Kiron Loc: Wales and Florida

Uncle Joe said he will, but he meant WE will pay for it.

dustie Loc: Nose to the grindstone

A powerless, 100's of tons, floating piece of real estate a little larger than three American football fields pushed along by the water current......no propulsion, no steering, no braking through any type of reverse thrust, no parking brake like a land-based vehicle, no rolling friction like a land based vehicle, just a massive, commercial cork bobbing along in the unrelenting flow of the water current like the unforgiving movement of a landslide crushing anything in its path, like a massive ice floe unforgivingly pushed down a river during an ice breakup, anchors that may slightly slow the massive cork.....

.......suggestions?.....should the crew run down and drag their heels on the water for brakes, like a scooter or skateboard rider may do on pavement?

Those crew members more than had their hands full of a great big handful of nothing when it came to options to exert control over that conveyor of a river carrying them in its massive, massive grasp, and an equally great big handful of nothing in options to exert control over that dead in the water mass of around 3½ acres+ in footprint size.

They did well in an extremely tiny window of time, to communicate to authorities who had to navigate the canyons of different emergency agencies on different radio frequencies clearly enough to get land-based responses in action to get the area as clear of human lives as possible.

They were like dust in the wind when it came to directing anything about the water flow and the crippled small town of merchandise they were riding.

aammatj Loc: Zebulon, NC / Roscoe, Ill

Did the backup systems fail too?

Kiron Loc: Wales and Florida

Autos and people hit by trains on Florida crossings is a frequent occuence in S Florida. If you ain't a train, stay off the track, you don't belong there. The train will always win.

dustie Loc: Nose to the grindstone

Do they have complete 2nd or 3rd engine rooms, hydraulic systems, fuel systems, etc to take over if #1 fails?

What backups does a ship like that have that can take complete control if primary goes down, and how many 10's, 12's, 100's of minutes would be needed to physically get all the changeover accomplished if they even did have 2nd, 3rd systems?

Kiron Loc: Wales and Florida

In remarks delivered from the White House, President Biden...vowed that the federal government would pay for the cost of rebuilding the bridge. Meaning we taxpayers.

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

Totally different thing. It was a suspension bridge and that’s pretty much what’s gonna happen if you take out one tower. It was a pretty standard type of design. As for tugs, they were used to move it from the dock out into the harbor, but from their harbor pilots are pretty much the standard now. Those big ports are too busy for tugs.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

It was the center column at the highest point of the suspended part of the roadway with no supports at all until you get to the approaches that are on pilings instead of suspended.
That one went and basically NO SUPPORT for anything between the approaches.

As to the protections for that column, designed in the late 60s, built in the 70s, opened in 77 and there were very few vessels of any kind (carriers and some super tankers) that big back then. That 985 ft almost 117,000 ton ship just knocked aside or rode up on the protecting barriers at a speed of 8 knots/9mph according to reports I read.

No bridge on earth could stand up to that large a ship at that speed.
They are fortunate the harbor pilot radioed of the loss of steering and main power in time for the traffic to be blocked at each end so that apparently the repair crew and their trucks were the only ones on the suspended section when the ship hit.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Dropping the anchors would hardly have had any effect on the speed of that large a ship at that speed. It would probably have taken dragging the anchors for miles to bring it to a stop. Anchors are not for stopping ships/boats, they are for place holding when still.

Once while fishing with an uncle the anchor on our 16' John Boat running at slow with an electric trolling motor fell in shallow water, snagged in the mud and spun the boat around so we were going backward from the momentum even with the motor still going in forward. That little John Boat with two adult size men and load of fishing gear kept going until we were had gone 3-4 boat lengths and finally stopped when we came up against a 4' thick tree trunk with the motor hung up in flooded bushes several feet from the tree and dragging the bushes.

FrumCA

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

It doesn’t mean we won’t go after the shipping company, although I doubt we’ll get the full amount to cover it. But it’s not the kind of thing that we can wait for litigation to be resolved. Any big delay would end up being more costly.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

I believe he meant that the government (i.e. we) will fund the reconstruction. The roadway is part of the Interstate system. I'm sure they will seek repayment (with interest) from the insurance company. The payments from the insurance company will follow extensive litigation, which will take years. You don't want to wait years for the reconstruction to begin. It's not just the Interstate. It's the Port of Baltimore, a major shipping port, now closed because ships can't get in nor out. This is going to affect the economy, not just traffic.

And yes, it's going to affect the price of things because it will be a large insurance payout and insurance costs will rise, which will affect shipping costs, which will affect the price of goods.

Since there are reports that the ship had electrical issues for several days before the event, the litigation will wait for the investigation, which itself will take several years. I would not be surprised if the bridge were rebuilt 15 years before the legal stuff is complete. It is indeed a Big Deal.

srt101fan

They did drop an anchor.....

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

And all it did was turn the ship so instead of missing the bridge column, it hit it. Things probably would have gone better without that anchor, as the ship would either have glided under the bridge or run aground near the column instead of taking it out.

Sometimes the best action is to take no action.

dustie Loc: Nose to the grindstone

It will be interesting, too, when it's possible for some below waterline hull inspection to be done at the bow and forward starboard side there. It's very difficult to believe that only those very large reinforced concrete abutments took on major damage.

I can imagine that hull being greatly torn open down there, and the ship is remaining stable because it is docked, wedged, stuck, impaled on top of the lower, below waterline, remaining dozens of cubic yards of concrete footings down there.