDk?si=GFcOjyksKC65YhZf
Seems some of the bridge workers got the mayday and halted bridge commuter traffic beforehand, unfortunately news is 6 are still missing.
DeleteBack in the early 1990's, when I lived in "The District" (Washington, DC) and drove north to Philly a few times a month, When the traffic on I-95 was a pain in the butt, I'd mosey over on I-695 and cross on the Francis Scott Key Bridge. It was out of my way but (especially in the summer) the traffic on I-95 would be horrible.
ReplyDeleteJoe Hazelwood of Exxon Valdez fame must of been the Captain. Ole’ Joe likes his drink. Something smells fishy and just not the normal stink from Baltimore.
ReplyDeleteAbout minute 2:46 in video you can see two flashes: one on the left hand side on ship as it hit, upper structural beam at the point where the steel creases and the other is right at the upper structure to right of the ship where the air traffic warning light is blinking. If you blow the video up at those two points at the moment of impact you can clearly see the steel burn as though they were torched for a second or so.
ReplyDeleteSome of the videos from next morning show that left hand steel girder has a very clean cut on a 90 degree angle. The edge is somewhat blackened. Cutting charge? Given the current clown car circus going on I have to question everything.
Besides which, they can’t rename the bridge for some lgbtqabcxyz activist without having to destroy the structure named after a whypeepoe wayciss.