Baltimore, MD - Container Ship Strikes Francis Scott Key Bridge - Mass Casualty Situation

[realanastasia]

Here’s a gift article from the New York Times that may be useful to folks like @SLouTh who are thinking about the physics involved in the event: Force of Ship Collision Was on the Scale of a Rocket Launch

 

[Betty P]

It's one thing to have a black box for a 14-hour plane flight.

It's quite another to have a black box for a 28 day voyage.

Maybe just more parameters but only required during the 48 hours before docking and after embarking, so that the general information about the intricacies of the vessel in the more confined waterways, and with the harbor pilots, would be preserved.

Is it possible for modern black boxes to record ship data and store it remotely, IOW in the cloud?

 

[Herat]

Do you mean the from the time of impact of ship hitting the pier to the time of the bridge being down in the water???

I believe it took a total of 4 seconds… calculated from the original live feed video of the shipping channel …

IMO

Yes, something like the instant the roadway buckled to the time the superstructure was lost of the farthest northern extent of roadway.

 

[SLouTh]

Here’s a gift article from the New York Times that may be useful to folks like @SLouTh who are thinking about the physics involved in the event: Force of Ship Collision Was on the Scale of a Rocket Launch

Thanks so much for that article!
It was exactly the point I was trying raise… and saved me doing the calculations ….

 

[LetsSolvIt]

Yeah, still enough to get the bulbous bow or the keel well stuck in the bottom before it made contact with the pier.

It makes me think that pier design could be safer. A traumatic break or a degeneration of the materials on only one part of one leg and the entire bridge collapses.

Googling was giving me numbers like 8.3 m which didn't sound right and 15.03 meters sounded awfully deep.

I'll stick with the 12.2 m / 40 ft Goldilocks choice.

Folks have posted from MSM articles on WS that the channel is just over 50ft deep. My very experienced Patapso/ Chesapeake Bay boating hubby tells me it’s 80, which I assume he would know from his boat’s depth meter. Just reporting from two sources, but hubby lives and boats right there. OMO.

 

[Herat]

Here’s a gift article from the New York Times that may be useful to folks like @SLouTh who are thinking about the physics involved in the event: Force of Ship Collision Was on the Scale of a Rocket Launch

Oh excellent, excellent realanastasia !

Here's a bit:

"Our lowest estimate of how much force it would take to slow the Dali, if it were fully loaded, is around 12 million newtons, about a third of the force it took to launch the Saturn V rocket for the Apollo moon missions.

And the experts don't agree on whether the bridge should have been able withstand the force:

One expert:
“Depending on the size of the container ship, the bridge doesn't have any chance,” said Nii Attoh-Okine, a professor of engineering at the University of Maryland. He said that Baltimore’s Key Bridge had been performing perfectly before this accident occurred, and that he thought 95 to 99 percent of bridges would be damaged if such a container ship were to strike them.
Another expert:
"But Sherif El-Tawil, an engineering professor at the University of Michigan who reviewed our calculations, said it was feasible to design a pier that would stay standing after such an impact. “If this bridge had been designed to current standards, it would have survived.”

So I go back to that 1980 NTSB report that recommended fenders or other kinds of pier or pylon protection for large bridges that span harbors or shipping lanes.

And somehow this recommendation was not attended to or reviewed in the subsequent 42 years of inspections of this bridge.

 

[Herat]

Folks have posted from MSM articles on WS that the channel is just over 50ft deep. My very experienced Patapso/ Chesapeake Bay boating hubby tells me it’s 80, which I assume he would know from his boat’s depth meter.

The NOAA charts don't specify depths on the channels, which is interesting, perhaps because they change so much with continuous dredging. I believe the requirement in the codes is at 51 feet for that harbor and 50 feet for the remainder of the marked channels out through Chesapeake Bay to the ocean. It's in the Maritime codes section on the Chesapeake Bay and I couldn't find the reason for the one foot difference.

At 80 feet, that creates quite a gradient in a narrow space between the harbor floor of 28 feet at that southern pier and 80 feet in the channel. That should make the channel flow much more subject to tidal flows and local currents.

 

[Herat]

I like this comment to the article:

"The issue is not whether a bridge pier could have withstood the impact. The issue is whether a dolphin [fender] could have been built to withstand the impact. The Sunshine Skyway dolphins built in the early 1980s are designed to withstand the impact of an 87,000 ton ship going 10 knots."

WOW
The NYT article estimates the loaded Dali at 195,000 tons. Twice the weight that the dolphins on the Sunshine Skyway bridge were built to.

So, if the Dali hit the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tamp instead of the FSK bridge in Baltimore, it would have exceeded the protection capacity of the dolphins and similary impacted the pylons, potentially bringing that bridge down, too.

AND
The Dali is by no means the heaviest cargo ship out there in our major ports.

 

[SLouTh]

A new comprehensive news report ….

 

[LetsSolvIt]

The NOAA charts don't specify depths on the channels, which is interesting, perhaps because they change so much with continuous dredging. I believe the requirement in the codes is at 51 for that are and 50 for the remainder of the marked channels out through Chesapeake Bay to the ocean.

At 80 feet, that creates quite a gradient in a narrow space between the harbor floor of 28 feet at that southern pier and 80 feet in the channel.

Loving your posts on this! What a mind for physics!

 

[Herat]

Loving your posts on this! What a mind for physics!

My new tag:

A mind for physics and a body for sin.



Or maybe a mind for physics and a body for overposting.

 

[Herat]

Is it possible for modern black boxes to record ship data and store it remotely, IOW in the cloud?

Hmmm. What an idea !

Shouldn't airplanes be doing this too, in real time? What about putting EPIRB-type locators with links to cloud data in airplanes so their locations can never be turned off, such as happened with Malaysian airline flight 370.
If I can find my old tire rotation records scanned into the cloud, surely Dali could have all it's data there safely, as long as Apple doesn't hose their owner in fees.

Really, this is a great idea.

 

[Herat]

One of the huge takeaways from that article is difference in the amount of force created by the difference in the speed of the vessel.

Force needed to stop the loaded vessel at:

Higher speed (covering the distance in 2 sec) = 230 Newtons force

Medium speed ( covering the distance in 4 sec) = 115 Newtons force

Low speed (covering the distance in 38 sec) = 12 Newtons force

Just as the difference in damage to a stationary object hit by a car at 120 mph, 60mph, and maybe 5 mph.

This might have to be the interim compromise for heavy and large or unwieldy channel traffic: Speed limit reduced significantly to something like 1 knot rather than 8 knots for bridge passages.

(I believe 8 knots is the current harbor speed limit for all watercraft)

 

[Charlot123]

Hazardous chemicals LEAKING into Baltimore harbor after bridge crash

Hazardous material is leaking into Baltimore harbor after some of the containers on the ship that crashed into the Francis Scott Key bridge were 'breached.'

www.dailymail.co.uk

So now it also an environmental issue as well. Who knows what chemicals are leaking into the harbor.

That could be a reason for a separate lawsuit, for polluting the environment.

 

[Charlot123]

The Singaporean owner of the cargo ship that took down the bridge is expected to invoke a law dating back to the 19th century that limits the liability of ships’ owners, according to Lawrence Brennan, a law professor at Fordham University in New York. The law is similar to one used by the Titanic’s owners after that “unsinkable” liner hit an iceberg.

Titanic Law Helps Ship Owner Limit Bridge Collapse Liability

The owner of the ship that rammed into a Baltimore bridge could face hundreds of millions of dollars in damage claims after the accident sent vehicles plunging into the water and threw the eastern US transportation network into chaos.

www.bloomberg.com

Damages claims are likely to fall on the ship owner and not the agency that operates the bridge, since stationary objects aren’t typically at fault if a moving vessel hits them, said Michael Sturley, a maritime law expert at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Law.

But an 1851 law could lower the exposure to tens of millions of dollars by capping the ship owner’s liability at how much the vessel is worth after the crash, plus any earnings it collected from carrying the freight on board, said Martin Davies, the director of Tulane University’s Maritime Law Center.

The ship owner’s insurance would help the company through the legal risks. About 90% of the world’s ocean-bound cargo is insured by an arm of the International Group of Protection and Indemnity Clubs, which oversees the 12 major mutual insurance associations for ship owners.

Titanic Law Helps Ship Owner Limit Bridge Collapse Liability (3)

The owner of the ship that rammed into a Baltimore bridge could face hundreds of millions of dollars in damage claims after the accident sent vehicles plunging into the water and threw the eastern US transportation network into chaos.

news.bloomberglaw.com

There is a difference when human victims sue as opposed to one corporation suing another one.

The Titanic suits and the court decision creating the precedent concerned the victims. People, who, as it seems post factum, might have filed their claims unwisely, in NY District Court as opposed to GB. (The limited liability acts differ beween countries.
https://www.halelawfirm.com/blog/2023/08/how-did-damage-caps-impact-titanic-survivor-lawsuits/ - but here we have to investigate whether the cap is set for damages to people, or damages to businesses as well.)

I wonder if the payoff sum would have been the same if, for example, Carpathia, another enterprise, had sued the Titanic for own loss of time and business.

In the bridge crash, the victims are not only people, sad as we feel about them, but bodies, systems and organizations. It might have a different outcome. Even about the victims...if the charity that hired them sues, it might result in higher payouts.

I am neither a specialist nor a lawyer, but it seems that much depends on what court to file claims in, as the cap might be different in different countries.

Also, there might be a fine imposed on the owner company from environmental protection agencies. Clean water act, clean air act, endangered species act... and fines are different from damage payouts, hence, may not fall under a cap, but they can be payable to the port.

 

[Betty P]

One of the huge takeaways from that article is difference in the amount of force created by the difference in the speed of the vessel.

Force needed to stop the loaded vessel at:

Higher speed (covering the distance in 2 sec) = 230 Newtons force

Medium speed ( covering the distance in 4 sec) = 115 Newtons force

Low speed (covering the distance in 38 sec) = 12 Newtons force

Just as the difference in damage to a stationary object hit by a car at 120 mph, 60mph, and maybe 5 mph.

This might have to be the interim compromise for heavy and large or unwieldy channel traffic: Speed limit reduced significantly to something like 1 knot rather than 8 knots for bridge passages.

(I believe 8 knots is the current harbor speed limit for all watercraft)

Or just an acceptance that we’ve reached max capacity for handling such huge container ships. They had to widen the Panama Canal already and most of these US ports have likely been upgraded. Big questions for environmental impact, balance of trade, etc. With bigger and bigger ships are we reaching the point of diminishing returns?

 

[Elley Mae]

Cranes arriving to start removing wreckage from deadly Baltimore bridge collapse

The largest crane on the Eastern Seaboard is arriving by barge so crews can begin removing the wreckage from the deadly Baltimore bridge collapse.

apnews.com

 

[imstilla.grandma]

H. Allen Black, who heads the maritime practice at Mills Black LLP, said a successful salvage operation will balance clearing the ship and the bridge segments and restoring navigation in and out of the port. That could require dredging, the removal of sediments and debris from the bottom of the water.

Larry Sanford, vice president for Education at University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, said the weak current in the harbor and the low tides in the shipping channel may help limit damage to the environment.

“The current that goes through any section of the harbor is pretty weak,” he said.

Removing the debris would cause some disturbance to the sediment at the bottom of the harbor, said Sanford, but he said to think of it as dust collecting in the corner of your living room. If the dust is disturbed, the particles will accumulate around the same spot instead of spreading to the rest of the room.

“When you get strong winds, then things can change,” he said.

What it'll take to clear the Key Bridge collapse site

Rescue and recovery efforts have turned to a salvage operation that Maryland Department of Transportation estimated Thursday would cost at least $60 million.

www.thebaltimorebanner.com

 

[Elley Mae]

If there is a new bridge it will probably be 15-20 years from now.

Jmo

 

[Dotta]

"Baltimore's Key Bridge collapse wreaks havoc ​

on supply chain as port traffic screeches to a halt ​

at a cost of $15 M per day.​

Baltimore's collapsed bridge will cause more chaos for an overstressed supply chain and could hike prices for months to come.

The shipping industry was already struggling with rebel attacks in the Red Sea
and drought in Panama
before the Francis Scott Key Bridge fell on Tuesday.

The Port of Baltimore is shut down indefinitely
until wreckage of the 1.6-mile bridge is cleared which could take
two months.

Experts estimated more than $15 million in local economic activity would be lost for every day the port stays shut.

Baltimore handled 52.3 million tons of foreign cargo last year worth about $80.8 billion,
ranking ninth in the US for both metrics and records for the port.

The cost to shipping, consumers, and the American economy is too early to calculate,
but every day the port is closed is $217 million worth of cargo not arriving.

The port generates more than 15,000 jobs,
including 2,000 dock workers down $2 million a day in lost wages,
and another 140,000 are dependent on port activity."

Baltimore bridge collapse costs of $15m a day and supply chain chaos

The Port of Baltimore is shut down indefinitely until wreckage of the 1.6-mile bridge is cleared from the Patapsco River, which could take two months and cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

www-dailymail-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org