Engineer ‘surprised’ cargo ship destroyed Baltimore bridge

Structural engineer John Pistorino reacts to the collapse of a Baltimore bridge after a cargo ship crashed into a support beam. #foxnews

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[godblessamerica]

Fortunately, the incident did not occur during peak traffic hours. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families.

[TukaChinchilla]

The people that just traveled seconds before it impacted. WOW. Prayers for those that lost their lives.

[Stylux-zp]

That bridge collapsed Like a house of cards.
That ship's kinetic energy had to be enormous with all that cargo.

[ruffleschips]

This is no surprise. That ship looks much stronger than the bridge.

[coldspring]

Someone needs to explain to him the difference between a barge and a massive fully loaded container ship.

[martinmyers]

I guess we need to send more billions to Ukraine and continue to ignore the needs of our own country and infrastructure. What a disgrace. I pray for the families of the people impacted by this tragedy.

[AndreaDoesYoga]

A tragic incident, prayers for Baltimore.

[snowlothar]

It's a 50 year old bridge, designed and built when cargo ships were half the size, being struck by several hundred tons. The shock wave and loss of a key support makes it pretty obvious, not surprising.

[ArianismtodayLife]

The company that owns that boat should pay everything

[taylorclear-gz]

The ship that hit the support was of a size that did not exist when that bridge was planned and built in the 1970s. Nobody wanted to spend money to upgrade the dolphins that protect the Key Bridge. I used to work ship assist tugs in Baltimore harbor and we’d tie up those dolphins waiting for our inbound ships.
The ship weighs 95k tons deadweight and was moving at about 6-7 knots when it hit. Not much is going to resist that.

[kevinhall]

That ship went from going straight on course to hooking a sharp right toward the support structure. How did loosing power do that ?

[Phantom]

Very old bridge and a 100, 000 TON what is the surprise???

[michaelxu]

Where is Biden's transportation secretary???

[shawnpeat]

Some basic engineering terms for you non-engineers: A beam is a horizontal structure member spanning between 2 supports, a column is a vertical member that is a support point. The ship hit and took out the column that supported the bridge resulting in the full collapse. The only possible redundancy for a bridge support column would be another column right beside it. If the bridge could span all the way across the water without the column it wouldn't have been there. The only thing that could have saved it was a underwater guardrail type system that could have diverted the ship away from the column. The ship had lost power and the ability to steer before impact when you see its lights go out.

[vladimirputindreadlockrast]

I don't see how anyone could have survived that.

[kranwa]

Those 2 last cars @ 2:22 are so lucky to have crossed the bridge...

[MrsRitchieBlackmore]

This bridge opened in 1977 after 5 years of construction, so it's pretty new as bridges go. Some of the engineers/crew on that project are probably still around so I'd be interested in hearing from them.

[johnnyllooddte]

surprised?? thats one mighty dumb engineer

[cdncitizen]

The engineer has a point - In hindsight, some designed shoals, railings or "main channel vs shallow barriers" to protect the main structural support from impact, would have prevented the disaster.

[scottdixon]

I bet you could find an engineer who isn’t surprised as well