This bridge that was hit, did have a tunnel proposal before it was built as a bridge. Both crossings closer in to Baltimore are tunnels, the Ft. McHenry I-95 tunnels, was originally proposed as a bridge, ironically. Haz Mat cargos cannot go through a tunnel so they now will have to detour around on the 695 beltway to the west and north, to go around Baltimore.
Got another Minitruck scheduled to arrive in Baltimore the 15th of next month. Shipper can’t tell me yet if diverting to NY. They told me they had 11 cargo ships of their own trapped at the port.
What amazes me is they don't have any redundant systems? At least a generator engine to run power. Also, don't a lot of ships have bow thrusters? The second is don't they have insurance?
Apparently a bridge can stop 100,000 tons pretty quickly.[/QUOTE] If you watch the tracking on the video you can see it left the channel as it hit the pylon.
...I know nothing about marine salvage, but when recovery of victims is done, it shouldn't take long to open shipping channel. Restoring bridge traffic will take a lot longer. Thanks Dano for finding an intelligent report. Media has exhibited its usual lack of reporting skill. I saw something about Chile flagging Dali in June for propulsion issue, hmmm. Just wondering what extra cost would be worldwide, or if even possible, to have tugs stay with ships until past any bridges without adequate island/dolphin protection. ...lived in suburban DC area my whole life, currently about 40 miles WSW of Balto. I've never taken east side route to I95N, don't like 185' high bridges or tunnels. Always west side, sometime I81. ...first thing that came to mind when Biden said Feds (us) will pay for bridge...
I am surprised they do not routinely use tug boats inside the harbor. Anything to save a buck. Calling for tugs after the turn and when the first power outage occurred seems too little too late. On the news someone calculated 90 million pounds of force. HAZMAT on board broke loose. Some of it went into the water. (Diatomaceous silica???) Also, cargo ships are designed to do one thing - move materials as cheaply as possible. This one only had a crew of 22, likely only one an engineer. Interesting that the Army Corps of Engineers is in charge of the cleanup, maybe construction too. The Dali has 4 huge engines. there is one main engine for the propulsion (MAN-B&W 9S90ME-C9.2 two stroke diesel engine of 55,000 hp). It only turn up to 82 rpm. The propeller is fixed. The only way to reverse the thrust is to stop the engine and restart it in reverse. There are 3 5000 hp auxiliary engines for generators.
I'm about 8 miles north of the bridge in Middle River area on the bay . Clearing the channel will be a long process, but the ship removal is concerning to me . Th steel garters laying on the bow are approx 50' long under water . If the ship isn't stable and secure , they may be dumping more containers in the River . I have driven over the bridge many times , but never thought a ship could take down the length that fell . But after looking at the support columns , you hit one and dominos effect happens . Feel so sad for the worker that didn't have time to drive 1/2 way down to a safe spot . Bill
Correct. There's the old I-895 Harbor tunnel, which fortunately was just completely redone, & the newer I-95 Fort McHenry which is very nice (4 lanes in ea. direction & wide). The Key Bridge is (was) sorta out of the way & so didn't carry carry tremendous volume (11M) in comparison to the tunnels (73M). The west side beltway (I-695) is already a mess for a few reasons, one being the partially finished median wall construction rebuild ceased after 6 workers were killed on that project almost exactly 1 year prior (March 23, 2023) & so the add'l traffic there should be fun.
Sad for the lives lost and the grief of their loved ones...Some are lucky enough to know the greatest "Bridge Builder" of all time... Happy Easter...
It could be argued that the fairly out of the way, Scott Key Bridge was "redundant" or extra, and might not be replaced for years, if ever. It may have been constructed due to Sparrows Point activity back in the day, and the need to route hazardous cargo away from the tunnels nearer to downtown. Any replacement needs to be of better design, with greater clearances for shipping, ship strike protections, and full shoulders on bridge itself. It will likely be of cable stay design similar to the Sunshine Skyway replacement.
That bridge is part of the Interstate Highway System. It should be paid for by the Federal Government (us).
Learned more useful info in a few minutes on that channel than the MSM has reported all week. Good piece explaining the rather complicated web of how the insurance risk is spread but it seems that yes, ultimately the insurers will pay. If anything, the federal $ will be able to get the project kick started quickly &/or fill in any $ gap but Maryland has a "rainy day fund" that could be used for that. The immediate announcement that "the feds would pay for this" was just to reassure the public. https://www.reinsurancene.ws/reinsu...st-of-baltimore-bridge-collapse-says-am-best/ I don't understand how they were able to get the road shut down but weren't able to alert the construction crew to evacuate. I can understand nobody wanting to drive out there to tell them but would seem to me MDOT would have some way to communicate w/them. If you watch the tracking on the video you can see it left the channel as it hit the pylon.[/QUOTE] Seems to me that instead of dolphins that it'd be better (cheaper/more effective/less unsightly) to construct/incorporate something solid into sides of the channels near bridges to keep ships contained w/in them which would only require enough strength to guide a ship's hull scraping against it rather constructing something massive enough to actually stop it's momentum.
It is my impression that a ship's rudder provides steering by deflecting the flow of water from the screw (propeller). If the screw stopped, would moving the rudder have any significant affect on the ship's directional control?
Agree Dave. Still lots of activity in Sparrows point albeit different. There's also a shipping terminal there (Trade Pointe) that I'm sure will become much busier. Was talk years ago of buikding a massive terminal there but was (stupidly IMHO) rejected. I heard some renewed talk of it a few months back. I'd def. rather see it take longer to build a new/better designed structure than rebuild using the existing approaches. The new 301 bridge across the Potomac in Southern Maryland way constructed very quickly once the funding was approved. Idk if its design had already been completed but once funded, the speed at which it happened was quite impressive. The new north side approach to the Harbor Tunnel was also done rather quickly while maintaining somewhat of a flow of traffic. Even the SF/Oakland bridge that was built after the earthquake was done ahead of schedule.
One of my guilty pleasures is watching a series called Mighty Cruise Ships on the Smithsonian Channel. One common theme is that the Captains are always worrying about fuel consumption. Big ships are fuel pigs. Once when the bride and I were on a cruise we found that the ship at cruise speed got 88 feet per gallon. It would take 11 gallons to move the ship it's own length. The captain of the Dali would have no more engines running then he absolutely needed. Based on the above, that means two. Also based on the above, reversing the propeller would not be a really quick process. The video shows the lights on the Dali going out before the crash - that means that likely the ship lost two engines simultaneously. To me, that says fuel system.
The short-term ripple effects of this are going to be massive although it seems the channel itself won't take long to get reopened. I suspect w/in 2-4 weeks depending upon whether the ship needs to be partially/fully offloaded in place &/or whether its hull was ripped open.
This is from a good friend who is a chief engineer on the big boats: Looks like they lost their Ship Service generator(s). They got power back briefly, probably their emergency generator, but that was overloaded (you can tell from the black smoke pouring out of the stack at that point). That failed in short order. They were able to get another system online ( maybe a previously offline SS gen), but by that point they were unable to maneuver. Steering is on the emergency bus per USCG regs and is connected to the SS bus through and ABT (automatic bus transfer). Without either power source, you cannot steer except locally from the steering gear, and there was no time.
There is an auto oil trigger. If the oil system gets a low oil pressure detection, the engines are automatically shut down to avoid a catastrophic engine failure. Most modern ships can be totally controlled by the captain from the bridge, via remote control. Maybe there was a remote-control failure? Vet
You're correct, if forward motion is slowed dramatically down, the rudder has little effect on movement direction of the ship. Vet
