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?
In January they handled 90,400 TEUs. 715,000 tonnes of containers and 56,000 tonnes of cars. Looks like the low side of average for cars and about average for container tonnage. That’s 23,000 ton/day! Almost 3000 TEUs/day. Between 900 and 1800 cars (1 ton cars are a rarity nowadays).
They want to get the wreckage cleaned up in a month. Rebuild will take years.
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.
How much of the mile and a half bridge is still intact? From the video it all went down but that was just the part in view of the camera.
I remember a few years ago a major bridge near Minneapolis went down from a ship strike, and they actually had it replaced pretty quickly, something like 18 months IIRC. But it wasn’t a mile and a half long.
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.
Sad. Do better.
and only one of those 2 posters is actually relevant to the conversation. But BLEP can’t help himself. It’s really important for him politicize everything about a country he has no stake in.
Buttegieg (I’m sure I spelled that wrong) is on scene. Good look for him he should get credit.
I know nothing about the Dem governor of Maryland (Wes Moore??), but if I was in the leadership of the Dem party I’d sure have my eye on him
Is known, and an up and comer. Maryland truly is a purple state where the best man, be he red or blue, wins the elections. MAGA Bozos know not to throw their hat in the ring.
When we cross over the Bay bridge a couple miles south of there we usually see 6-12 ships waiting in line to head north to Baltimore. Baltimore docks really get a lot more traffic than people realize.
If Minnesota’s bridge too 18 months to rebuild I wouldn’t be surprised to see this in 12 months or less.
They will move mountains to get that back up quickly.
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.
How much of the mile and a half bridge is still intact? From the video it all went down but that was just the part in view of the camera.
I remember a few years ago a major bridge near Minneapolis went down from a ship strike, and they actually had it replaced pretty quickly, something like 18 months IIRC. But it wasn’t a mile and a half long.
The Minneapolis bridge wasn’t struck by a ship. It collapsed due to shitty design and construction.
When we cross over the Bay bridge a couple miles south of there we usually see 6-12 ships waiting in line to head north to Baltimore. Baltimore docks really get a lot more traffic than people realize.
If Minnesota’s bridge too 18 months to rebuild I wouldn’t be surprised to see this in 12 months or less.
They will move mountains to get that back up quickly.
Maybe someone knows: is rebuilding the bridge a precondition to using the docks? I assume, at minimum, they need to clear the wreckage from the water so that the channel is clear. But, once that is done, can the ships go to/from the dock while the bridge is under construction?
When we cross over the Bay bridge a couple miles south of there we usually see 6-12 ships waiting in line to head north to Baltimore. Baltimore docks really get a lot more traffic than people realize.
If Minnesota’s bridge too 18 months to rebuild I wouldn’t be surprised to see this in 12 months or less.
They will move mountains to get that back up quickly.
Maybe someone knows: is rebuilding the bridge a precondition to using the docks? I assume, at minimum, they need to clear the wreckage from the water so that the channel is clear. But, once that is done, can the ships go to/from the dock while the bridge is under construction?
No, all they need to do is clear the channel and the port can open.
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.
How much of the mile and a half bridge is still intact? From the video it all went down but that was just the part in view of the camera.
I remember a few years ago a major bridge near Minneapolis went down from a ship strike, and they actually had it replaced pretty quickly, something like 18 months IIRC. But it wasn’t a mile and a half long.
The Minneapolis bridge wasn’t struck by a ship. It collapsed due to shitty design and construction.
If you do not understand the facts, do not spew rumors about the I-35W bridge over the Mississippi River that fell in Minneapolis. While the design was considered the cause of the failure (specifically the thin gusset plates that were susceptible to corrosion), the original construction was fine. It was an old design style that was no longer used to build modern bridges, but it was fine. The official NTSB answer was that the design of the bridge (gusset plate) was the fault for the failure with the additional weight on the bridge being a contributing factor. The original construction of the bridge was never considered an issue. The age of the bridge was showing some concerns and they were in the process of doing some work on it. Everything I have seen says that the dead load (static, not moving) of the construction materials on the bridge span compromised the bridge so that it fell under repeated stresses of moving traffic interacting with dead load and weakened components (that were being repaired at the time). Actual construction took about one year. The new bridge opened 13 months after the original bridge fell.
Specifically to the design, it should be noted there are other bridges around the country of that design that are still in use currently. MN has a new policy where they inspect all bridges (not just this design style) annually now. So they can identify any issues (with that style, they pay particular attention to the gusset plates and look for corrosion specifically).
MN has a new policy where they inspect all bridges (not just this design style) annually now.
Do they have sufficient numbers of qualified inspectors to actually complete those inspections on an annual basis? I seem to remember the oil industry had a similar periodic inspection requirement for oil platforms, and were woefully comically under the required capacity to even get close.
When we cross over the Bay bridge a couple miles south of there we usually see 6-12 ships waiting in line to head north to Baltimore. Baltimore docks really get a lot more traffic than people realize.
If Minnesota’s bridge too 18 months to rebuild I wouldn’t be surprised to see this in 12 months or less.
They will move mountains to get that back up quickly.
Maybe someone knows: is rebuilding the bridge a precondition to using the docks? I assume, at minimum, they need to clear the wreckage from the water so that the channel is clear. But, once that is done, can the ships go to/from the dock while the bridge is under construction?
Multiple spans went down. Many more, non-ship trafficked spans did not. Of the spans that went down, it’s unclear how many have sufficient draft depth to cater for large ships. Assume it was just the one, and depending on the design, they could potentially commence work on the adjacent spans. Some things to spring to mind:
If only one span was deep enough for this sort of traffic, I suspect there could be considerable red tape and environmental approvals required to attempt to dredge an adjacent span to make it workable. It may not be as ‘simple’ as deepening an adjacent span, building the bridge over that span, then opening it to ship traffic while the original span is built.From what I recall it’s a 1977 design. Replacing like for like, given what has happened, is unlikely to be acceptable. I would think that they would want to significantly upgrade the design of the piers and piles adjacent spans used by large ships to ensure this can never happen again. So I don’t know if it’s just a case of banging a new span on top.Trying to use adjacent spans for ship traffic may not have the vertical height clearance. You can’t just increase the height of those spans because it won’t tie in with the road levels on the remaining spans. You can’t just raise those road levels as the spans won’t have been designed to carry the extra weight.
But certainly once they have agreed on a new design, with the right people pulling in the same direction you might be surprised how quickly they can make things happen. We had a large bridge up north get washed away by floods, cutting off a regional community. With government and the private sector all working together we got it designed and constructed in a really short period of time and there’s been a lot of back slapping.
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…
When we cross over the Bay bridge a couple miles south of there we usually see 6-12 ships waiting in line to head north to Baltimore. Baltimore docks really get a lot more traffic than people realize.
If Minnesota’s bridge too 18 months to rebuild I wouldn’t be surprised to see this in 12 months or less.
They will move mountains to get that back up quickly.
Maybe someone knows: is rebuilding the bridge a precondition to using the docks? I assume, at minimum, they need to clear the wreckage from the water so that the channel is clear. But, once that is done, can the ships go to/from the dock while the bridge is under construction?
The port will be reopened withing weeks…the bridge is a convenience for the populace
