I especially enjoyed this article about the Key Bridge https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/03/26/key-bridge-collapse-port-baltimore-shutdown/ Hey @jtsanders, got all your cars?
Didnât read your article. Four pickup trucks were in the FSK bridge when it collapsed. Apparently there were six men in those trucks on break from patching potholes. Neither they nor the trucks have been found yet. I havenât been on the FSK bridge in decades. I used to work at the north end of the bridge and used it for my commute until I moved closer to work.
Yet another link that either you have to pay for or jump through hoops to read, no thank you⊠lol
But a very sad day for the friends and family of those that didnât survive the bridge collapse⊠Just glad no more went into the waterâŠ
Cost $100 million in 1976.
Will cost $1 billion + in 2-3 yrs.
Just because.
It took them five years to build the bridge?
When the I 35 bridge collapsed in minnesota in august of 2007, everything was expedited for a new bridge. Replacement steps were done in parallel not linear to speed the process. The new bridge was done and open for traffic in September 2008.
If you get the political hacks out of the way there is no reason it has to take years for a new bridge. At this very moment you can be soliciting proposals before the rubble is cleared. And you can re-open the channel just by clearing part of the rubble. Already they are slowing the process by talking about paying respect to the dead. If you are serious, get to work and drop the narrative.
I donât want to go in the ditch again but there is a great book written on getting stuff done quickly in the government.
They want to wait for reports on the ship, figure out what happened, and delay delay delay. At the same time you are getting reports you can contract for removing the rubble and getting proposals. Theyâll turn this into a ten year project if you folks in mass let them.
Yeah and the 35 bridge is a beautiful suspension bridge complete with colored lights now lit up with mass colors.
In 1976 a Base model Toyota Corolla cost $2,788 and my soon to be wife was making about $7.500 / year as a 4 year graduate, fully certified teacher in the highest paying school district in an affluent State.
Today a base model Elantra costs about $27,000 so itâs all relative but I like to think that the Elantra, my wife and the replacement bridge have all improved since 1976. 
.
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Who knows what the reasonable cost is today but surely they have a couple hundred million sitting there in an emergency fund where they can contract for rubble removal tomorrow. The Crew can work on the channel while the army works to free the ship and the coast guard moves it back to port.
Competent management would have already declared a public emergency, allotted initial funds, and established a work group with business leaders, engineers, and procurement officials. Chop chop.
Those who are as old as I am, and whose cognitive functions MIGHT recall the Mianis River Bridge collapse in 1993, should recall this tragic event: https://www.ctinsider.com/news/article/baltimore-bridge-collapse-40-years-ct-i-95-bridge-19368795.php
Read story on marine insurance. Big business. Since ships haul valuable stuff. I assume they donât have many claims for ships hitting things. Story said bridge should be 600 million. Ya, right. And claims for business loss of port and so on could be 3-4 billion.
Claims over 10 million are shared across 80 insurance firms.
May have been the first kind of insurance, goes back to ancient Greece and before.
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Yes a lack of redundancy popular prior to 1970. Same with the 35 w bridge and the silver bridge. One part fails and the whole thing comes down.
The Tampa sky sunshine bridge though came down after a ship hit the pillar and the through truss structure brought it all down. The replacement was a suspension bridge as in Minnesota. More redundancy.
This really is well known which is why I shuddered a little when the governor talked about rebuilding the bridge. You donât rebuild a model t, you replace.
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Yes, has to be a new design with protected piers and redundant supports. But âall newâ means âlots of design workâ means âlots of time requiredâ.
Called design build. The two go on at the same time, not one first and then the other.
I didnât have to pay for it.
Thanks. I donât remember it. It was a defect in bridge construction, according the the article. Many in the news have mentioned the collapse of a Tampa Bay bridge about the same time.
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Not sure why the USA seems to be tied in knots for quickly addressing this sort of problem. Here in Calif the politicos have been trying for years to build a high speed passenger railroad from San Francisco to LA, theoretically it would be a 3 hour ride. However I see no rails being laid in these parts yet. Hard to run a train without any rails. Just this morning I did hear a news story that another company wants to re-introduce passenger train service between the two cities using existing rails, 8 hour overnight trip ⊠lol ⊠Better than nothing seems to be the theme these days.
It would probably help if the project wasnât billions over budget and behind schedule for some reason. Earthquakes though seemed to push new design opportunities for bridges and buildings.
Maybe an 8 hour overnight train is the best Americans can do now. No major accomplishments possible b/c of the need for perfection, something we just have to live with.
The job for yesterday and today was trying to locate the missing men in case they were alive. It would be miraculous, but worth trying if true. Now that itâs clear that the six men are dead, they are moving ahead with removing the debris. Itâs not an easy job since visibility in the water is zero. They are using sonar to determine the debris configuration. Once mapped, they will start working on removal. Still need to get the equipment needed to the harbor to start work. Clearing a channel to start ship traffic is now the main job. Then they will clear the remaining debris.
Theyâve found one of the trucks with 2 bodies so itâs down to 4 presumed dead. Getting ship traffic moving is a high priority.
This AMâs radio-news had two topics updated. First, authorities are trying to determine why the ship lost power by looking at the data from the shipâs âblack boxâ; second, that authorities are not aware of any dangerous substances on the bridge that could be harmful now they are in the water, and therefore there is no current danger from polluted water.