Earlier quoted context omitted.
[flagged]
Interesting, that this got downvoted ...
Predictable, not interesting. It's a dupe of a dead sibling comment, and risks dragging the conversation into a politics flamewar.
Baltimore's Key Bridge struck by cargo ship, collapses
91–100 of 1001 posts
Re: Baltimore's Key Bridge struck by cargo ship, collapses
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
Already roughly 75 edits since the collapse.
It makes me wonder what goes through someone's head when one sees a mass casualty event like this, and your first instinct is to rush to Wikipedia to change the article to past tense ('was' a bridge).
What was your first instinct when you learned of the event, and how did you respond to that instinct of yours?
What was going through your head at that time?
Re: Baltimore's Key Bridge struck by cargo ship, collapses
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
Already roughly 75 edits since the collapse.
What impressed me was that it looks like openstreetmap shows the bridge as down already. https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=16/39.2144/-76.5279
OpenStreetMap editors are just as passionate as Wikipedia editors. :)
Re: Baltimore's Key Bridge struck by cargo ship, collapses
#94Was anyone driving across? I didn't notice car headlights on the bridge, but... edit: The guardian clip says vehicles were on the bridge.
You can clearly see headlights moving across it as it comes down.
Re: Baltimore's Key Bridge struck by cargo ship, collapses
#95Earlier quoted context omitted.
Modern bridges are required to endure a collision. This bridge might be very old and not sufficiently maintained against current requirements.
I'm not sure how many brand new bridges would stay up after having one of the piers on the main span removed.
The trick is to make sure the piers are not removed. For example, the new Tampa Bay Sunshine Skyway Bridge (rebuilt after a similar disaster):
> In addition to a wider shipping lane, the channel would be marked by a 1⁄4 mi (400 m)-long series of large concrete barriers, and the support piers would be protected by massive concrete "dolphins".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_Skyway_Bridge#/media/...
Re: Baltimore's Key Bridge struck by cargo ship, collapses
#96Somehow I find it surprising how completely the bridge collapsed after the damage. I understand that a container ship collision is serious, but you could imagine a scenarios where the bridge slumps or buckles but doesn’t just disintegrate like that. It’s surprising that ships capable of doing this damage were probably regularly driving past it, and its safety as a thoroughfare depended entirely on those collisions no…
This situation is terrible, but to your specific question:
Anyone can build a bridge, but it takes an engineer to barely make it stand.
Re: Baltimore's Key Bridge struck by cargo ship, collapses
#97Re: Baltimore's Key Bridge struck by cargo ship, collapses
#98Somehow I find it surprising how completely the bridge collapsed after the damage. I understand that a container ship collision is serious, but you could imagine a scenarios where the bridge slumps or buckles but doesn’t just disintegrate like that. It’s surprising that ships capable of doing this damage were probably regularly driving past it, and its safety as a thoroughfare depended entirely on those collisions no…
Not all bridges are this vulnerable to a single impact. This one, opened 12 years earlier, has a different style and mostly survived a cargo ship impact: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasman_Bridge_disaster
I would say the damage is about the same, The ship knocked down a pier and all spans connected to the pier went down. The difference is, on the baltimore bridge is that the spans are a lot longer. But all other spans(the ones nearly out of frame) are still standing.
Re: Baltimore's Key Bridge struck by cargo ship, collapses
#99Somehow I find it surprising how completely the bridge collapsed after the damage. I understand that a container ship collision is serious, but you could imagine a scenarios where the bridge slumps or buckles but doesn’t just disintegrate like that. It’s surprising that ships capable of doing this damage were probably regularly driving past it, and its safety as a thoroughfare depended entirely on those collisions no…
This situation is terrible, but to your specific question: Anyone can build a bridge, but it takes an engineer to barely make it stand.
I like this quote. We have a medieval bridge near to our house (1000 years old perhaps), it's incredibly solidly built, but could you call it well-engineered?
It's a subtle distinction that I don't think many in the digital realm quite grasp either i.e. far too many over-engineered technical solutions for features and products that aren't even desired
Re: Baltimore's Key Bridge struck by cargo ship, collapses
#100Somehow I find it surprising how completely the bridge collapsed after the damage. I understand that a container ship collision is serious, but you could imagine a scenarios where the bridge slumps or buckles but doesn’t just disintegrate like that. It’s surprising that ships capable of doing this damage were probably regularly driving past it, and its safety as a thoroughfare depended entirely on those collisions no…
The problem is the static scheme of the bridge. Most modern bridges are hyperstatic: if you remove one support, it still stands. Or at least isostatic: you remove one support or one span, and nothing happens to the nearest ones. This bridge was ill conceived: you remove one support or span, and it brings down everything like a chain that pulls down everything it's linked to. It's bad because the "engineer" just wante…
You cannot put the entire weight of the 70's safety culture to an engineer "showing off"
I bet there was a much more complex and nuanced analysis which included crossing ship dimensions, budget, time to completion, available technology, composition of the local seabed etc..
Designing a bridge is proper engineering and not that easy.