“ Container ship Dali appears to lose propulsion/electrical as it approaches Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. Ship loses lighting and begins drifting. Without propulsion, the ship would have little directional control. It collides with the bridge tower. Shown at 2X speed.â€
Watching the video and I was yelling at every vehicle I saw passing over the bridge. “Faster, faster, hurry up!â€
Obviously, we don’t have the full span of the bridge in the video but it didn’t appear any vehicles were driving over the bridge from what we could see. News reports say some vehicles went into the water so obviously there were vehicles on it.
I can’t believe how fast it collapsed.
I was doing the same. Knowing that the bridge had collapsed, I was praying or rooting for each car on the bridge to get through before that happened. I got frustrated when I saw a vehicle that wasn’t going fast enough.
Reports are that there were workers on the bridge at the time.
This is one of those times where I wish we didn’t have immediately available video like this.
Ship Sent Out Mayday Call Before Crashing Into Baltimore Bridge The ship sent out a mayday call when it experienced a power cut prior to the crash, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said at a press conference. The call allowed officials to stop vehicles from entering the bridge before the crash, which likely saved lives.
Good to know a worse situation was avoided. Still tragic.
Bridges definitely are not designed for the side force point load.
Side impact loads are most definitely part of modern bridge design. There’s footage of a Russian freighter hitting a bridge in South Korea for one. Though the difference in pier pile caps (v this older bridge) is significant. It’s actually scary how many videos are online of out of control ships hitting things.
Some of the road over rail bridges on recent projects I’ve been on use deflector walls in advance of the main piers
Looks like it had just left the dock and moved a couple of miles own the river. I don’t know if there would still be tugboats around at that point. You can see the track veer right just before the bridge.
Looks like it had just left the dock and moved a couple of miles own the river. I don’t know if there would still be tugboats around at that point. You can see the track veer right just before the bridge.
I’m ignorant to the layout of the waterway and how the ships work so.
I’m no expert, but from what I can find on line:
The MV Dali is registered out of Singapore and was put into service in 2015. She is diesel powered. Looking at how that type of ship works the diesel drives the screw directly through a reduction gear. Electrical power is supplied from the diesel as well. It looks like she has one engine, which I find unusual, but maybe not for commercial ships. It that is case a casualty in the diesel will put the ship DITW, and that is what looks like happened.
The ship belongs to Singapore-based Grace Ocean Pte Ltd, which is owned by a Hong Kong group, and was carrying containers on behalf of Danish shipping giant Maersk.
Synergy Marine, the Singapore company that operates the Dali, said it was being controlled by two Baltimore port pilots at the time of the collision
My son is a student in one of the maritime academy’s working towards being a licensed marine engineer. He would be the one trying to get power back on that ship. I just got off the phone with him and he tells me they have protocol for how fast they should be able to bring online a backup power source. It looks like something want seriously wrong.
Today happens to be the day he selects his summertime billet and he will be working for one of the big tug companies in the Port of Baltimore. He was on AIS just now and said all the tugs for his company are out at the crash sight now. It should be an interesting summer for him.
Watching the video and I was yelling at every vehicle I saw passing over the bridge. “Faster, faster, hurry up!â€
I did the same, watching the cars/trucks and the ship getting closer. At the point of impact, it seems that there were not a lot of vehicles. It could have been much worse.
I wonder how much ship traffic the Port of Baltimore gets on a daily basis. How long will this shut down the port? Looks like under the bridge was the only way in/out. What will the local economic impact be?
Glad they were able to shut down traffic on the bridge. Condolences to the families of the missing workers.
Strange that they didn’t have tug escorts nearby. When I was working on a ship, and we were smaller then this one, we always had 2 tug boats either very close or they were connected to us by ropes every time we were entering or leaving.
I wonder how much ship traffic the Port of Baltimore gets on a daily basis. How long will this shut down the port? Looks like under the bridge was the only way in/out. What will the local economic impact be?
Glad they were able to shut down traffic on the bridge. Condolences to the families of the missing workers.
This has some data on that. Sounds like a big deal to the local economy.
So, do they rebuild the span portion of the bridge and reconnect to the existing concrete roadway, or build a new bridge altogether? I assume the former would be quicker and cheaper, assuming they can clear the wreckage relatively quickly. Two to three year project? The Mario Cuomo (new Tappan Zee) Bridge took five years to build.
Biden has announced that it is his intention that the Federal Government will pay for the replacement bridge. Queue GOP efforts to block funding for this project…
Ship Sent Out Mayday Call Before Crashing Into Baltimore Bridge The ship sent out a mayday call when it experienced a power cut prior to the crash, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said at a press conference. The call allowed officials to stop vehicles from entering the bridge before the crash, which likely saved lives.
It was interesting how the story in some way is a human success story, people responded to an unexpected condition quickly and minimized casualties. Two groups that never worked together successfully communicated and stopped traffic.
Ship Sent Out Mayday Call Before Crashing Into Baltimore Bridge The ship sent out a mayday call when it experienced a power cut prior to the crash, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said at a press conference. The call allowed officials to stop vehicles from entering the bridge before the crash, which likely saved lives.
It was interesting how the story in some way is a human success story, people responded to an unexpected condition quickly and minimized casualties. Two groups that never worked together successfully communicated and stopped traffic.
yes that is a success story for sure, too bad this sort of cooperation is the exception rather than the rule.
So, do they rebuild the span portion of the bridge and reconnect to the existing concrete roadway, or build a new bridge altogether? I assume the former would be quicker and cheaper, assuming they can clear the wreckage relatively quickly. Two to three year project? The Mario Cuomo (new Tappan Zee) Bridge took five years to build.
We’ll have to cross that bridge when we get to it (bad pun, groan).
As a frequent traveller on this bridge, and the TZ bridges (old and new), the current newish TZ is a much bigger in scale (so 5 years for that seemed reasonable). And it now has a protected bike/ped pathway There was also less urgency as that was going up in parallel (literally) with the to-be-replaced TZ bridge still in use during the construction duration .
Hopefully they get something up and running here soon as there would be a regional traffic issue without it.
They got the Philly bridge up in record time… but again, that was minor in scale compared to this. Where there’s a will there’s a way.
Biden has announced that it is his intention that the Federal Government will pay for the replacement bridge. Queue GOP efforts to block funding for this project…
You do realize you and Kay are the only two posters who interjected politics into this.
There was also less urgency as that was going up in parallel (literally) with the to-be-replaced TZ bridge still in use during the construction duration .