Re: Full video of ship hitting and destroying the Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore

On 2024-03-31 01:47, bud-- wrote:

On 3/30/2024 12:05 PM, Carlos E. R. wrote:

On 2024-03-29 16:21, bud-- wrote:

On 3/29/2024 5:18 AM, Martin Brown wrote:

On 29/03/2024 06:06, UFO wrote:

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Out of all the hours it sailed in operation, maintenance checks were all fine
then out of the blue not 1 but 3 power failures, and not out in the middle of the ocean
from harms way...just close enough to a bridge and hit the weakest spot. What a
"fluke"

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Hardly. Murphy's law can apply IRL. Dirty fuel seems quite plausible.
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The bridge was *designed* to fail catastrophically if anything hit one of its main supports which is unforgivable on a bridge that is over a waterway leading to one of the busiest Atlantic ports in America.

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Bridges would not similarly fail when you take out a pier for a major span?

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On some bridges, only the spans directly supported by that pier fall, not all.
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 So main span falls and on the other side of the pier that did not fail the approach stays intact? Falling main span does not affect pier?

Depends on the design.
I can not tell you what they do, only that I read or heard comments from "experts" saying so.

 

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Most big bridges in first world countries have buffer islands and underwater structures to deflect and/or slow a large vessel to prevent them from impacting any of the key support structures near a live shipping channel. The ship may ground and be damaged and the bridge shaken by that impact but that should be about the limit of what can happen to a properly designed bridge in these circumstances.

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The United States Secretary of Transportation (Buttigieg) has said he doesn't know of any bridge that could withstand a similar hit. Hard to imagine how you could protect from the energy in such a massive ship.

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With a massive island, but that reduces the passage for ships, which then have more chances to crashing into it, and impairs traffic.
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 So island is anchored and constructed so a hit from a massive container ship won't destroy it or tip it (how far down does it go)?. And has to be bigger than how far into the island the ship penetrates plus how far the bow sticks out plus how far the bow dents in? Plus the pier can survive the shock (like earthquake proof)? Where does the energy go?

Heat, and metal crushing :-)
Yeah, the island has to be massive, which is a problem for traffic.

 Requiring tugs to accompany large ships may be more practical. One may assume that wasn't required here. Bow thrusters probably make maneuvering ships in a harbor without a tug practical.

Yep.
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Cheers, Carlos.