OT: Baltimore bridge replacment

Taking things in a different direction for a moment. Is the port of Baltimore out of business for an indefinite period of time?

There seems to be wreckage blocking its access to the sea.

Probably there are trucks shifting cargoes that would be banned from tunnels; so a bridge somewhere would be needed...

#Paul

I had to go through a few pages of Google results, to get a picture of what a normal structure would look like. And these aren't really all that much protection.

If that were not true, you would use four tugs to haul the thing in and out.

There are already reports of ships anchoring up, waiting to get in. At least the ones in the port get some extra shore leave. I imagine that clearing the shipping lane will be the first priority once the search and rescue/recover is complete.

You only need to Google Tower Bridge and look at what is at the base of the towers.

Nothing like getting your priorities sorted out.

It's not like anyone on the bridge, could actually see where they're going. Look at how the load is stacked.

When you lose power, the bridge would lose cameras and displays.

Only the guy on the bow, with a handy in hand, and a supply of prayer beads, knows where they are going.

Perhaps the puff of smoke, was an attempt to start the emergency generator ?

And they did apparently deploy the anchor, in an attempt to stop it. But the article does not explain whether that was before collision, or after.

Paul

Under command, or under control? They are, to me, different things, unless maritime useage mangles the English language.

Baltimore is one of the top ten US ports, ie it's huge. A personal reminiscence: When I worked there, at the GM plant, I would occasionally be in the hotel lift with a few other guys, one of whom was clearly British. One day, he was alone, and I asked him what he was doing there. He replied that he worked for Jaguar, and his job was to drive every one of their cars that came off the docks to confirm that it was ok for sale. That must come under the heading of: 'It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it.'

Francis Scott Key Bridge (Baltimore)

Material Steel Total length 8,636 feet Longest span 1,200 feet (366 m) Clearance below 185 feet

The span is too big to do entirely without piers. (The total length will include boring bits over land on either side.) But the piece for the shipping channel might be made longer.

Maybe they could pre-fabricate some of the pieces on land, to speed up the process (time versus cost tradeoff).

An actual decently detailed report.

As you would suspect.

If you listen to the radio traffic in a harbour, there's a bit of surveillance going on. Including video tape at various points, of your arrival and departure. You're not exactly "leaving under cover of darkness". You're being watched, and usually, with multiple video cameras, for infractions.

The radio channel recording in one of the reports, is not the harbour channel. That one sounds more like ATC in nature. I've listened to that, in the neighbours boat.

It's possible there's a speed limit there. And there were not one but two pilots aboard (the pilots are normally provided by the harbour you are entering, and having more than one pilot is not abnormal). And the last thing you want to do, is be speeding going under a bridge (because your wake can degrade those islands that protect the bridge).

In message snipped-for-privacy@candehope.me.uk>, charles snipped-for-privacy@candehope.me.uk> writes

Yes Rosyth is the wrong side of 3 of the bridges over the Forth

Here's some footage of HMS QE negotiating them under tug control I have to say and at low tide

There's a runcible mast to allow it to duck under the rail bridge.

HMS PC did an encore a couple of years later .

Something large breaking loose up stream has 3 goes at hitting something,

Brian

What? I thought that was a nonsense word applied to cats and spoons?

Not under command, it is an internationally accepted maritime expression:

That's American culture, it must be somebody's fault, a member of the press tried to ask Biden that at his press conference.

It represents the appalling build standard of cars made in America.

Ok.

A runcible spoon is a spoon with fork prongs cut in it. These days it is likely to have a cutting edge and be sold as a buffet spoon.

Yes, but given how little time there was between the power failure (indicated by the lights goinf off) and the ship hitting the bridge there's no way they could have avoided hitting. It takes a *long* time to change course in a huge container ship like that.

As above, it takes ages to stop a ship like that.

Yes, those are the few big estuaries we have. How many have bridges with piers? You might include the drowned rivers on the south coast like Falmouth and dartmouth, but there are no bridges that I can recall.