Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore... (2 Viewers)

[Merl]

A very good friend of mine works for the Federal Government. He said that it will take years for this bridge to be rebuilt and ready to go. Now, the Army corps of engineers could come in and make a temporary bridge because of all the traffic in the area. This is going to be a logistical nightmare for a long time as this is a main artery for Baltimore traffic. This bridge saw thousands and thousands of cars and trucks on a daily basis. If this were to have happened during the day, it would be a whole different story.

Which brings up a main point. The first responders are to get a massive THANK YOU!!! Once the ship sent out it's distress call, they jumped into action and sealed off traffic from going over the bridge. While one loss of life is horrible, they saved countless lives. There was a tractor trailer that went over minutes before the ship collided with the bridge.

It is worth noting that thousands of folks are ready to help. Here in our little town of Salisbury, first responders here were on the ready and even though it will never happen, Salisbury Port extended their help in any way possible. Baltimore is one of the biggest importers for Mercedes Benz so the could pull into surrounding smaller ports and then trailer them to their destinations.

Either way, the loss of life is awful and this is going to snarl Baltimore for a long time.

Not buying the years to replace the bridge. When the one in Minneapolis collapsed they had it replaced in a year.

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

I-81 is already a Mad Max-style trucker derby - it's about to get so much worse.

 

[antipop]

it seems like they replaced the twin spans over Lake Pontchartrain fairly quickly after Katrina...it was obviously different since they were able to piecemeal one of the bridges as a temporary bridge to allow traffic to continue....

still, it was 2 separate bridges at about 6 miles each that went up pretty quickly, from what i remember....

 

[Merl]

I-81 is already a Mad Max-style trucker derby - it's about to get so much worse.

I travel 81 twice a year from Knoxville to Scranton when I go for visits to family in NH. The trucks are a painin the butt while going up and down those hills.

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

it seems like they replaced the twin spans over Lake Pontchartrain fairly quickly after Katrina...it was obviously different since they were able to piecemeal one of the bridges as a temporary bridge to allow traffic to continue....

still, it was 2 separate bridges at about 6 miles each that went up pretty quickly, from what i remember....

they put the temporary 2 lane span in place in a few weeks/months and then it took 3+ years to build the new ones

 

[MarylandWHODAT]

Not buying the years to replace the bridge. When the one in Minneapolis collapsed they had it replaced in a year.

Believe me when I say that you, me and everyone else that travels on the road prays that it gets built quick.

It could be his experience with government rate of doing things as well......

The flipside is that it may get done super fast as many of DC's employees live in Maryland and use that bridge often.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Been on that bridge quite a bit, last time was a few weeks ago

 

[bigdaddysaints]

It's also going to be a headache for a long time traffic wide

said on the news that over 31K cars went over the bridge every day

also a problem for trucks that are either too big for tunnels or carrying hazardous materials that aren't supposed to use tunnels

its gonna be a problem for sure.
I remember when that crane hit the Sunshine Bridge in St James and it was closed for at least 6 months, maybe more.
There are a lot of plants in the area, so if you had to cross that bridge everyday, it added an hour drive or more to your day. Yoo either had to go to BR or Grammercy. Although i didn't have to cross it, i worked near it, well, for those month i never had to worry about traffic woes of the bridge traffic backing up but felt sorry for some co workers who had that extra drive,

 

[Optimus Prime]

Rebuilding the Francis Scott Key Bridge over the Patapsco River will probably take years and cost hundreds of millions of dollars, experts said. But the shipping channel from the Port of Baltimore, a major economic engine for the city, could be cleared in months…….

Some experts said it’s unlikely even a new bridge could withstand the impact of a direct hit from a massive cargo ship, though some called for an improved warning system in the channel that could more effectively evacuate people and stop traffic in the event of a runaway ship. And they warned residents to brace for a protracted process.


Benjamin W. Schafer, professor of civil and systems engineering at Johns Hopkins University, said it could take months to remove debris and reopen the channel.

“I’d be shocked if it’s weeks,” he said. “But I don’t think it’d take even a year. There is, certainly that technology for moving the steel out as quickly as possible.”

Reconstructing the bridge is expected to take much longer.
The original Key Bridge took five years to build in the 1970s. Schafer noted that it took seven years to rebuild the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay, which collapsed after being struck by a freighter in 1980.


“I’ve lived through quite a few civil infrastructure projects,” Schafer said, “and they’re rarely less than 10 years. So I think that’s what we’re looking at.”

He added: “The price tags never seem to be out of the hundreds of millions these days. So I’d be shocked if we’re not at least in that hundreds of millions of dollars.” When the bridge opened in 1977, it cost $60.3 million, which is equivalent to $316 million today.


Atorod Azizinamini, a civil engineering professor at the Florida International University who specializes in structural and bridge engineering, said it is possible for Baltimore to see a new Key Bridge within 2½ years.

He described that as a breakneck speed compared with the standard timetable for building similar bridges, which could take as long as a decade from conception to execution……

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/03/27/baltimore-key-bridge-rebuild-timeline/

 

[antipop]

they put the temporary 2 lane span in place in a few weeks/months and then it took 3+ years to build the new ones

yeah man...12 miles of bridge doesn't go up in a weekend

 

[superchuck500]

 

[zatsnzapps]

My apologies, I meant to @zatsnzapps to make sure you were good. Did you use the Key bridge often?

No, I really didn't. I commuted all the way to Annapolis every day for almost 8 years, but I hardly went over to your side of things. I'm not a big beach person, so I went over the bridge maybe a couple of times a year.

I'm up in Carroll County so it's about an hour's drive for me to get to the bridge without traffic. 14 hours on a Friday afternoon in the summer.

I have a feeling that Ocean City is going to have a tough summer since (I think) the only other ways across are up to near Wilmington DE or all the way down to Norfolk?

 

[superchuck500]

I live close to a large container port and daily cross the bridge the ships go under. Some of them are just massive.

 

[Optimus Prime]

 

[sonicboom]

"Francis Scott Key was an American lawyer, author, and poet from Frederick, Maryland, best known as the author of the text of the American national anthem "The Star-Spangled Banner"." Wiki





If it was done by terrorists, the bridge is some what symbolic of National Pride, so there's that.