Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore: ferry/water taxi services as an option?
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Photo: WJLA-TV
A tragedy this morning as the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed after being hit by a container ship.
It's not like a freeway span in California or Philadelphia ("How commuters avoided ‘carmageddon’ after the I-95 bridge collapse Drivers," Washington Post) that can be replaced relatively quickly. It will be down for a long time. Although it's possible that many people can adjust. According to the Post, in Philadelphia:
Drivers, helped by real-time traffic apps, public transit and more liberal work-from-home policies, quickly adjusted their habits to avoid gridlock
That won't help the Port...
The New York Times quoted a woman concerned about her ability to get to her job:
Marquita Finch, 38, was among a dozen or so people who climbed an embankment along a highway in Dundalk, just south of Baltimore, to see the collapsed bridge. The job she was supposed to be at this morning was just on the other side of the bridge. “I’m probably going to lose that job,” she said. A lot of people would probably lose their jobs, she said.I wonder if it's possible to institute a ferry/water service there in the interim, so people can cross more easily, so Marquita Finch won't lose her job.
Labels: disaster planning, emergency management planning, ferries/water taxis
posted by Richard Layman @ 10:13 AM&Permanent Link
8 Comments:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/26/business/economy/baltimore-port-cargo-ships.html
‘A Lot of Chaos’: Bridge Collapse Creates Upheaval at Largest U.S. Port for Car Trade
A bridge collapse closed Baltimore’s port, an important trade hub that ranks first in the nation by the volume of automobiles and light trucks it handles
https://www.ft.com/content/17cf3f2e-e64d-4666-b1c2-2723347c2ada
The Baltimore bridge disaster: what happened and who will pay?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/03/27/baltimore-key-bridge-rebuild-timeline/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/03/27/baltimore-port-economy-disruption-bridge-collapse/
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-03-26/why-baltimore-s-francis-scott-key-bridge-collapsed
What the Baltimore Collapse Tells Us About Bridge Safety
Aftermath of the Collapse
Completed in 1977, the Key Bridge carried about 35 million vehicles annually as part of Interstate 695, a beltway that circles the city of Baltimore. In addition to its role as a key commuter link, the highway is part of the complex network of transportation and logistics infrastructure surrounding the Port of Baltimore, which handles more than 10 million tons of cargo annually. Shipping traffic has been suspended for the foreseeable future, as bridge debris has blocked the narrow shipping lane into the port itself. Vehicle traffic, meanwhile, has been diverted to alternative routes, including a pair of tunnels beneath Baltimore harbor. But trucks carrying hazardous materials are barred from those routes, which is expected to delay freight traffic up and down Interstate 95.
Pier Protections
The Key Bridge was built before the most recent regulations on bridge pier protections, which are intended to mitigate the impact of collisions. Underwater concrete structures known as dolphins, for example, can divert or absorb the energy of ship impacts. The bridge’s piers also appeared to lack substantial “fenders”—larger anti-collision structures that serve the same purpose.
According to Wesley Cook, a civil and environmental engineering professor at New Mexico Tech, almost all modern bridges have some measures in place to prevent disasters. But given the size of the vessel, physics may have doomed the structure no matter what. “Regardless of the type of bridge, when you have a large item like that hitting a bridge, it doesn’t matter what condition it’s in, it’s coming down,” said Cook. Truss bridges are typically “fracture critical,” he adds, “meaning they are lacking redundancy. So if they have a negative impact even by a vehicle, it has the potential to take the bridge down.”
When the Key Bridge’s replacement is designed, prevention of future devastation is a likely priority. “It’s not economically feasible to create a protection system for a cargo ship that is coming at a full straight-on blow,” Schafer said. But there are ways to make bridges safer that go beyond physical infrastructure, such as improved prediction techniques and more robust port regulations: “It’s probably the social things and many of the maritime changes that we might need to make to make the whole system work successfully so we don’t have another bridge strike.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/03/28/baltimore-bridge-clean-up-recovery/
The U.S. Navy deployed several floating cranes, including one that could lift 1,000 tons, while the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it would send more than 1,100 engineering specialists and other experts to begin removing the hulking debris that has crippled the Port of Baltimore.
Federal officials also announced the first relief funds — $60 million sought by Maryland officials — would flow toward disaster recovery just hours after the request was submitted.
Top officials with the Corps, which is leading the effort to clear the Patapsco River, described a three step effort to get one of the nation’s largest shipping hubs back online. They are racing to stem the rippling economic fallout from a cargo ship striking the bridge on Tuesday.
Teams would first try to clear the shipping channel of the massive steel trusses that block it to allow one-way traffic to begin flowing again into and out of the port. Second, they would lift pieces of the bridge draped across the 985-foot Dali and move it. Finally, they would dredge up concrete and steel that have settled on the river bed.
Baltimore braces for economic hit amid fears port shuttered for months
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/03/31/baltimore-port-economy/
https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/almost-impossible-to-design-out-engineer-responds-to-baltimore-bridge-disaster-02-04-2024/
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