Why did the Baltimore bridge collapse so quickly? | Ask DW
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- Опубликовано: 13 май 2024
- At least six people are believed to be missing after the collapse of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge. The collapse occurred after a container ship crashed into a pillar supporting the bridge at around 1:30 a.m. local time on Tuesday. What would you like to know about the story? We'll be putting your questions to experts to be answered live on stream!
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Calling in their power outage has saved a lot of lives
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Container ships are rediculously huge. That bridge never stood a chance. Ships have only gotten this large because of our endless greed for more and more, necessitating bigger and bigger transportation. It's amazing things like this don't happen more often, but it really was just a matter of time. I'm sorry people lost their lives today, but the effect of our greed is only going to get worse.
I doubt it's greed I believe because of population the need for a bigger bridge was the point
@@Jesusiscoming24 Ships have become much larger since this bridge was built, to cross a waterway this size you need to either protect the pillars with artificial islands or use a tunnel instead if the water is too deep. Otherwise you can't let ships transit the bridge. Larger ships are more efficient, it means cheaper shipping. Motivation isn't really important, it's the inevitable outcome of more efficiency.
Yeah. You don’t ever BUY stuff do you? 🙄
What device did you type this comment on and where was it made?
The ships Will get even bigger just like cruise ships and sir liners
10:27 curious that there's no defense structure to protect obviously vulnerable main bridge structure
*There is a structure, I believe called a "Dolphin &/or Protective Dolphin" that is a huge concrete structure in the shape of a circle, right before the Key Bridge. I believe the Ship went right through that as well or just avoided it. This ship is huge. I think a lot of people fail to realize just how massive a 100,000 TON ship is.... The Key Bridge looks like Lego Toys over top the Ship. Look up some videos of close footage, theres a few videos out now that show people on boats next to the bridge & ship, you can see just how massive the ship is... The Protection Dolphin before the Key Bridge didn't stop anything, a whole massive bridge barely stopped the damn thing.*
*I live right next to the Key Bridge so I was able to see it first hand if you would like some exclusive photos and video.*
Dolphins weren't in place!
I'm from Florida. Remember the Skyway bridge accident? Same thing. My aunt was on that bridge when it went down. Same design too. When the new Skyway bridge was built the pylons were protected by concrete barriers. This was the new protocol in the 1980's. This is America unable and unwilling to have a decent infrastructure. This would never happen in Germany. No. Or in Europe.
Goddammit cheapskates
Tofu Dreg construction, No ethics only bad people works in tender,
Not happen ? Haven't you heard of train accidents even in Germany, Greece ,Spain...
@@xcel5203 We're talking bridges here
@@lepinearbres5299 The bridge at Morandi ,Italy crashed in August 2018 - it was a modern bridge .
Seems like the Bridge's Pylon at point of Impact was VERY STRONG, bc although
collapse happened, that SUPER HEAVY Ship was halted at that point! It would seem the
Ship's momentum ought have made it Drift & pass that area by 4-6 Miles more.
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I thought tug boats guided massive ships like this out of the harbor and through major infrastructure?
they where short staffed that day
They assisted for a certain distance.
no local union pilots
River/Port pilots drive the boats to open water. Tugs only help to get off the dock and pointed in right direction
If you watch the video they covered that. There were 2 pilots onboard.
Really needed a shipping expert. Bridge experts comments on shipping were someone honest "don't know" and otherwise no better than random street interview.
Many “shipping experts” r paid agents by ports operating companies or shipping conglomerates 😡 😡Tug boats should have escorted the cargo ship all the way until it cleared the Baltimore area 🤏 NO IFS, ANDS, OR BUTS 😡
Well yes, one must be careful when recruiting so-called experts. But asking a bridge engineer about shipping praxis was risable.
@@BillRicker : "risible", if you must
@@henriknielsen1662 congratulations 🏅 Pedant of the Day.
The ship is certificated inspected and controlled on a regular basis. Why the impossible happened we do not know yet. And it should be impossible- There are at least 2 engines delivering power and only one is necessary. And on top of all that there are battery backup and all systems operate individually and are contolled very often.@@BillRicker
Everyone is talking about the ship colliding into the pier. I am more interested in the bridges foundation pier design and if it had bollard plinths surrounding the bridge pear. I can't tell if there were any bollard plinths protecting the bridge foundations. I also do not like how low the pears are in the water before the bridge tower pillars rise up. Perhaps this is the fault of a high tide
Yeah, I looked at that also. Look at the Sunshine Skyway Bridge that collapsed in the mid 1980's after being hit by a ship. When they rebuilt that bridge, they put about 100 feet of riprap around both of the channel piercaps. In Baltimore, it looks like there are 2 caissons on both sides of the bridge. One on each side of the channel on both sides of the bridge. But, there's plenty of room for an out of control ship to make it past the caisson and still hit the piers. There is no extra protection of the piercaps themselves. This being one of the largest ports on the east coast, this bridge should have had more pier protection.
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Francis Scott Key wrote our national anthem. He lived through a battle in the harbor during the war of 1812 (not Rev sorry) and wrote a poem about seeing the flag still flying after it was over.
Poignant. Thanks for sharing this. I didnt know.
Sort of metaphorical for the state of our "democracy". One candidate belongs in federal prison. The other undermines international law & supports genocide. . .
That's too bad, iconic building broken apart and falling down!😢
It was the War of 1812, not the Revolutionary War.
@@davidglendenning7165 thank you! I was about to put (I think). I wasn’t even sure if it was in the harbor or just in Baltimore but I think he was on a ship. Not sure.
Put the ports for cargo and container ships at the coast with no bridges. It would save people in port cities from air pollution too.
Cities are built around rivers & coastlines.
Cantilever Bridges rely heavily on exact balance. When one pier is taken out like a house of cards everything collapses. The center spans of the Francis Scott Key Bridge were Cantilever construction.
Becouce bridges aren't built to take hits buy big ships .it's meant to cross water not be battered by abig ship .
Why not? The water is natural habitant of the ships and ships tend to have accidents
@Richard-oc4lx
Stop finding excuses will ya?!? Bridges needs to keep up will modern and practical SAFETY designs. Not to mention cargo ships are getting larger, I’m sure safety buffers for the support columns would have been possible as well…
I am a bit surprised that there are no structures to protect the support/towers. Typically, there is a concrete block on both sides of the suppport, embedded into the floor and ringed with boulders or gabion, although the boulders and gabions are mainly to prevent erosion and scouring.
Someone mentioned the environmental effect of such structures.
@@brodriguez11000
If not done properly, they can cause scour, but that should eb addressed in teh design.
A massive ship runs into a bridge. There is not much you can do
100,000 tons. Not a chance
Any structure on the bridge only protects from a glancing blow, not head on. New bridges use artificial islands to ground the ships well before they hit the pillars. Or if too deep water for that, they build tunnels these days instead. In the 1970's there weren't ships this big, it wasn't really this scale of problem.
There obviously was a weight issue: the bridge wasn't designed to handle that size of boat!
They'll just build the same mistake 😮
"How do you go about rebuilding a bridge?" should not be a question by a DW journalist to his guest. It is bizarre as bad as it sounds.
Professor Dr. Atorod Azizinamini is 100% right. It is still necessary to check what impact the waterline height had on the accident. It's nice to listen to such intelligent people.
The speed by which the bridge collapse indicate there was a flaw in its construction, there was no overhead cables support
old tech like an 1977 erector set.
Let's call up some engineers to find out why the bridge collapsed... IT WAS HIT BY A SHIP 😂
🤣🤣🤣
Why is the Kerch bridge seemingly impossible to destroy but you bump a bridge in Baltimore and it falls like a tower of Lincoln logs? Somebody order a ton of TEMU in Mariupol
If you run a 100,000 ton cargo ship at 5 knots into the Kerch bridge then bye bye bridge.
The Kerch bridge was purpose-built in 2014 as Russia’s strategic lifeline to Crimea. It’s a modern engineering marvel that cost billions and can support tanks and military vehicles. Meanwhile the Key bridge is 1960’s tech, finished in 1977.
@@rramos117 A ship this size would still bring down the Kerch bridge if it hit it directly. They build real modern bridges in ports in such a way that the ship grounds itself before hitting the bridge, because you're not stopping a ship that weighs several times what a bridge does. Especially, when designing a bridge decades before ships this big existed.
This ship has a 12.3m draught, and there's a maximum 9m of water under the tiny Kerch main span. This ship would run aground long before it got near that bridge.
11:24. Interesting point. I don’t think anything short of a cement base would have deflected the ship in this case though.
They´re made from concrete usually, large structures on the bottom of each pillar. Depending on the water level they can be submerged and invisible from above.
And that is why there is usually cement block protecting piers specifically from ship collisions for most bridges. I am surprised there wasn't any.
@@ycplum7062 Was it required in the 70's, as they are today?
Civil engineer elsewhere feels it couldn't have stopped or deflected that much momentum.
@@brodriguez11000 There is no practical limit to how much momentum that protective structures could have been built to withstand. It would be a question of money, not engineering. Think about Ever Given. It dead stopped when running into the edge of the Suez Canal within a fair modest distance. And with whatever structure that was built, there could be rules to keep the momentum of the ship down by reducing its transit speed.
1. The Ravenel Bridge in Charleston, SC, was engineered and built to take a hit like this. The Huey P. Long could also probably handle it, if for no other reason than protections built before reaching the bridge. 2. There aren't nearly enough infrastructure inspectors; their funding was cut years ago.
My 6 ton sailboat was crashed into a bridge by powerboat, this action severely shook the bridge, that ship forget about it.,
Very good coverage on this, DW.
Extremely good coverage and very thorough.
There were no protective concrete barriers around the support structure. Budget cuts when it was built? Hmmm?
Any safety assessment was performed for shipping operations at the area, quantifying risk associated with?
Showing that the US needs an infrastructure revamp.
It just was not protected enough. It took a heavy hit to a required support.
No bridge can whitstand a similar force, but, maybe is possible to protect them with some outer structure, like some small concrete platform around the most exposed pillars.
A large fender structure is what was needed, in addition to karger dolphins. It is incomprehensible that the pylons were not protected.
The ship had anchors and that is the only option when you have blackout.
Pilots can not do anything with a ship without steering. However they can order anchor's to be dropped to stop the ship.
Who is responsible? The Captain and the Chief engineer.
Chief engineer is responsible for the power and the Captain is responsible for what the Chief does.
Authorities is responsible for the ships certification and technical status. Ships have their MOT,s too.
rgs from Norwegian sailor.
Russia 🪆 hackers hacked and manipulate the ships control room ? Any chance??
I believe the port anchor was deployed and drug on the bottom as the momentum the ship had was too great tor it to hold fast.
Thank you for that update.@@brycewooton2829
They had a pedestrian bridge collapse at FIU… killed people on the road below
I'm envisioning mandatory tugboat assist through the harbor after this for ships
Not a bad idea especially for vessels of this magnitude
it will make shipping more expenisve though ...
@helloicanseeu2 not too much. They are already paying for an assist off the dock, the tractors would just need to ride along side for another hour until the vessels clear the channel.
"Are you talking to me?"
No I'm talking to the viewers at home
The piers were unprotected. That shows a weakness in the institutions involved and point to an overlook responsibility.
Container Ship is still intact -- while the Bridge collapsed like a pack of Cards --- offering little or no resistance to collapse --- It would be interesting to see the condition of Caisson foundation below the water ---- A b Quadri --- Structural Engineer -- India
Informative discussion.
some questions call for top notch expert knowledge! "will the bridge remain closed?" "is kennedy still dead?" 🤪
13:24 That's the displacement of the USS Gerald Ford....empty. That's before munitions, 100 aircraft, incidental cargo, and a live load of 4,500 crewman.
Golden Gate Bridge supports used 390,000 yards of concrete to support its towers.
Proper pier protection with dolphins and/or cells should have prevented the bridge from being struck. Apparently the protection was inadequate for this bridge. Its not like this isn't an obvious risk at the entrance to a very busy port.
Interesting that a documentary maker is already working on a doco about the rebuild and they are coordinating with a Co that has begun a doco about the disaster side of it with dozens of crew already on site. There must be good money in doco's these days.
[EDIT: The detail these producers and directors cover is extraordinary. Sadly they have interviewed workers who have already been laid-off. WOW, the Big Co's do not waste time. ]
it was on a collision course way before it hit. The trajectory is directly in the path of the support.
Not true.
The AIS tracking clearly shows the correct course being taken, and it veering off course close to the bridge.
There is no way a ship that size should not be guided in a harbor i worked in long beach and big ships were always guided in and out just in case a problem happend.
Silver lining of this event is the flimsy old bridge would finally get rebuilt stronger with the latest tech and engineering marvels it needs to last longer
You don't build a bridge to stop this, you build an artificial island around the pillar big enough to ground the ship a good distance from it, or replace it with a tunnel if the waterway is too deep. There's no bridge that can stop this alone, not head on, a glancing blow, *maybe*.
The bridge was in good condition. It is a tragedy the authority responsible for it didn't protect it, because it was a beautiful example of a through-arch truss.
Tell us how old the Ship is. It sure had a lot of rust. No media outlet is giving specific information. I bet it's old.
Ships are designed to last decades.
"Tell us how old the ship is" you wrote, when you could have just googled it. It's not an old ship.
its less than 20 years old
Younger than the bridge....
The shipping company should pay for the bridge
the bridge structure support steel looks too tiny..I dont see any concrete that supported the structure.
Very good discussion
In my side,the ship has to accompanying a Tugboats tied up. If these Tugboats canceled due to reduction on costs,there must be piloting on the ship Fwd & Aft. What is happening outside,directed to the Center of the Span.Especially from the Fwd Pilot. The Ship hit on the end of the Span,w/c is the Leg,post concrete foundation of the bridge,from the Bow Fwd most of the ship. If should have went through the Center of the arc shape of the Structural on Top of the bridge w/c is the Blinkering light,anything happened of engine failure,overloads,over speed ,drifting,will be no possibility to hit touch the concrete. I think the Size of the Span is 1200’ long span. I heard the 1st time there are 33 crew Indians & 2 pilots. The Manuevering failed .
Why when the Ship made U - Turn towards the Bridge, NO Attempt was made by the Pilot to move the ship towards the Center of the Water Way, instead it moves almost Straight towards the Support Pier. Incompetence of the Pilot or Sabotage?
Not an expert and I feel sorry for people thst got hurt but my peasent opinion is that bridge collapsed so quickly is cause it was hit by a ship that has size equal 3rd of that bridge..
And in terms of weight it probably weighed a lot more. They don't try and build bridges to stop ships like this, they build artificial islands to ground the ships before they hit them, or they use tunnels instead.
And the bridge was not modernised to suit that kind of ship traffic.
An impressive lack of “concrete dolphins”!
After Katrina some temporary bridges were employed, is something like that possible in this situation
Before the cargo ship hit the bridge. A white truck and a car that was following behind. Not knowing the severe danger coming their way. They were able to make it before the catastrophic accident. I believe they made it in time. At least I pray they did. The video is out there for everyone to see.
So there was enough warning to clear traffic from the bridge but not enough time to get the workers off?
I swear it looked like the bridge was imploded, as well as being hit. Is it possible that this could have brought it down so easily?
Why did the cops fail to evacuate all workers from the bridge even after the May day call. Seems they were scared to go on the bridge.
"The support is a relatively flimsy structure." Well that's not ideal is it?
Sorry but that supposed track animation doesn’t look anything like the final moments. That thing was making a HARD turn for the pylon.
Roll on Roll off ferries can be employed to help cars cross the river, as soon as possible
Untill new bridge is completed
If the ship lost power , why it kept on moving until it hits the bridge? Is it because of the current of water? I don't think so
It’s cheaper to not use tugs to ensure such accidents don’t occur
The bridge look beautiful but flimsy..
It was a pretty bridge.
There were 2 Pilots on board the Container Ship should have been assisted with 2 Tug boats underway from danger zone..
Could that be the incompetence of ship engineers? How could the ship's power engine not be thoroughly checked before leaving port?
Bridge support protection was missing
Was the gap between piers sufficient for safe passage of such big vessel?
Yes, provided the ship is in good working order.
Really?
How deep is the water there in ft is it estimated that survivors can be searched for in?
Just because the ship hit to the base which is the main part of the bridge!
If interested, NTSB briefing is here on RUclips
Did big rope get tangled on prop?
It looks kind of suspicious, he was going straight to the opening then he turned into the pillar why would he at the last minute turn into the pillar.
Number one, the ship was Stacked high with containers like a sail add a 13 knot cross wind with loss of power add propulsion. Oh, not to mention the bridge is lattice girder design, meaning each girder supports the other Bend 1 of the supports, and the whole thing fails. The same reason lattice boom cranes fail, nothing suspicious.
There is some hexagonal concrete structure/island in the water in front of the pier. I suspect, the ship hit that and started rotating, into the pier.
It was windy. The ship drifted.
@@fgerv
Any idea what they are? I don't recognize them.
Comment from other threads: from the unedited video, thr ship lost power twice and the captain tried to reverse the ship. Coupled with the wind, ship lost control of its direction.
Was there an audible warning in advance of the collision
There was a mayday call, which was able to get traffic onto the bridge stopped. But not enough time to evacuate the workers, sadly.
Looks like a great example for the use of tug boats around critical areas like this. Decisions, likely expense related, leading to self guidance vs tug boat control played a role in this outcome. Bad choice, given poor infrastructure protection. Who decided to allow ships like this to self guide is at fault.
Does the bridge remain closed while there IS no bridge? Hmmm, let me think...
The main problem is with the ship arrest the ship
100,000 TONS!!?? Should have had at least 3 tugs...we lower standards until something like this happens..and yes I bet the new bridge has bumpers..
Ummmm yeah rust lack of maintenance and corrosion possibly?
Why doesn't a cargo ship that large have a backup system for the steering?
@@fgerv They lost steering which redundancy is designed for.
@@fgerv ... or at least have a few tugboats escorting the cargo ship through such a critical section for a worst case scenario?
Reports that containers with hazardous materials fell of ship into river, adding threats to marine life and seafood contamination
A container ship that weighs 95000 tons.We'll do some damage and it did
Any underwater tunnel is possible in place of bridge at so busy area?
Keep up with the news. There are tunnels.
They are however forbidden to carry hazardous cargo, so in addition to congestion, there will be long rerouting happening for some years.
Has anyone found the names of the missing yet?
sorry but the main support protection was woefully inadequate for 100 ton ships
100? 😂😂😂😂😂
Closer to 150000 tons.
Florida International University Bridge expert?! Didn't they design the "experimental accelerated bridge construction" FIU Pedestrian Bridge that collapsed in 2018 while under construction?
Yes. FIU has no credibility. They did not do the detailed design of that bridge, but they did go along with the cockamamie concept for it. I don't know why anyone would want an engineering degree from FIU after that fiasco.
How come there no tugs with it
the biggest question is that would they fish the bridge fallen parts and solder them again??
😂😂😂😂😂😂
Who is Maryland paying to make sure roads and bridges are safe? And how much are they paid?
wow DW your lack of accuracy never fails to impress. IT was NOT an Interstate Highway. It was a Maryland state Route. You are 'supposed' to be journalists, accuracy is supposed to matter!!!
It's signed as Interstate 695, part of the interstate is this really the most important detail, that it's 'considered' a Maryland state Route? It'd be less accurate to ignore the signage and instead focus on being 'technically accurate'. It would mislead viewers as to it's importance.
when you're an internation news network every detail matters. Read a book...@@peter65zzfdfh
"Despite being signed as part of I-695, the bridge was officially considered part of the state highway system and designated Maryland Route 695" it took 2 seconds to figure that on online. Seriously bud, you may want to research a topic if you're going to try and sound knowledgeble about it...LMAO @@peter65zzfdfh
The important issues!
becuase its so hard to search on google and broadcast internationally accurate information.. Asking a journalist to be accurate, What a concept. LMAO @@TesterAnimal1
This bridge collapsed because it was a low cost built: zero protection at the bottom of the bridge pilons, while all the bridges under which heavy traffic travels, are protected by a massive artificial island...
No one expected a 150,000 ton ship hitting the bridge
@@clayc8115 95000 tons not 150000: this ship was a medium size container ship
Spoiler alert, a container ship hit it.
My question, other than how did it not see the bridge, is who is going to pay for not just the bridge, but also the victims.
Subject of much litigation I'm sure, but ultimately the shipping companies insurer.
@@peter65zzfdfh thank you
Ever heard of INSURANCE? It is mandatory.
There was clearly a malfunction. Ships have even more recording and tracking equipment than airliners now.
The cause will be found.
@@TesterAnimal1 yet the federal government just said they’ll cover the $5 billion
DC is only 38 miles from Baltimore. Would Airforce One be used? Maybe it's a security thing?
He was in North Carolina apparently.
The President spoke at Joint Base Andrews before flying to N. Carolina.
Every skyscraper in the US has huge backup generators in case of power outage for essential services to the structure. I can't believe an ocean going vessel doesnt have the same. This would have to be a mechanical failure or intentional. Why wasn't the path of travel monitored and why wasnt their some sort of sensors relaying to the authorities that this vessal was off course so it could been interdicted either by tug boats or an interdiction team. I certainly would rule out terrorism
Terrorists lol
The ship has back up generators. You can see when the power comes back on, that's likely the back up gen. The question is "why wasn't the bu generator running and on standby in case of emergency in A narrow channel like it should have been.
Cargo ships don’t have backup engines any more than your car has a backup engine: it doesn’t.
All these things will be delt with later, but first sh.. has to happen! Prevention is common sence and is not allowed…
The bridge have right to defend the bridge.
And western will give sanction to the gravitation.
why did the engines fail
Can the crimea bridge take a shipping tanker? Can we hit it it with a shipping tanker? Is that cost effective?
I mean, a truck took it out, a 100,000 tonne ship would carve it like butter, but it would run aground first, as there's only 9m (30ft) of water under the Crimea bridge, the ship that hit this bridge has a 12.3m beam.
So many roads, bridges, railways, government structures etc that need regular checking and thorough inspections plus upgrading from time to time.
Blaming each other in a "blame game" against each other wastes time.
NOT waiting until a disaster happens is waiting too long.
This kind of disaster on another bridge with the same design has happened before.
Why do politicians NOT recognize this? And insist on a thorough regular check and some research on what improvements WILL make it safer r.
Oh I know why - politicians are too busy fighting with each other, trying to belittle each other, blaming each other over petty issues where they can spoil another politician's day.
Ferries cost too much. Just jump in and swim.
While generator blackout the ship is under command