They should use the same design as the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.
Posted on 03/26/2024 8:57:44 AM PDT by MeganC
The tragedy in Baltimore with the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge is fresh. Brave people are currently searching the dangerous tangled wreckage for any possible survivors and the dead.
But where the news media this morning is also talking about the impacts on shipping on the East Coast of the USA and the impacts on traffic on the East Coast it is a valid topic of discussion to consider the next steps.
1. Reopening the Port of Baltimore will be a priority. The NTSB will predictably conduct a speedy investigation and conclude the primary cause of the collapse as the cargo ship "Dali" having allided (correct word) with the bridge support.
The center span of the bridge will then be removed to clear the shipping channel. This may happen within a month if not sooner.
2. The bridge will be replaced. The questions are when and by what? Maryland being a Democrat regime the new bridge will cost untold billions, it will likely be a complex design, and it will of course have to feature a costly bike/pedestrian trail.
With the San Francisco Bay Bridge as an example it took fourteen years to replace the earthquake damaged section of the bridge with a costly and probably seismically unsound replacement. This came at an exorbitant cost.
The new bridge in Baltimore will likely take just as long to design, argue about, grift, and construct and no doubt multiple criminal scandals will occur during construction.
The Francis Scott Key Bridge replacement is very unlikely to bear the same name. In all due likelihood it will bear the name of someone favored by woke Democrats.
Anyone else care to weigh in here?
Given the frail design of the bridge piers, there should have been pilot boats required, to get these behemoths safely beyond.
This was an accident waiting to happen.
Yep, look how long it took to replace the I-95 bridge in nearby Alexandria. And the design choices, redesign, and so forth.
And a greenway, planted with grass, and CO2 consuming trees, and provided with benches, for pedestrian traffic. We’re way ahead in bridge design, here in Oregon.
“Why didn’t they originally make it a suspension bridge?”
Truss bridges were popular in the 1970’s due to their relatively low cost and relatively easy construction compared to more durable suspension bridges.
They were also easier to grift and cut corners on as was seen in the I-35 bridge collapse in 2007. In that truss bridge the contractors had cut corners by using gusset plates that were too small and too thin. The bridge was also designed to what were very fine tolerances in terms of potential load.
The factors affecting the I-35 bridge will likely come up in this collapse as the bridges are of about the same vintage.
The general design of these truss bridges of the period lacks stoutness but more importantly they lack redundancy. The design is rife with single points of failure where the failure of one of these single points would cause catastrophic collapse. In this case the bridge support lacked the mass and durability to withstand a predictable impact by a large ship.
That it was not designed for such an obvious possibility was a cost saving measure.
But even without the impact of this ship the bridge may have eventually failed if it were not replaced promptly at the end of its service life. There are just too many features on such bridges that afford opportunities for failure and a lack of maintenance coupled with negligence typical in Democrat regimes would make an eventual collapse a near certainty.
I just looked at Google Maps and that bridge is still there...we’re being gaslit! /s
mmmm….mmmmm….mmmm
LOL
I agree with all posts on the rebuilding. There will be EPA studies, grift out the wazoo, and only "minority" contractors will be able to bid. As for the name, it will be the Freddie Gray Memorial Bridge. Gray was the criminal who, in 2015, was killed while in police custody. This sparked riots which led to the prosecution of six police officers (all acquitted) by the now disgraced DEI hire Marilyn Mosby.
I am 62 and I will be very surprised if this bridge is rebuilt in my life.
As of the time of my writing this, the FBI has already concluded it was not terrorism. I don't know about you, but I feel so much better. /sarcasm
“As of the time of my writing this, the FBI has already concluded it was not terrorism.”
Considering there’s multiple independent videos of the ship losing power and hitting the bridge I’m inclined to agree with the FBI this time.
For the most part I agree. However, I do think the new bridge will still be called the Francis Scott Key bridge. There’s no real controversy over him in Maryland, and the bridge is literally yards away from where Francis Scott Key watched the Battle of Baltimore and wrote the Star Spangled Banner. I think even in woke Maryland we’ll maintain the name. I could be wrong, but I’ve lived here for over 60 years and have literally never heard anyone complain about FSK.
They already HAVE a Harbor Tunnel.
HAZMAT restricted.
Those trucks used the bridge. Now they have to go the long way around the Baltimore Beltway (695) which was already congested.
50 year old engineers and boat captains need not apply.....
They should use the same design as the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.
I hope you’re right.
San Francisco tore down and removed their monument to FSK in 2020. Because woke idiots.
If they were wise, they would immediately contract with an existing ferry company to serve traffic with provable destination less than 15 miles from the crossing.
Drivers transit Baltimore four way. The now defunct bridge, two tunnels (six lanes) and a long drawn out route through the city. I propose that the Old Harbor Tunnel on I-895 (two lanes each way) be reserved for commercial traffic only and the New Harbor tunnel (four lanes each way) be limited to passenger vehicles.
I also propose that the current construction on I-95 north of Baltimore be stopped for the duration to relieve massive congestion.
Of course, being Maryland, they will triple the tolls at the tunnels, build more mass transit and light rail and take 20 years to build the bridge
Let Maryland take it out of the funding of Illegals they so love, to pay for their own damned bridge....
With Biden, Moore, O and Scott, it’s a perfect storm of incompetence. These idiots are paralyzed by inaction
You mention Moore on CNN. I don’t have cable and don’t think I could pick him out of a police lineup.
<y daughter met him years ago at a publishing event. She said he seemed pretty slimy
and Bethlehem Steel nearby
The piers were far too close and inadequate in strength for the size of today’s container cargo ships. The Dali is >900 ft. long. I wonder what the tonnage is and what the piers were designed for.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.