Baltimore Bridge collapse

[oldE]

I'm not an engineer, but as for mooring barges, they will probably need mooring at all four corners, as the river is tidal.
Dismantling the twisted structure of the bridge will be dangerous, as I imagine there will be a lot of oxy lance work to render it into manageable pieces.
Using explosives to sever the beams and girders might be safer and faster.

Best
Les

[greglepore]

The bow of the ship is in the river bottom, but only due to the weight of the bridge resting on it. Should pull right out.
They'll offload containers to barge, they did it with the Ever Forward to lighten it. Only a few hazmat containers aboard, they know where they are and not in the river.
The link upthread that Jolly posted has data on what ships are in the harbor and trapped, luckily not many. As far as arrivals, "Wolfsburg" unloaded VW's at Sparrows Point yesterday-its outside the bridge. Other traffic may divert to Norfolk or Wilmington, both are international ports with all the goodies and only a couple days away. Currently most are holding at an anchorage below the Chesapeake Bay bridge.
I guess a remaining issue is whether salvage is allowed to proceed to cut things apart immediately as all of the bodies haven't been found or recovered.

[HobieMarty]

Originally Posted by unclebilly

Aside from the unimaginable losses, here is what I’m curious about.

1. How are they going to remove the old bridge debris? I know there are barge cranes enroute but they can’t lift an entire bridge section.

1a. How do they cut the bridge sections into liftable segments without shock loading the crane?

1b. How do they get a man into position to cut the bridge sections? Is this torch work or some crane mounted ‘jaws of life’ type pincer machine?

2. How do they get the barges to the bridge and keep them there? Presumably they would set the anchors upstream and the barges would be positioned downstream where the bridge debris is. Likely they would triangulate the anchors to prevent side shifting. It seems like the barges need to be upstream of the bridge but they can’t get there… yet.

3. It appears to me that some sea cans fell from the Dali. How do they deal with that and the contents?

4. Will there be criminal charges against the captain or pilots? 6 people died.

5. How many ships are stranded in Baltimore right now? Who pays for this?

6. If they have to unload Dali partially before they move it, how do they do this?

7. How deep is the water there? Is Dali aground? Is there risk of it sinking there?

8. Is it time to buy Maersk stock?

To answer question #7, I have read that the water is 50 feet deep there at the bridge.

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[hcoles]

I'm curious about - What component failed or what was the human error?

[TimT]

1. How are they going to remove the old bridge debris? I know there are barge cranes enroute but they can’t lift an entire bridge section.

1a. How do they cut the bridge sections into liftable segments without shock loading the crane?


They will use a combination of methods, cutting torches, shears, hoe-rams, hydraulic saws, possibly lances, etc..

1b. How do they get a man into position to cut the bridge sections? Is this torch work or some crane mounted ‘jaws of life’ type pincer machine?

They will probably have barges with manlifts/aerial buckets etc..

And demo shear such as this




2. How do they get the barges to the bridge and keep them there? Presumably they would set the anchors upstream and the barges would be positioned downstream where the bridge debris is. Likely they would triangulate the anchors to prevent side shifting. It seems like the barges need to be upstream of the bridge but they can’t get there… yet.

They will have barges with spuds either on the bow or stern, or all four corners to locate the barges securely.. I'm not sure of the depth of the water . in some instances they may sink or ground the barges.. load them with debris, then refloat the barges. Same with the barge mounted cranes.. There is a barge mounted crane called the "century" owned by the Port Authority of NY and NJ, that has a 1000 ton capacity if floating.. if its grounded the capacity goes up a great deal..

There will be a number of set ups like this, on a much larger scale...

[TimT]

I'm curious about - What component failed or what was the human error?

The ship hit one of the main piers almost head on destroying it and a bridge like that where the span instantly double cannot self support..

In this image you can see the destroyed pier cap, and a portion of one of the columns draped across the bow of the ship

[URY914]

As far of cutting the bridge up into smaller pieces, when the ship Golden Ray rolled over in Brunswick Ga. a few years a go they used a huge chain to cut though the entire ship. There videos of it on youtube. It's crazy to watch it in action.

[URY914]

Found this "before" pic on flickr

[Jolly Amaranto]

Originally Posted by 3rd_gear_Ted

They are looking hard at dirty fuel.
Bunker oil is nasty stuff

They no longer are allowed to use Bunker C. Global regulations require low sulfur fuel. In years past, the sulfur in the diesel fuel would help break down other crap the refiners would dispose of in the fuel oil they sold, so unused feed stock stock from paint or plastics could typically be blended in to get rid of it. Now with the low sulfur, those added impurities wreck havoc with marine diesels.

[URY914]

How are they going to pick up the pieces?

There are MASSIVE barge mounted cranes around the world that can lift hundred of tons. The problem will be finding one available that can get on scene soon.

This one can lift 900 tones

[TimT]

https://www.donjon.com/ches1000.htm

1000 tons at 63' radius

[Sooner or later]

One crane has arrived,

https://apnews.com/article/baltimore-key-bridge-collapse-03-29-2024-7d27a5c561f9f3359935a56139623108


BALTIMORE (AP) — A crane appeared at the site of a collapsed highway bridge in Baltimore as crews prepared Friday to begin clearing wreckage that has stymied the search for four missing workers and blocked ships from entering or leaving the city’s vital port.

A crane that can lift 1,000 tons — described the largest on the Eastern Seaboard — had been expected to arrive late Thursday, and a second that can lift 400 tons should arrive Saturday, officials said earlier. They will be used to clear the channel of the twisted metal and concrete remnants of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, as well as the cargo ship that hit it this week.

[Tobra]

I wonder who they will name the new bridge after

[Scott Douglas]

I think this project would make for a good live streaming camera event. It's going to be very interesting to see how they get all the bridge cleared in a timely manner.

Will a replacement bridge be similar in design?

It's hard to not think about the four guys still missing and what their families are feeling.

[hcoles]

Originally Posted by TimT

The ship hit one of the main piers almost head on destroying it and a bridge like that where the span instantly double cannot self support..

In this image you can see the destroyed pier cap, and a portion of one of the columns draped across the bow of the ship

We know the ship hit things and caused damage. Why did the ship go off course?

[Scott Douglas]

It also lost power and thus the ability to steer it.

[hcoles]

Why did it lose power? E.g. capacitor on circuit board ABC failed and there was no backup or quick recovery process. I would expect that most of the critical systems do not have a single point of failure.

[Steve Carlton]

With so much weight and inertia involved, it would make sense to have tugs escort ships out of the harbor to avoid such a catastrophe. I'm sure that would be expensive, but this illustrates the downside. I know hindsight is 20/20, but this should have been anticipated.

I wonder if not replacing the bridge and re-routing traffic is feasible. Not replacing the Embarcadero Freeway after it collapsed seems to have been a big plus overall.

[URY914]

Originally Posted by Scott Douglas

I think this project would make for a good live streaming camera event. It's going to be very interesting to see how they get all the bridge cleared in a timely manner.

Will a replacement bridge be similar in design?

It's hard to not think about the four guys still missing and what their families are feeling.

I heard an engineer being interviewed today on the radio about the new bridge going back would be a much different design. Look how new bridges are supported today, Much different than the old ones. Designed now with sections that are self supporting and not relying on other sections so when one section goes down it all doesn't fall like a house of cards

[Steve Carlton]

Built in 1977. Like a kitten on a freeway.