The impact of a bridge collapse on a cargo ship: Azizinamini says. “Breaks of the Key Bridge, the Bayonne Bridge, Baltimore, and Baltimore”
The National Transportation Safety Board will look at the regulations in place to see if there are better ways to protect America’s bridges. “The first thing that we learn as an engineer is that public safety is the number one issue,” Azizinamini says.
This isn’t the first catastrophic bridge collapse of its kind. In 1980 — three years after the Key Bridge’s completion — a large portion of Florida’s Sunshine Skyway Bridge collapsed when a freighter crashed into one of its support beams, killing 35 people. The National Transportation Safety Board’s accident report identified the lack of a pier protection system that could have “absorbed some of the impact force or redirected the vessel” as a factor in the bridge’s failure. When rebuilding the Sunshine Skyway, engineers decided to install dolphins — concrete structures placed around the bridge’s piers — to absorb the impact of a collision, while also blocking the boat from hitting the bridge directly.
According to the New York Times, the Key Bridge had concrete barriers that were intended to slow down an out-of-control vessel. They are far away from the support beams of the bridge, so they don’t offer real protection in case of an impact.
But larger ships have their own risks as well. In 2021, the 1,312-foot-long Ever Given ran aground in the Suez Canal and was trapped there for nearly one week. Ports have had to make adjustments to accommodate ships’ increased sizes. In 2017, the Panama Canal expansion project was completed to “meet the growing demand of maritime trade using larger vessels.” In 2019, the Bayonne Bridge connecting New York and New Jersey was raised 64 feet so ships could fit underneath.
The size of cargo ships has grown over the past two decades as demand for goods has increased. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, more than 90 percent of traded goods travel by water, with maritime trade volumes expected to triple by 2050. The bigger the ship, the easier it can carry goods from retailers like Amazon and Walmart in a single trip.
Older bridges were not made to hold cargo ships of that size. Baltimore’s Key Bridge was finished in 1977, costing around $110 million to construct at the time. It was next to the Port of Baltimore where around 11 million vehicles cross it each year. In addition to helping divert traffic away from the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel, the Key Bridge also served as a critical route for vehicles carrying hazardous materials, which aren’t allowed inside nearby tunnels.
However, Schmucker notes that these new rules typically take a few years before they’re adopted. It could have been done in the 2000s before the bridge was designed. “That’s because of that lengthy process we use for significant bridges over navigable waterways. They are expensive… and they can be a challenge to integrate with the environment.”
Source: Bridges aren’t ready for today’s huge ships
The Key Bridge is going to take 350 million to 600 million to replace, and what it will take to get back up if Congress decides to intervene
Douglas Schmucker, a professor in civil and environmental engineering at the University of Utah, says that the 3-span nature means the main span’s pier was destroyed by the ship. The third span was pulled with the collapse of the middle span because it was designed to function together.
The Key Bridge was the second-longest continuous through truss bridge in the US, behind the Astoria-Megler Bridge connecting Oregon to Washington. The bridge collapse was caused by the cargo ship colliding with the support column. Two construction workers were killed, while four others are presumed dead.
The Biden administration may be able to cover some of those costs with emergency funds that do not require Congressional approval. But sooner or later, the White House will have to ask lawmakers to sign off on additional money. That may be a tough sell with Republicans on Capitol Hill, particularly in a presidential election year.
“You’re talking about 350 million to 600 million to replace,” said L. Sebastian Bryson, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Kentucky, in an interview with NPR’s Morning Edition. It will likely be fast-tracked because it’s such a critical bridge. It will probably take about two to three years to rebuild.
Buttigieg toldNPR that he expects private parties that could be found liable to be held accountable. “But the issue here is, we can’t wait for those liability processes to get settled and resolved to get to work and get this bridge back up.”
Pete Buttigieg, transportation secretary, said in an interview with NPR’s All Things Considered that this is a down payment. We do not know the total cost.
A giant crane arrives in Baltimore, but leaders see a ‘daunting’ cleanup job ahead: Reopening the shipping channel of the Dali vessel
But completing that assessment will be difficult. Because of the dark water and full of debris around the wreck, divers have to work slowly and carefully, Moore said.
“Before we can actually engage in lifting, we’ve got to complete the assessment process of the bridge, and the pieces of the bridge that are in the water,” Gilreath said Thursday.
U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath says authorities are still working out how best to use the giant crane and other resources at their disposal.
The first step is to “remove that portion of the bridge that is currently draped across the front of the vessel Dali,” Spellmon said. He thought the shipping channel would open for one-way traffic before it could accommodate two vessels at the same time.
The most important thing is to reopen the shipping channel as soon as possible. But first, they will have to remove the ship and debris from the river.
The nearly 1,000-foot long cargo ship remains stuck in the river, where it’s pinned to the bottom by the wreckage of the bridge that is resting on the ship’s bow. Some of the 4,000 containers on the ship were knocked over in the collision and some were dangling precariously off the edge of the ship.
The Patapsco River Bridge: a giant crane arrives in Baltimore, but leaders see a ‘daunting’ cleanup job ahead
“To go out there and see it up close, you realize just how daunting a task this is,” Maryland Governor Wes Moore said at a news conference near the harbor on Friday, with the enormous crane looming in the background. “You realize how difficult the work is ahead of us.”
For now, thousands of tons of steel and concrete are blocking the main shipping channel in the Patapsco River, three days after a massive cargo ship smashed into the bridge.
Federal money and resources will be going to Maryland as authorities plan how to remove the crippled ship and get the ninth-largest port back to work. They acknowledge the effort won’t be easy or cheap.
“We’re at least going to have to cut that portion of the bridge into four different members, and safely lifted off of the vessel, and move it out of our way so we can get to the remaining work,” Spellmon said.
Lieutenant general Scott Spellmon, head of the US Army Corps of Engineers, said in an interview that the bridge’s portion is 4,000 tons.
The main shipping route to and from Baltimore was closed because of the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, and a massive floating crane capable of lifting 1,000 tons at once has arrived at the site.
“It affects supply chains all over the country, in every state of the union,” said Congressman Kweisi Mfume, whose district includes parts of Baltimore, as well as Dundalk, Maryland and other communities that depended on the collapsed bridge. “We’ve got to move swiftly to clear the channel.”
Authorities say 56 containers on the ship carry hazardous materials of some kind. 13 containers have been impacted by the bridge strike, which included soap products and perfume, according to the Coast Guard.
A sheen on the water appears to be caused by a leak of about 20 gallons of oil from damaged equipment in the front of the ship.
Source: A giant crane arrives in Baltimore, but leaders see a ‘daunting’ cleanup job ahead
Air Monitoring on the Dali with the Coast Guard: No Flammable Reactions During the March 15th Night of Operation ‘Resurrection’
The Coast Guard has been conducting air monitoring on and around the Dali through a contractor, according to a statement, and no harmful or flammable releases have been detected.