1). “The Baltimore bridge collapse and its potential consequences, explained: From search efforts to how a ship can knock down a bridge, here’s what you need to know”, Updated Mar 27, 2024, Li Zhou, Ellen Ioanes, & Izzie Ramirez, Vox, at < https://www.vox.com/2024/3/26/
2). “Baltimore Bridge Collapse Analysis: 100% AVOIDABLE”, Mar 27, 2024, Jeff Ostroff, jeffostroff, duration of video 19:56, at < https://www.youtube.com/watch?
3). “Baltimore Bridge Collapse: Analysis of MV Dali's Collision Course”, Mar 27, 2024, Mike Brady, Oceanliner Designs, duration of video 20:11, at < https://www.youtube.com/watch?
4). “Baltimore: What Ship’s data tells us about the accident”, Mar 27, 2024, eSysman, SuperYacht News, duration of video 14:28, at < https://www.youtube.com/watch?
5). “Maritime Expert Analyzes the Francis Scott Key Bridge Collapse”, Mar 27, 2024, Ward Carroll interviews Sal Mercogliano, host of the What's Going on With Shipping YouTube channel, Ward Carroll, duration of video 31:08, at < https://www.youtube.com/watch?
6). “How Container Ship’s Loss of Power Affected Ability to Control”, Mar 27, 2024, eSysman, SuperYacht News, duration of video 10:25, at < https://www.youtube.com/watch?
7). “How Do Ships Stop?”, Feb 28, 2024, Mike Brady, Oceanliner Designs, duration of video 12:32, at < https://www.youtube.com/watch?
~~ recommended by dmorista ~~
Introduction: The recent (3 days ago now) incident in which a medium sized Container Ship hit the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland and caused it to collapse in mere seconds was an avoidable disaster and tragedy for the 6 families whose men were killed.
The bridge was rated by the Federal Department of Transportation as being in Fair condition in the three rating system of Good, Fair, and Poor. The Stanchions, that were the main supports that held up the bridge, had been downgraded from a rating around 78 to 64.5 (on a 100 scale presumably) but were still fully functional. The amount of shipping traffic is much greater than previously but even so Baltimore is, according to many media outlets, just the 17th largest port in the U.S., though by the measure of tons of freight it is about 10th. Baltimore handles about 550,000 TEUs of freight loaded and unloaded per year, the largest U.S. Port, Los Angeles / Long Beach process 18,500, 000 TEUs per year. Baltimore does not even make it into the top 100 ports in the world.
A number of issues have been raised about the bridge and why this happened. There are two that stand out in terms of importance and relevance. First was the lack of Tugboats to help the MV Dali to pass safely under the bridge out towards the open ocean. There were tugs, but once the ship left the immediate area of the docks, they moved onto other tasks. Tugboats are not a panacea, and with a loaded 100,000 ton displacement container ship on an errant course, (The latest and largest classes of Container Ships in operation now have displacements of over 250,000 tons.) The realistic result of attempts by tugboatscf to bring a large ship that has lost power under some control would be that they could nudge it and alter its course to some extent. But certainly the actions of a couple of powerful tugs might have made the difference.
Another issue is the relatively small size of the shipping channel under the center span of the Francis Scott Key Bridge which was only 1,200 feet in total width. This compares unfavorably to many other port situations, for example the Golden Gate Bridge (built 40 years earlier) has a channel that is 4,199.5 feet in total width. At the time the Francis Scott Key Bridge was built in the mid – late 1970s the size of cargo ships were much smaller than is the case now, and the number of cargo ships plying the seas was much less than is the case at present.
The second major issue was the failure of the Port of Baltimore, during the major enlargement of the Port Area to take on more modern and larger ships, to build structures to protect the bridge from shipping accidents. This was a penny-wise and pound-foolish decision. The other major shipping disaster in relatively recent U.S. History, in which a freighter hit a bridge and caused it to collapse, took place in 1980 in Tampa, Florida. In that disaster one side of a double bridge was hit and collapsed, killing 35 people. The administrators, designers, and ruling class in Tampa learned a lesson and the new bridge was stoutly protected by concrete “Dolphins”. In fact the New Sunshine Skyway (suspension) Bridge is very thoroughly protected by numerous “Dolphins” not just the Towers of the Suspension Span, but all the stanchions of the new Bridge are protected by “Dolphins”.
.In the Philadelphia area an existing bridge was retrofitted with “Dolphins” to protect it from shipping accidents. In the case of the Delaware River bridges in the Philadelphia area all the older bridges have had “Dolphins” installed to protect them from ship collisions. Though the protection is not as stout and thorough as extremely dense system of “Dolphins” protecting the new Sunshine Skyway bridge. On Betsy Ross Bridge, pictured in Figure 4 here, only the two central stanchions, the ones that mark the area just beyond outer edges of the shipping channel, have “Dolphins” protecting them. Nonetheless far and away the greatest danger from collisions is at those two central stanchions. (For a short discussion of the Delaware River Bridges See, “Here's what surprised a structural engineering professor about the Baltimore bridge collapse” (The Video is Headlined, “Baltimore Bridge Collapse: Preventing Tragedies”), Mar 26, 2024, ABC Seven Chicago, at < https://www.youtube.com/watch?
But in Baltimore the Francis Scott Key Bridge was left in the original state, to which it was built from 1972 – 1977. In the meantime the average freighter is now much larger than was the case in the 1970s. The MV Dali is, in reality, only a medium sized container ship (with a capacity of 10,000 TEUs as compared to over 25,000 TEUs for the latest round of container ship construction. Just protecting the Francis Scott Key Bridge to the level seen at the Betsy Ross Bridge on the Delaware River in Philadelphia would have prevented this multi-billion dollar infrastructural debacle
There were other issues including observations by dockyard workers that the MV Dali was having problems with its power production while at dockside. Also there were reports of contaminated fuel that caused problems with the diesel engines. Overall there is no doubt that this accident was 100% avoidable and could and should have been averted.
Bridges do get hit by ships and barges, and do sometimes collapse. A article from AP states that: “From 1960 to 2015, there were 35 major bridge collapses worldwide due to ship or barge collision, with a total of 342 people killed, according to a 2018 report from the World Association for Waterborne Transport Infrastructure. Eighteen of those collapses happened in the United States.” (See, “A list of major US bridge collapses caused by ships and barges”, Updated Mar 27, 2024, Anon, The Associated Press (AP), at < https://apnews.com/article/
Of course, unfortunately but not suprisingly, various Republican right-wing politicians and media figures have already challenged President Biden's statement that ,the Federal Government will pay all expenses for clearing the wreckage and building the new bridgein Baltimore. They have also chimed in claiming that the collision and collapse were either caused by the problems at the U.S. Southern Border, or that disloyal and incompetent foreigners and non-whites somehow caused the incident, or that it was a deliberate act by the Democratic party and leadership. We can clearly say that the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse was made much more likely due to sloppy and inattentive policies and the lack of the construction of protective barriers. The decision to not upgrade the bridge protection system when the port of Baltimore was expanded was a major factor. Of course like with many U.S. infrastructural deficits they are made much more difficult to address because of the endless siphoning of $1.5 Trillion dollars a year, year in and year out, to wars and the military, plus the now close to $40 Trillion dollars in tax cuts given to the ultra-rich and the corporations they own. Capitalism has become so dysfunctional and short-sighter in the U.S. that the decisions and greed are beginning to endanger the continued existence and functioning of the U.S. Capitalist State Apparatus.
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The Baltimore bridge collapse and its potential consequences, explained
From search efforts to how a ship can knock down a bridge, here’s what you need to know.
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The shocking collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge after it was hit by a cargo ship early Tuesday morning has the region reeling.
Thus far, two people who were working on the bridge have been rescued and six are presumed dead by their employer, Brawner Builders, given the temperature of the water and the time that has passed since the accident, the Associated Press reported Tuesday evening. Sonar, robots, and human divers were among the resources deployed in the Coast Guard’s search, which ended some 18 hours after the collapse. Two bodies were recovered Wednesday, but as of now the search for remains has been paused as divers can’t safely work around the debris from the bridge.
“This is an unthinkable tragedy,” Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said at a press conference on Tuesday morning.
The collapse of the bridge will also affect transportation in the region — and potentially global trade.
Used by 31,000 vehicles each day, the Key Bridge is a central conduit for traffic in the area. The incident also comes as the global shipping industry is facing several other challenges, including a record-breaking drought in Panama and Houthi strikes on ships in the Red Sea. Due to closures at the Port of Baltimore — one of the busiest in the country, especially for foreign cargo — logistics and shipping companies will likely need to reroute more key deliveries.
Authorities have acknowledged these concerns — and the challenges they pose — but emphasized that they’re secondary to the human lives affected.
Why did the Baltimore bridge collapse? What happened with the ship?
The incident took place around 1:30 am ET Tuesday when a large cargo ship called the Dali abruptly lost power and collided with a support column on the Key Bridge, a 1.6-mile structure that stretches across the Patapsco River.
After the ship — which holds a volume of 95,000 gross tons — hit the column, video shows parts of the four-lane bridge crumbling rapidly and collapsing into the water.
Shortly before the collision, the crew of the ship, which is owned by a Singaporean company called Grace Ocean, reported that they had lost control of the vessel and issued a “mayday” call. Dali was originally headed from Baltimore to Colombo, Sri Lanka, on behalf of Maersk, the major Danish shipping and logistics company.
As experts told USA Today, the bridge failure was so catastrophic because the ship took out a support column — a key component that kept it structurally sound — while going at a high speed. “Any bridge would have been in serious danger from a collision like this,” Nii Attoh-Okine, the chair of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Maryland, said.
For now, it’s not clear what caused the ship to lose power, though the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is conducting an investigation. (Last June, an inspection in Chile found the Dali had some propulsion issues, but a standard US Coast Guard inspection later in the year found no problems.) Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the NTSB, said that agency investigators had boarded the ship overnight to collect data and will begin interviewing crew members Wednesday.
Authorities have also concluded that there’s no evidence this was an intentional incident or terrorist attack. “Everything so far indicates that this was a terrible accident. At this time we have no other indication,” President Joe Biden said Tuesday afternoon in a press conference.
What do we know about casualties from the Francis Key Bridge collapse?
When the collapse happened, a group of eight construction workers were filling in potholes on the bridge. Two of those workers have been rescued, including one who was in stable condition and one who was hospitalized.
The remains of the four other workers have not yet been found. They include people from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, several outlets report. The identities of the workers have prompted some to question the risks they faced.
The tragedy, though, could have been far worse: thousands of vehicles cross the bridge each day on average. But immediately after the ship’s “mayday” call — and before it collided with the bridge — government officials were able to shut down additional vehicle traffic, preventing cars and passengers from being harmed. (Vehicles can be seen falling into the river in videos, but authorities said these were the parked cars of construction workers.)
“These people are heroes. They saved lives last night,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said at a press conference about the ship’s crew.
Are bridges safe? Has a cargo ship crashed into a bridge before?
Yes, bridges are safe — but not as safe as they could be.
In the 1970s, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) adopted the National Bridge Inspection Standards regulations, after a horrible 1967 accident in West Virginia where the Silver Bridge collapsed and killed 46 people. The accident ushered in a new era of bridge safety at the national level. In 2022, the FHWA updated its standards to incorporate recent technological advancements.
But not all bridges are created equally. One in three bridges in the US are in need of repair or replacement, according to the American Road and Transportation Builders Association. Maintenance helps bridges be able to withstand stressors such as natural disasters, for instance. The FHWA classifies bridges into three ratings: good, fair, and poor. Those with poor ratings are prioritized for repairs first.
To be clear, Key Bridge was structurally sound with a fair rating. It’s just not designed to absorb the shock of an incredibly large and heavy cargo ship ramming into it, engineers say. (As the Guardian’s Oliver Milman points out, current bridge code doesn’t account for today’s supersized cargo ships, some of which are far bigger than the Dali.)
Nonetheless, the National Transportation Safety Board, the federal agency responsible for investigating transportation accidents, will be looking deeper into the safety of the bridge.
“Part of our investigation will be how this bridge was constructed,” said Homendy during a NTSB press briefing Tuesday. She stressed it will take time, referencing the investigation for the 2022 Fern Hollow Bridge collapse in Pennsylvania, which took two years to fully complete.
When it comes to the cargo ships: It is not uncommon for a ship to lose power as the Dali did Tuesday, according to attorney Matt Shaffer, who handles maritime law cases, and without power, a ship of that size can cause extensive damage.
But cargo ships bumping into a bridge and causing it to collapse isn’t common. Since 1960, it’s happened just 35 times worldwide. As of 2015, a total of 342 people have died from bridge failures caused by ships. To put that in perspective, more than 40,000 people in the US died in a car accident in 2020, according to some estimates.
How important is the Francis Scott Key Bridge, and what’s next for it?
The Francis Scott Key Bridge — named after the poet who wrote the lyrics to what became the national anthem — not only connects commuters from one part of the harbor to another, it plays an important industrial role. It’s one of three major crossways for the Baltimore Harbor.
In 2023, more than 12.4 million passenger and commercial vehicles crossed the bridge, according to the Maryland Transportation Authority. Bloomberg News reported that it transports $28 billion in goods annually — with nearly 4,900 trucks crossing daily. The bridge and its almost nine miles worth of approaches serve as a final link in I-695. From there, the interstate connects the city’s port to I-95, the major highway along the East Coast.
Construction of the bridge started in 1972 and was completed March 1977. It cost $60.3 million at the time to build. The bridge is mostly made of lightweight concrete, according to a November 2021 report by the US Federal Highway Administration. Lightweight concrete, the report notes, isn’t typically used for bridge construction, but it “can be used as a durable and cost-effective material for bridges.”
Bridges are a feat of engineering — and are rightfully expensive. A $60 million project in the 1970s would cost far more to execute today, especially given increased scrutiny for speed and safety (and inflation). Rebuilding the bridge will likely cost “several billion dollars,” Yonah Freemark, a researcher at the Urban Institute, told Bloomberg.
Biden, during the press conference Tuesday afternoon, said that it is his “intention” that the federal government will pay for reconstructing the bridge. “And I expect Congress to support my effort,” he added.
Even with federal money, it could take months, if not years, to rebuild, disrupting both commercial and commuter traffic in the region.
What does this mean for the shipping industry?
The search and rescue operations have shut down the port of Baltimore, which has become an increasingly important shipping hub for the eastern US.
The port is the 17th largest in the nation based on the amount of cargo that goes through the port, and it handles the largest amount of transportation cargo — cars and trucks, but also coal, farm equipment, and construction machinery, the New York Times reported. Kevin Doell, Maersk’s North American media representative, told Vox that the Dali was carrying a “wide variety of cargo” from a number of different customers, but did not elaborate.
The broader economic impact will likely be limited — already, nearby ports like one in Virginia are talking about supporting temporary diversions. But the terminal’s closure could have regional effects, and it is another setback for the global shipping industry in an already difficult year.
Maersk, the company that chartered the Dali, said in January that it would no longer send its vessels through the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandeb strait near Yemen, where Houthi forces have targeted ships since November in response to the Israeli war in Gaza. Because of the risk of damage, injury, and kidnapping, some global shipping companies have opted to take the longer shipping route around the Horn of Africa, which can add as much as two weeks to a voyage and comes with attendant fuel and salary costs for the companies.
The Panama Canal, another global commercial transit hub, is also causing issues for the industry. A massive drought in Panama has severely limited the number of ships that can use the canal, slowing transit times and increasing costs.
Though the Baltimore port has played an increasing role in trade, it’s too soon to see what the commercial fallout will be. Other ports can absorb the container ships Baltimore would take — companies have the option to send their cargo to ports throughout the East Coast, including in New York and Virginia, industry executives told the Times.
But the damage will most likely be felt in the auto industry, given that Baltimore is the country’s largest auto importer. General Motors and Ford were already re-routing their vehicles and auto parts to Brunswick, Georgia, as of Tuesday; that could mean some supply chain delays, but any disruptions are expected to be minimal, according to a statement from GM.
Some companies may opt to send their goods to West Coast ports and then ship them east, rather than risk bottlenecks as eastern ports reorient their operations, Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen told Bloomberg. That was already going on prior to the accident, as 45,000 dockworkers with the International Longshoremen’s Association on the East and Gulf Coasts were threatening to strike should the union not reach a fair contract with ports and shipping companies by October 1.
Update, March 28, 12:15 pm ET: This story, originally published March 26, has been updated with further developments.
Clarification, March 28, 12:15 pm ET: This story has been changed to make it clearer that Maersk did not own the Dali, it chartered the ship.
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