The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland Has Collapsed

Re:The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland Has C... by G0dchi1d on Tuesday March 26, 2024 @10:15AM (#39828095)

Every bridge with large cargo ship traffic beneath them should have channels designed to guide the commercial traffic, installed beneath them. Every city with bridges like these should, with state AND federal funding, should begin the process of constructing such "guidance channels" beneath these bridges IMMEDIATELY!!! It should be IMPOSSIBLE for Ships large enough to damage bridges to even be able to come into contact with these bridges. The idea that the ship itself has 100% control as to whether it strikes a bridge or not, IS INSANE.

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Re:The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland Has C... by _fat_santa on Tuesday March 26, 2024 @10:18AM (#39828129)

The problem is momentum. These ships weigh thousands of tons so something as simple as coming to a stop is difficult. The ship probably knew it would collide with the bridge well in advance but had no way stop of avert the ship due to it's sheer size.

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Re:The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland Has C... by mherchel on Tuesday March 26, 2024 @10:46AM (#39828593)

Doesn't have to stop them, just has to redirect them

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Re:The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland Has C... by 16bytes on Tuesday March 26, 2024 @01:34PM (#39830555)

What you are proposing isn't feasible from an engineering perspective. This isn't like putting a guard rail up.

To make damage from collisions "impossible" you'd have to build embankments up so high that the bridge would effectively be sitting on solid ground the entire way across and no ships could pass anywhere.

Sure, there are ways to mitigate collisions and the new bridge they build will no doubt be more resilient, but it's not realistic to completely eliminate such risk.

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Re:The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland Has C... by ProllyInfamous on Tuesday March 26, 2024 @03:28PM (#39831849)

How about instead of adding "bumpers," it becomes required for a tug boat to help guide past infrastructure spans like bridges, rail, gas.

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Re:The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland Has C... by 16bytes on Tuesday March 26, 2024 @05:06PM (#39832866)

There is already something like this in use: harbor pilots, who have specialized knowledge of specific ports and board vessels to navigate them through critical transit zones. It is reported that there were pilots on board navigating at the time of the collision.

Tugs are used in tight locations, but they can only change a ship's speed at a very slow rate compared to that ship's engines. By analogy, you can pull a train car and get it moving by yourself, but if that thing is moving at 5mph you aren't stopping it by yourself in any reasonable distance.

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Re:The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland Has C... by ProllyInfamous on Tuesday March 26, 2024 @10:22PM (#39835080)

I feel that in this situation a nearby tug boat could have diverted the ship (by at least kept it from straying from the shipping channel during power failure).

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Re:The Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland Has C... by 16bytes on Wednesday March 27, 2024 @03:13PM (#39843362)

I think you're probably right. A tug (or two) hypothetically could've provided some emergency directional control.

When they reopen the port, it'll be interesting to see what early mitigations they put in place.

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