Baltimore bridge collapses into river after being hit by cargo ship

Hugin@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 793 points – Baltimore bridge collapses into river after being hit by cargo ship
theguardian.com

A portion of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore has collapsed after a large boat collided with it early on Tuesday morning, sending multiple vehicles into the water.

At about 1.30am, a vessel crashed into the bridge, catching fire before sinking and causing multiple vehicles to fall into the water below, according to a video posted on X.

“All lanes closed both directions for incident on I-695 Key Bridge. Traffic is being detoured,” the Maryland Transportation Authority posted on X.

Matthew West, a petty officer first class for the coastguard in Baltimore, told the New York Times that the coastguard received a report of an impact at 1.27am ET. West said the Dali, a 948ft (29 metres) Singapore-flagged cargo ship, had hit the bridge, which is part of Interstate 695.

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The bridge is just gone now, one tap and the whole thing fell like dominos!

It would seem most construction projects rely on a boat not ramming into it

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_Skyway_Bridge

The southbound span (opened in 1971) of the original bridge was destroyed on the morning of May 9, 1980, when the 606 ft (185 m) freighter MV Summit Venture collided with a support column during a sudden squall, causing the catastrophic failure of over 1,200 ft (370 m) of the span.

Governor Bob Graham's idea to build a "signature" cable-stayed bridge with a span that would be 50% wider than that of the old Skyway Bridge won out over other proposals. In addition to a wider shipping lane, the channel would be marked by a 1⁄4 mi (400 m)-long series of large concrete barriers, and the support piers would be protected by massive concrete "dolphins".

Florida apparently isn't relying on that anymore.

Just to illustrate the point, this is no "tap". A cargo ship like that hitting something is about the same momentum as 14 loaded Boeing 787s hitting something at 800 km/h, simultaneously.

Those constructions rely on all parts being where they are, otherwise the whole thing collapses. You'd need a different kind of bridge for the single stretches to be independent.

It's bad enough that the transportation infrastructure is falling apart across the country due to poor maintenance. But when the bridge was built in the 1970s, I don't think container ships that big even existed. It's the same problem with old roads and modern cars or old airports and modern jets.

I hope that whatever replaces the Key Bridge is designed to fail in segments and take a good beating before it does.

That would be extremely expensive. I think that money would be better spent toward getting ships to not hit the bridge at all.

The bridge knows where it is, because it knows where it isn't.