The Baltimore Bridge

[Slim]

I find myself oddly fascinated by this news story about the collapsed bridge. In an odd way it reminds me of the Concorde disaster in 2000 .. I can't stop thinking how unlucky the folks who were caught on it were, to be on a bridge that had stood for nearly half a century at the moment when it collapsed.

[Thenop]

I have seen the footage available. I find myself wondering what structural elements are to be improved to prevent this, but looking at the scale of the vessel I find it difficult to believe it can be prevented.
Well, by not hitting it of course but that's not what I meant.

[dom]

Heard a report earlier stating that when the bridge was built in the 70s  such large and heavy vessels didn't exist. The weight of the carrier meant that even at a low speed the impact would have been massive.

When the bridge is rebuilt it will need to be designed so that the weight bearing supports will be as far away from vessels as possible. Building one strong enough to survive such an impact is not possible or at least prohibitive in cost terms

[The Picnic Wasp]

I was surprised and shocked that so much of the structure collapsed. I would have thought that the design would have allowed for individual sections to fail without affecting the integrity of those remaining. Made me think of the 1989 San Francisco earthquake. I was sitting in a Carlisle hotel room watching the breakfast news coverage when my cousin Tom was interviewed as an eyewitness.