Baltimore bridge collapses into river after being hit by cargo ship
Baltimore bridge collapses into river after being hit by cargo ship
Mayor says rescue efforts are under way after vessel crashed into Francis Scott Key Bridge, sending vehicles into water
A portion of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore has collapsed after a large boat collided with it early on Tuesday morning, sending multiple vehicles into the water.
At about 1.30am, a vessel crashed into the bridge, catching fire before sinking and causing multiple vehicles to fall into the water below, according to a video posted on X.
“All lanes closed both directions for incident on I-695 Key Bridge. Traffic is being detoured,” the Maryland Transportation Authority posted on X.
Matthew West, a petty officer first class for the coastguard in Baltimore, told the New York Times that the coastguard received a report of an impact at 1.27am ET. West said the Dali, a 948ft (29 metres) Singapore-flagged cargo ship, had hit the bridge, which is part of Interstate 695.
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Seven people likely dead so far. What a horrible, terrifying way to go.
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I've heard it was construction workers filling pot holes.
The bridge at crest is around 185 ft off the water, and footage shows the collapse took about 6 seconds where the cars were.
Imagine doing a mind numbing job in the dead of night and then all of a sudden the floor starts dipping below you. The street lights go out a second or two later, and not long after you're falling for close to 2 seconds. Then either crashing hard into the concrete below you that just parted the water, having a flood of water hit you shortly after. or just jetting directly into freezing cold water.
How the fuck did this happen?
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You’re making your regular commute, a bit annoyed with the sudden traffic backup, and then you’re suddenly falling with no warning, then struggling to not drown in your car.
It’s insane how everything can go from normal to terrifying. I hope those who lived through this have help coping, and am sorry for the victims and their families. It’s so tragic.
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Nah, I'd say that it's probably fast and even if you're alive and conscious after you hit the water, you're gonna drown pretty quickly. Probably one of the better ways to go.
Dying generally isn't all that pleasant.
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I technically drowned when I was 12 and being an idiot 'riding' waterfalls. I got sucked into a big crack in a rock and when my friends finally got me out I was clinically dead, and all of my fingernails were ripped in half from trying to claw my way out. All I can remember is abject fear, and then the burning as my lungs gave up.
I would rather die by almost any other means.
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The investigation report is going to be interesting. While bridges can only take so much punishment, they are usually designed to survive some collisions with their pylons. I wonder what the state of the bridge was, prior to the collapse. If it's anything like the rest of the infrastructure in the US, it was probably not good. Though, this may also be a case that the designers in the 70's planned for a collision with a cargo vessel of the times, which were tiny bath tub boats compared to the super container ships we have now. The Dali was built in 2015 she is a 300m ship capable of carrying 116851 tons. That's a lot of mass for the pylon and it's barriers to stop.
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I'm pretty sure no bridge is designed to survive a collision with a large cargo ship, even a brand new one. It would balloon the cost so much nobody would be willing to pay it.
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A bridge is quite different to a pylon though.
Literally a block of concrete embedded in the sea floor.
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https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/bridge/inspection/
I think you can look up certain characteristics such as this here, I’ve done it before and exported data into Excel when I was looking into something else. If this isn’t the specific site I apologize, I’m on mobile, but it is publicly available.
Edit: these links may be better:
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/bridge/nbi/element.cfm
https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/national-bridge-inventory-system-nbi
https://infobridge.fhwa.dot.gov/Data
https://geodata.bts.gov/datasets/5e58970e89934e818f38772859addf43_0/explore
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- in the '70s* planned
- and its* barriers to stop
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It's* no tits
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I live not five minutes away from the Key bridge and the sound of this woke me up last night. My GF takes this bridge to work every day. Driving through the city now for her every morning is going to be fucking awful.
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I watched it on the news last night all the way from Australia and I said 'man they just fucked that whole cities traffic up for a long time'.
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Yeah, IIRC it is the route for hazmat trucks. Gonna fuck with a lot of businesses down the line for a bit too.
As an aside, they used to have a rave down in the park under the west side of the bridge a decade or so ago, and it was always awesome being on the beach stage looking at that bridge at night and as the sun would come up.
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The construction workers that died is fucking awful. The traffic situation won't be great, but at least she's alive with a job to go to.
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Most people would take that as a given. He was just pointing out the effect on his own personal life.
It would be pretty annoying if everyone shared their own effect but had to precede it with a standard "I know it's more awful for those with lives lost, but this affects me because..."
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I'm just glad it happened in the dead of night and that the ship sent a mayday several minutes before it happened. State Police were apparently able to close the bridge and clear most of the traffic (it's 1.6 miles/ 2.6 kilometers long) off of it before it collapsed. It's sad that there were still construction workers and some cars still left on it, though.
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It’s sad that there were still construction workers and some cars still left on it, though.
Hopefully police told the people to evacuate their vehicles
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Unfortunately, it would've simply been faster for them to drive to either end of the bridge. The Maryland Department of Transportation had already closed the bridge. The only traffic left on the bridge was the traffic that got through before the closure, but everything happened so fast I don't think they had time to get off the bridge.
One article I read said that the mayday call, the bridge closure, the collision, and the collapse all happened in the span of about two minutes.
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I'm so confused why a mayday wasn't sent out earlier though. Like they had to have known collision was imminent.
And weren't there local authorities on board that were guiding them through the waterway?
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They lost power, dropped anchor, and called a mayday. By the sound of it the pilot probably did everything perfect. But whatever caused the power loss and engine failure is gonna be looked at very closely.
I think new procedures for having tugs hooked up until ships are entirely clear of port may be on their way - even if they're mostly just escorts unless the ship's engines fail.
There's gonna be a lot of pointing fingers and yelling, but hopefully in the end things will be safer than they are today. From the sound of it we got really lucky on the "lives lost" side of things.
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I'm so confused why a mayday wasn't sent out earlier though. Like they had to have known collision was imminent.
Prolly something like:
"Aww nah, theres no need m8, I'm sure we'll figure something out"
I've heard the same thing with another issue
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That’s the ship that hit the bridge. It’s still there as I write this, but there are a bunch of tugs on scene right now.
Marine traffic can show you all the active AIS contacts in real time.
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Found a photo of the bridge on it.
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Seems normal.
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At least it happened in the very early AM hours when traffic was low and there were no visibility problems, unlike the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.
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The fact that it was early morning probably saved hundreds of lives, from what I'm reading
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That sounds like a traffic armageddon around Baltimore for the next few years...
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Not just Baltimore. This is also a major cargo port. That harbor will be blocked for a long time. Get ready for supply chain disruptions and more rising prices.
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You can clear the debris in a week or two. It will take multiple years to build a new bridge.
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holy shit. I've been getting alerts about it, but that video is so much worse than I imagined.
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That doesn't look like a little repair, which is what I had assumed. That looks like the ship's insurer is buying Baltimore a new bridge.
googles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Scott_Key_Bridge_(Baltimore)
The main span of 1,200 feet (366 m) was the third longest span of any continuous truss in the world.
Smooth.
The bridge, at an estimated cost of $110 million
Construction of the Outer Harbor Bridge began in 1972, several years behind schedule and $33 million overbudget.
So $143 million in 1972 dollars...
https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/
$1.06 billion in 2024 dollars.
EDIT:
https://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/details/9697428
95k ton displacement.
Convention on Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims (LLMC)
The Convention provides for a virtually unbreakable system of limiting liability. Shipowners and salvors may limit their liability, except if "it is proved that the loss resulted from his personal act or omission, committed with the intent to cause such a loss, or recklessly and with knowledge that such loss would probably result".
The limit of liability for property claims for ships not exceeding 2,000 gross tonnage is 1 million SDR.
* For larger ships, the following additional amounts are used in calculating the limitation amount:
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For each ton from 2,001 to 30,000 tons, 400 SDR
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For each ton from 30,001 to 70,000 tons, 300 SDR
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For each ton in excess of 70,000, 200 SDR
So that'd be 29,200,000 SDR.
https://www.imf.org/external/np/fin/data/rms_sdrv.aspx
1.325610 US dollars per SDR.
So about a $39 million limit on marine liability for a ship of that size, or under 4% of the price of the bridge.
Maybe Baltimore taxpayers are gonna be buying Baltimore a new bridge.
EDIT2: I wonder how owners of larger ships managed to get lower per-ton liability limits than owners of smaller ships.
EDIT3: Oh, wait. Apparently the US isn't party to that treaty. Sounds like the US uses law even more favorable to the shipowner.
https://iclg.com/practice-areas/shipping-laws-and-regulations/usa
The United States is not a party to the 1976 Convention on Limitation of Liability for Maritime Claims. Instead, the United States continues to apply the Limitation of Liability Act (the Limitation Act), passed in 1851 to encourage investment in shipping. Under this Act, vessel owners (including demise charterers) may limit liability to the value of the vessel and pending freight in certain circumstances where the loss occurred without the privity or knowledge of the owner.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limitation_of_Liability_Act_of_1851
The Act was passed by Congress on March 3, 1851 to protect the maritime shipping industry; at the time, shipowners were subject to loss from events beyond their control such as storms and pirates, so the Act was designed to limit the shipowners' liability to the value of the vessel. Without it, American shipping was "at a competitive disadvantage" compared to other maritime countries where similar limitations applied.[1]: 260
Section 3 of the 1851 Act states "the liability of the owner or owners of any ship or vessel ... shall in no case exceed the amount or value of the interest of such owner or owners respectively, in such ship or vessel, and her freight then pending".
I guess if you're gonna knock down a bridge with a container ship, the US is probably a good place to do it.
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US uses law even more favorable to the shipowner.
Color me surprised.
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I appreciate the research and sources you've listed here. Its quite interesting from an impact perspective.
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I am guessing these liability limits are for the cargo, not any damage caused by the ship. If shippers had to ensure everything they shipped for "storms and pirates" in the 1800's, then they probably wouldn't be able to do business. So there is a limit to what shippers would owe their clients if a ship got captured or wrecked. Those clients would need their own insurance if they wanted to be made whole in the event of a catastrophe.
What happens next is likely to be the result if the investigation. If this was a freak mechanical failure, and the boat's maintenance was otherwise up to date, then maybe the State won't be able to go after the boat's owners. But if there's any inkling that there was negligence in the maintenance of the boat, or in the piloting of it, the the State is going to go after the company for all it can. Depending on what they find, there might even be criminal charges.
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Ahhh yes corporate arbitration lawyers. They shall be among the first to be flayed in the uprising.
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the liability of the owner or owners of any ship or vessel ... shall in no case exceed the amount or value of the interest of such owner or owners respectively, in such ship or vessel, and her freight then pending".
I think that's probably way more than $39 million.
The Ever Given that got stuck in the Suez Canal was worth about $125 million carrying about $600 million in cargo. It had a capacity of 20,000 TEU (twenty foot equivalent units).
This MV Dali has a capacity of about 10,000 TEU and was carrying 4700 containers. I think no matter how you slice it, the value of the ship and its cargo would be in the hundreds of millions.
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Police audio from the event:
It sounds like police got their just in time to stop traffic. One of the officers says that as soon as backup arrives to take over stopping traffic he would go and evacuate the workers; when we get the report that the bridge is gone.
If you watch the stream of the crash, you can see that traffic was flowing just moments before it fell.
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Wow, damn. Unfortunately similar to the Tasman Bridge collapse
May all involved find peace, that's so tragic.
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I had to find a map, yeah, this is going to be a major cluster fuck in the morning. It's possible to route around it, but the next crossing is aways away:
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Just looking at that map makes me crack up as someone from Ireland. Baltimore is a small town here on the south coast of Cork. Dundalk is up in Northern Ireland. Pasadena is a place in California.
I just think it's funny when America has random place names taken from elsewhere.
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And there's a Brooklyn Park in Maryland, Minnesota, Oregon, and South Australia.
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We have a London in Canada.
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California is down in St. Mary's County
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Cultural appropriation is US culture. The UK and Ireland were just some of the earliest donor countries.
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Hazmats are prohibited in both tunnels. About the only option for those is to go all the way around 695, adding the better part of 50 miles.
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I wonder how quickly one can get a RORO ferry up and running? That bridge isn't gonna be rebuilt any time soon.
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No joke, and I bet it was heavily used too... Better jump on those infrastructure dollars!
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Its not the same thing at all but they got the I-35W bridge rebuilt in 13 months after the bridge collapsed into the Mississippi. Its only 1/2 mile long and the river span is of course tiny -- no supports required in water.
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There was a live-stream where you can scrub to the minute where the bridge is gone (1:28:43 by the time-stamp inside of the video, not the YT timestamp). The Ship apparently lost all the lights 2-3 times shortly before impact. Maybe it was a problem with that. We also noticed a lot of hacking activities in the last weeks. Maybe it was that.
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Better to wait for more details to come out than to speculate wildly.
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Idk I'm going with space lasers and you can't convince me otherwise.
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Yeah, not everything bad that happens is intentional despite how much some people want that to be the case.
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FBI confirms not an act of terrorism rn
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Here's a quick take on the crash. Informed and conspiracy free, based upon the video:
- Ship power cut off and the pilot panicked and threw engines into reverse (as seen by engine exhaust)
- 'Prop walk', which happen when you operate a propeller in reverse, turned the ship starboard into the bridge support
Some speculation in there about the state of mind of the pilot in trying to explain their actions. Hopefully the NTSB report will shed more light on things. The state of the steering particularly.
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Wow, that was a wild shot of the collapse.
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A portion? That looks like the entire thing dropped.
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Everything in camera collapsed, but the whole thing was 1.6 miles.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Scott_Key_Bridge_(Baltimore)
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That was pretty much the whole thing, looking at a Google Earth image of the thing:
Like, there are ramps over land that the cars drive up to get up to the bridge's full height, but what was in the image was more-or-less the portion that was over the water.
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Ah I see!
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Time for a redundant array of inexpensive bridges?
(computer joke about backups and resilience.)
Or on a more serious note, maybe a tunnel?
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So which version of RAIB you thinking? Because obviously, this has to be hardware, can't do this with software. IMO, RAIB-5 is probably overkill but I think the locals would appreciate it.
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They also have a tunnel and other Bridges
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There are two tunnels, plus you could go the long way around or on local streets. However there’s a lot of traffic, plus the tunnels have restrictions against hazardous or oversized loads
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The Beowulf Bridge.
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What kind of RAIB array would you suggest?
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Looks like most crossing upstream are tunnels.
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They are, with restrictions for hazmat, propane, and similar materials, so another tunnel with the same restrictions would be a major headache.
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will this close down one of the biggest ports on the East Coast? how will other ships get by?
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Yeah DOT confirmed the port of Baltimore is closed to sea traffic, local truck traffic from port is still active so the closure won't be felt immediately. But it will be significant the longer it's closed. 9th largest port in the US.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_of_Baltimore
Currently, the port has major ro-ro (roll-on roll-off) facilities and bulk facilities, especially steel handling. The port handles around 700,000 vehicles annually. Most Mercedes-Benz cars that are imported into the U.S were handled here as well in 2004.
The Port handles one-fourth of the country's coal exports.
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Yeah they won't get by, in bound traffic will reroute to Norfolk, Philadelphia and NY until a plan is in place. I would guess they have the channel open in 2 weeks or less.
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As soon as the investigation is finished, they’ll get on removing the debris. That area has no shortage of transportation engineering companies. I’m sure people from the governor’s and mayor’s respective offices are already reaching out to line up inspections and eventual bids. Once the investigation is over, their top goal will be getting the port opened up.
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They aren't going to wait for an investigation.
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Yes, and they won't for the moment.
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That’s gonna cause some delays.
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Well that looks expensive
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The scale doesn't even come across in the video.
That bit you see collapse is half a mile long.
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half a mile long
I think you mistyped this. It was a mile and a half long.
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Man I wouldn't want to be this boat's insurance.
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The bridge is just gone now, one tap and the whole thing fell like dominos!
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It would seem most construction projects rely on a boat not ramming into it
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_Skyway_Bridge
The southbound span (opened in 1971) of the original bridge was destroyed on the morning of May 9, 1980, when the 606 ft (185 m) freighter MV Summit Venture collided with a support column during a sudden squall, causing the catastrophic failure of over 1,200 ft (370 m) of the span.
Governor Bob Graham's idea to build a "signature" cable-stayed bridge with a span that would be 50% wider than that of the old Skyway Bridge won out over other proposals. 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".
Florida apparently isn't relying on that anymore.
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Boat hulls can't melt steel beams
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Just to illustrate the point, this is no "tap". A cargo ship like that hitting something is about the same momentum as 14 loaded Boeing 787s hitting something at 800 km/h, simultaneously.
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283 million pound "tap"
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Those constructions rely on all parts being where they are, otherwise the whole thing collapses. You'd need a different kind of bridge for the single stretches to be independent.
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It's bad enough that the transportation infrastructure is falling apart across the country due to poor maintenance. But when the bridge was built in the 1970s, I don't think container ships that big even existed. It's the same problem with old roads and modern cars or old airports and modern jets.
I hope that whatever replaces the Key Bridge is designed to fail in segments and take a good beating before it does.
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The bridge knows where it is, because it knows where it isn't.
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It didn't just collapse 'after' being hit. It was destroyed by the collision.
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Well yeah, I don't see how it's wrong to say it collapsed after being hit by a cargo ship.
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I have to agree, if the headline says, "Man dies after drinking Drano," nobody is under the impression it was a coincidence.
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As an Engineer I am looking forward to seeing how this plays out on future construction as well as retrofitting of existing bridges. Not only that, but also Emergency alert systems on cargo ships and maybe a more redundant power set up? But RIP to all those who lost their lives. Tragic.
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This has been a plainly difficult production.
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which is a prime example of a why a bridge built in a shipping lane should be built to stricter standards that would prevent a total fucking collapse from a errant ship.
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For sure, and furthermore the city should have some sort of tugboats capable of stopping a rogue ship if it had time to give out a mayday. Just attach a line to the back of the hull when it enters the channel and give throttle in the opposite direction to halt it.
EDIT: People downvoting like "snort small ship not pull big ship, so dumb"
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I saw this just now on goog-ul and the first thought was... two ships collided on the bridge? But ships don't even drive on bridges!
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But ships don't even drive on bridges!
They're a tricky lot, those ships.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navigable_aqueduct
EDIT: Though for at least some of those, they're smaller and the right term is probably "boat" than "ship".
