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. But earlier, it was reported they used sonar and found there were several cars in the water. I'm confused.
look at the wideview of the video on FNC...you can see on center span a number of MDOT trucks/pickups sitting up there yellow lights a flashing pre-collision. those guys were shooting crap and drinkin coffee....
I saw a bridge engineer walk the video, when the ship hit the column, the center span and the 'left side' went immediate down, then the right side intermediate was in tension and failed itself seconds later.
amazing how when the stuff works, it works. but the bridges have to be in equilibrium, it took one tiny eyebar the size of a stratocaster to bring down the 'mothman' bridge at pt pleasant.
look at the wideview of the video on FNC...you can see on center span a number of MDOT trucks/pickups sitting up there yellow lights a flashing pre-collision. those guys were shooting crap and drinkin coffee....
If I understood the Maryland Governor correctly, the crew of the ship notified someone (?) they could not control the ship and authorities were able to stop traffic which limited possible victims to just the construction crew. But earlier, it was reported they used sonar and found there were several cars in the water. I'm confused.
ETA - A reporter asked about the above and the governor started backtracking that statement.
ETA, too - Vehicles in the water probably belonged to the construction crew. Duh.
In the video, you can clearly see trucks crossing the bridge right before the impact. I guess it's possible that they just barely managed to close it off and those were the last trucks to cross before the closure. There's still so much we don't know yet.
Looks like it lost power twice in the final moments. Pretty sure the black smoke beforehand was it getting revved full throttle reverse to try to slow the impact but it would have taken a mile to stop that beast.
It was horrible and it will be devastating to Baltimore - both short & long term. My first thoughts were for those on the Bridge - about my fifth thought was “where were the tug boats?†They can push even a large container ship like this to get it back on course.
I read this on a local Baltimore forum - Anonymous wrote:
I live on the ESMD on the Bay and according to my navy and coast guard friends out here: the boat was experiencing repeated power failures from the short time it was released from the tugs after it left the port. Without power the navigation system won’t work and you cannot steer it and hence the boat will drift. The crew then tried to force the throttle to get it back on course and avoid a collision which is why there is thick black smoke seen coming from the boat before it gets to the bridge. The boat did contact MTA/the bridge which has its headquarters at the north end of the bridge in Dundalk to indicate they believed it would collide with the bridge but there wasn’t enough time IRT to then close the bridge to traffic before it was struck.
The ship was FULL of thousands (yes, thousands) of containers. The weight is incredible. You cannot do sharp turns or sudden stops on this. It also is so heavy it would do this to almost any bridge if collided.
Every single container ship that sails on the Bay, anywhere from Virginia Beach to Baltimore, must have a local bay captain on board while it’s on the bay to navigate the ship. There was one on this ship as well.
Next question was “Where were the tugboats?â€
Answer was that the tugs released the boat after they got it out of its berth and headed for the Bridge at the mouth of the Harbor - the ship was still piloted by Harbor Captains. IF the tugboats had still been with the Ship, they could have straightened it out . They are very powerful.
It was horrible and it will be devastating to Baltimore - both short & long term. My first thoughts were for those on the Bridge - about my fifth thought was “where were the tug boats?†They can push even a large container ship like this to get it back on course.
I read this on a local Baltimore forum - Anonymous wrote:
I live on the ESMD on the Bay and according to my navy and coast guard friends out here: the boat was experiencing repeated power failures from the short time it was released from the tugs after it left the port. Without power the navigation system won’t work and you cannot steer it and hence the boat will drift. The crew then tried to force the throttle to get it back on course and avoid a collision which is why there is thick black smoke seen coming from the boat before it gets to the bridge. The boat did contact MTA/the bridge which has its headquarters at the north end of the bridge in Dundalk to indicate they believed it would collide with the bridge but there wasn’t enough time IRT to then close the bridge to traffic before it was struck.
The ship was FULL of thousands (yes, thousands) of containers. The weight is incredible. You cannot do sharp turns or sudden stops on this. It also is so heavy it would do this to almost any bridge if collided.
Every single container ship that sails on the Bay, anywhere from Virginia Beach to Baltimore, must have a local bay captain on board while it’s on the bay to navigate the ship. There was one on this ship as well.
Next question was “Where were the tugboats?â€
Answer was that the tugs released the boat after they got it out of its berth and headed for the Bridge at the mouth of the Harbor - the ship was still piloted by Harbor Captains. IF the tugboats had still been with the Ship, they could have straightened it out . They are very powerful.
Such a sad situation-
any more tho, with the advent of bow thrusters, larger and larger ships are able to get underway without a tuggy boat. even without thrusters you can, s*** hot COs of the ohio class specialize in getting off the dock by themselves..
Once you have steerage in calm water, its not an unheard of practice to leave port unassisted but I was wondering about the harbor pilot...we STILL do require that right? adherence to transpo dept safety and procedural rulz has fallen by the wayside last couple years and we are hearing about it nightly in the news.
sadly, boats do not require a 'pre-flight' like aircraft do. It would have been legal for him to leave the dock on fire...with concerns about schedules, money, crew makeup...foreign ships understandably do not want to be here any longer than they have to. they all have full machine shops down below and prefer to solve a lot of problems themselves.
Why was the boat singaporian? does that mean singaporians were driving it? no, every company in every country takes advantage of the rules and regs to sail the seas offered up by various other countries. you put USA on the stern and hoo boy, what you have to follow, HOWEVER, without USA on the stern we have strict rules on what people can haul into where so sometimes that itch is worth the scratch.
Glad it happened at 3AM and not during a rush hour. Terrible tragedy.
When they rebuilt the sunshine skyway bridge in Tampa they built these LARGE concrete islands to protect the supports from these sorts of events. I can't say that would have saved the bridge but worth knowing.
Here is the google earth of the Tampa bridge and all the round circles are the concrete islands.
My guess is that they will utilize a ferry system until the bridge can be rebuilt.
They ran a ferry at the site of the Bay Bridge until the first of those spans opened in 1952. The ferry slips are still there and look usable.
IIRC there was never a ferry at the Key Bridge site, so how can an emergency ferry system be implemented at that site? How can vessels be obtained? What ferry boats for motor vehicles (and other infrastructure) are available?
My guess is that they will utilize a ferry system until the bridge can be rebuilt.
There aren't enough ferry boats in existence to handle the volume that bridge carries.
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