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Post by Whitman on Mar 26, 2024 11:38:18 GMT
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Post by Ridiculously Dull Bobby on Mar 26, 2024 12:06:43 GMT
I drove through Baltimore yesterday, with both kids in the car, right on the other side of the shipyard from that bridge. It’s part of a great view as you approach the harbor tunnels.
I’ve always worried that one of the tunnels would collapse while I’m in it. Never thought about any of the million bridges in that part of town.
Silver lining is it could’ve been way worse if it didn’t happen in the middle of the night. That bridge is part of the Baltimore Beltway and sees a ton of traffic.
Side note: I don’t know how I’m going to get home tonight. It’ll be a bona fide traffic nightmare for the foreseeable future, on what is already one of the busiest corridors on the East Coast.
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Post by Ridiculously Dull Bobby on Mar 26, 2024 12:08:58 GMT
Video is unreal:
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Post by elcircogrande on Mar 26, 2024 12:55:32 GMT
Someone has already started looking into their DEI programs, right?
In all seriousness, the people who are claiming this was indicative of shitty U.S. infrastructure are also off base. I'm sure the Key Bridge needed some work, but I don't think "withstand a hit from a loaded container ship" is a realistic expectation.
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Post by pallister on Mar 26, 2024 12:56:16 GMT
That video is nuts.
Similar collapse happened when a barge hit the Sunshine Skyway in Florida in 1980. That happened during the day and 35 people died. Radio this morning said rescuers were searching for 7 people.
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Post by doctorquant on Mar 26, 2024 13:43:36 GMT
I'm pretty sure that such ships have to be piloted by local specialists while they're within the confines of the harbor/bay. Gonna be one hell of an investigation.
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Post by elcircogrande on Mar 26, 2024 13:58:18 GMT
I'm pretty sure that such ships have to be piloted by local specialists while they're within the confines of the harbor/bay. Gonna be one hell of an investigation. I think that's right, and oftentimes there's assistance from local tugboats as well (although the tugs presumably would have left the ship's side once it got into the channel and wouldn't have been able to do much here anyway).
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Post by YankeeFan on Mar 26, 2024 14:13:24 GMT
When they build a new bridge, it’s going to need a new name.
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Post by elcircogrande on Mar 26, 2024 14:18:45 GMT
This is so far away from the point you can't even see the point from where I'm at, but in my professional life, I work pretty closely with the Port of Virginia, and they're even more involved than usual on the current iteration of my project. This ship came up to Baltimore from Norfolk, and given that it was an electrical failure on the ship, I'm considering it pretty lucky on Norfolk's part that it didn't happen there. If this had happened in Norfolk, it would have thrown my professional life into complete upheaval for at least the next two months.
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Post by Ridiculously Dull Bobby on Mar 26, 2024 15:07:18 GMT
I keep thinking what would’ve happened if this had been a bridge on the DC Beltway instead of Baltimore.
I know there’s no shipping traffic to speak of by the Legion Bridge, but that thing is more than 60 years old and the state has been trying to get a reconstruction/expansion project off the ground for years, to no avail. The Wilson Bridge, which was roughly the same age, was rebuilt out of sheer necessity almost 15 years ago.
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Post by gordonbombay on Mar 26, 2024 15:41:13 GMT
The time it takes to move a ship its almost hard to believe there’s not some kind of proximity alarm or automated control
You can’t just spin the wheel wrong and ram into a bridge, right?
If my car gets too close in a parking spot my brakes engage and an alarm blares at me ….. these ships dont have some guidance system that can see they’re on collision course?!?
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Post by Whitman on Mar 26, 2024 16:13:14 GMT
We went on vacation to Duluth last fall, and I spent time from our hotel balcony watching those big container ships leave port. I don’t understand with as slow as they move that no one saw this coming and cleared the bridge in plenty of time.
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Post by doctorquant on Mar 26, 2024 16:15:26 GMT
Doesn't sound like they were lost, but rather had suffered a catastrophic electrical system failure. They'd made a "mayday" call prior to the impact which reportedly limited the on-the-bridge traffic.
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Post by doctorquant on Mar 26, 2024 16:40:38 GMT
Those fuckers look like they're slow, but they're moving pretty good. At 8 knots (nautical miles per hour) it was moving about 13.5 feet per second. Don't have to be too many relay steps ... helm to coast guard/harbor patrol to highway control, say ... for there to simply be no time.
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Post by Ridiculously Dull Bobby on Mar 27, 2024 1:53:43 GMT
Drove right through Baltimore about two hours ago and you wouldn’t really know that anything happened, traffic-wise.
Oh, and if you thought Maryland drivers might throw a little caution to the wind today, you’d be sorely mistaken.
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