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My initial reaction to the video is how a single point of failure can cause an entire structure to collapse. I don’t see too many (any?) bridges of this type being built today (but maybe I’m wrong) and that’s probably a good thing. A terrible tragedy.
5 Likes
Why aren’t they talking to the captain and crew?
7 Likes
Maybe because reportedly some of the crew were Ukrainian? But rumors tend to fly at times like these.
Considering that Baltimore is one of the main ports for importing those foreign automobiles which have cost the US untold hundreds of thousands of auto worker jobs, the possibility of a GM/Ford joint operation perhaps should not be discounted?
Ah! Those distant days when someone could seriously say: If it is good for GM, it is good for America!
7 Likes
Maybe these guys should answer a few questions…
3 Likes
Maybe a good idea to get out of the Russian propaganda.
The four Indians present on the ship are believed to be the captain, chief engineer and first engineer. It’s not clear if the CEO of Synergy Marine, also an Indian, was present. But under maritime law, the ship’s captain is as responsible as the pilots on board.
5 Likes
Fenders would be warranted:
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Speculation on bad fuel.
Apparently they switch from low sulfur to high sulfur when they reach the open ocean, but it may be a bit more complex…
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how a single point of failure can cause an entire structure to collapse.
The entire span had only two points of support and the ship took out one of them. The fact that it was a lateral impact probably didn’t help either.
Subject to the same or similar conditions, pretty much any suspension bridge without massive, elevated footings would probably suffer the same fate.
5 Likes
Correction: It is not the entire span that is supported by two points, it is the truss portion.
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Right, I suppose this is an inherent flaw in (classical?) suspension bridge designs. For critical infrastructure like the FSKB, a design should be chosen with built-in redundancy and some ability to redistribute the load (at least for a while) when a component of the bridge fails. Of course, the real issue here, as you point out, is that the bridge footings weren’t adequately (or at all?) protected…this is criminal in my opinion, especially after similar disasters in the past…we know better.
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Anything that Man builds can be knocked down – just try to find the Colossus of Rhodes these days.
The bridge was built in the 1970s. Codes requiring defense structures for piers were not adopted until the 1980s. Since then, Our Betters had nearly four decades to retrofit the bridge with the required safety structures. But during those four decades, instead they spent the money on bombing Iraq, Yugoslavia, Libya, Afghanistan and who knows where else. They made their choice, and now we are where we are today.
Turkeys coming home to roost.
We could fix the problem. Pull back the US military from overseas and cut its budget drastically; reinstate the US border; roll back thousands of industry-destroying regulations and fire hundreds of thousands of government bureaucrats to save costs and promote revenue-creating industry; set up a sensible tariff regime to bring balance to the unsustainable Trade Deficit; redirect funds to bringing US infrastructure up to Chinese/Russian standards.
But Our Betters won’t do any of that. And, to be fair to them, we citizens are not demanding that they do so.
8 Likes
They could have at least made some piled rock islands ahead of the bridge, no need for fancy dolphins. Or could there be reasons against this?
Yeah, Xi and Putin push this same narrative, so they can take the place of the US. With that, I do think the US is overstretched, especially in the Middle East.
6 Likes
Sal Mercagliano’s update:
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Retrofit is a word that doesn’t exist in Baltimore.
I know the mayor can’t spell in general including retrofit
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There was never any God-given right for the US to run the world – nor was there ever any God-given responsibility. Maybe it is time for the US to look after its own best interests instead of letting a bunch of bureaucrats in the DC Swamp run wild?
The reality is that the de-industrialized US can no longer be the world’s policeman. We either pull back in a planned, rational, responsible manner or we stagger on until we collapse in a much more damaging unplanned failure.
Yes, other countries will step into to fill the void the US is leaving. Good luck to them! Being the Big Banana worked out so well for the US – and for the English before them, and the French before them, and the Spanish before them, and the Dutch before them …
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The governor of Maryland and mayor of Baltimore look and sound very inexperienced. They don’t look like leaders who can manage a catastrophe
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I probably shouldn’t say what my first reactions to the mayor and governor were…let’s just say they didn’t exactly inspire confidence and seemed way in over their heads. I hope I’m wrong.
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Can you imagine what the US would look like if we had invested all that money in our infrastructure? We’d look a lot more like Dubai than Dharavi (as we currently do).
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