Some say Francis Key Bridge could’ve been bulkier. Some say little built in 1977 may prevent the moving hills of today’s lakes. All telephone for focus on slots.
Baltimore Harbor is now accessible via two streams provided by the U.S. Coast Guard. However, it will take months before container ships may traverse the Patapsco River, which is currently blocked by the Francis Key Bridge, which was hit by a 95, 000-ton goods send in a March 26 crash that left six people dead.
Coast Guard Capt.:” This is a significant first step along the way to reopen the harbor of Baltimore.” David O’Connell, national on- image consultant, said in an April 1 speech.
He claimed a second 25-foot-deep channel is planned to allow” a lot more professional vessels” to enter the nation’s ninth-busiest business port, but he did not specify how much the construction may take.
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Now, Singapore’s Grace Ocean Pte Ltd., which owns the Dali, has filed a complaint for conviction from, or limitation of duty from, the fall in the U. S. District Court in Baltimore.
1977 Bridge Versus 2015 Container Ship
It took five years to build the Francis Key Bridge, which opened for visitors in 1977 as a 1.6- mile- much, constant truss- style bridge that, in addition to serving as the main road access to the Port of Baltimore, is a critical link in Baltimore’s I- 695 beltway.
In the midst of the March 26 Dali accident, some wonder why the bridge was somewhat “unprotected” against a ship strike with meagre, or non- observable, “fenders” and “dolphins”.
A “dolphin” is frequently a pyramid-style encasement filled with rock, slag, or concrete built in front of bridge pylons to deflect or stop a direct strike from a ship, while “fenders” wrap around bridge support columns or pylons to buffer or deflect a direct strike from a ship.
There’s an ongoing debate among engineers, both professional and self- proclaimed, on maritime news and analysis sites such as Freightwaves, Tradewinds News, Journal of Commerce, Lloyd’s List, Splash 24/7, and gCaptain.com about whether the bridge could have better survived a direct hit from the Dali had improvements been made by the city of Baltimore and Maryland Department of Transpiration ( MDOT ) over the decades.
The Francis Key Bridge had been open for less than three years when the M/V Summit Venture, a 600- foot long, 34, 000- ton freighter, knocked down the Skyway Bridge spanning lower Tampa Bay in St. Petersburg, Florida, in May 1980, killing 35 people. It had only been open for six months when it was struck by a ship, causing$ 500, 000 in damage.
In 1983, the U.S. DOT issued an advisory to local port authorities to protect port infrastructure from ship strikes as a result of the collision at the Skyway Bridge, noting that” It may be extremely challenging to retrofit some existing bridge piers with protective systems.”
Also in 1983, the Federal Highway Administration ( FWA ) upgraded bridge standards to take “certain impact considerations into account”, including ship strikes.
But bridges such as Francis Key Bridge built before 1983 were exempt, or “grandfathered in”. Although replacing the bridge with stronger fenders and dolphins has been a frequent component of MDOT’s capital improvement plans, the funding has never been given a chance.
Beginning in 2029, a proposed three-year installation of a fiberglass jacket protection system to brace its pylons is one of the unfunded Francis Key Bridge improvements.
World Changed, Bridge Did n’t
The local port authority and the state failed to adapt as ocean-going container carriers expanded, which increased the risk to both the port’s operational viability and infrastructure.
The MV Ever Forward nearly closed the Port of Baltimore during the month it took to reclaim the ship and dredge the shipping channel after it ran aground in the Patapsco River just two years ago.
A 752-foot-long tanker slammed into the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in 2013 to demonstrate the value of beefing up bridge fenders. The bridge was damaged by$ 1.4 million but was not knocked down by the tanker.
The National Safety Transportation Board ( NSTB ) will ask in its investigation why the relatively small dolphins on the Francis Key Bridge were built far enough away from the bridge for ships to maneuver around them, and why Baltimore and the MDOT did not make improvements during the” Big Ship Era,” especially given that the Delaware Memorial Bridge, which is located 72 miles north, spent nearly$ 93 million on upgrading its” ship collision protection system.”
NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy stated to reporters last week that there are some questions about the bridge’s structure, the protective structure around the bridge, or the piers to prevent a collapse.
” We are aware of what a structure ought to have. How was this bridge constructed, and how will we go about doing that? It will examine the structure as a whole. Should there be any sort of safety improvements? All of that will be part of our investigation”, she added.
But many say it would not have mattered. No bridge constructed in 1977, even if it was essentially retrofitted, was able to withstand a moving mountain’s impact. The average container ship capacity has doubled in the past ten years alone.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told reporters,” Right now, I think there’s a lot of discussion in the engineering community about whether or not any of those features could have had any role in a situation like this.”
A bridge constructed in the 1970s that was completed in the 1970s was undoubtedly not designed to withstand a direct impact on a critical support pier from a ship that weighs around 200 million tons, he said. I have no idea of a bridge that can withstand a vessel of this size directly impact.
Which raises eyebrows far beyond Baltimore.
There are 361 commercial seaports in the US, and there are more than 20 000 bridges crossing waterways, which are essential to the country’s security and economy. A contemporary container “mega-ship” can withstand a strike from it.
20, 000 Port Bridges
The Baltimore Harbor disaster has spurred calls for a reset, or overhaul, of the nation’s maritime policies. This would encompass a wide range of initiatives, including enhancing the Pentagon’s sea- lift capacities, reviving the merchant marine, incentivizing investment in American- flagged commercial shippers, and modernizing ports as well as expanding them to enhance supply chain resilience through increased redundancy.
Port infrastructure was already a long- languishing issue when Mr. Biden in a Feb. 21, 2024 executive order directed$ 20 billion in 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill ( BIL ) allocations into a five- year grant program dedicated to port improvements.
A growing chorus of critics claims that it is insufficient to deal with decades of neglect in comprehensive federal port investment and a half-century of absence, some might say, abdication, by successive administrations and congresses in maintaining a cohesive national maritime policy.
Many people contend that port improvements should be prioritized over the$ 1.2 trillion in infrastructure investments authorized by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law ( BIL ) and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which is slightly over the top half of the 1 %. This includes Congressional Ports Opportunity, Renewal, Trade, and Security ( PORTS ) Caucus co- chairs Reps. Randy Weber ( R- Texas ) and Robert Garcia ( D- Calif).
When the Coast Guard &, Maritime Transportation, and Homeland Security subcommittee of the House Transportation &, Infrastructure Committee convenes a joint field hearing at the Port of Miami on April 5, a topic of conversation will likely turn up.
Compared to the$ 20 billion for ports, BIL includes$ 110 billion to upgrade bridges. Advocates say that the 20, 000 bridges spanning 95, 000 miles of coastline, which link 361 commercial ports with railways and roads, should be a priority. These connections support 23 million American jobs and facilitate the movement of$ 4.5 trillion worth of goods.
Zooming out on the scene in Baltimore Harbor reveals a larger issue with the nation’s port infrastructure. More than 80, 000 foreign vessels a year load and unload cargo, and nearly 150 million passengers arrive via cruise ships and ferries. None of these ports, however, can accommodate the growing fleet of ever-larger ships sailing the world.
The bigger picture involves the country’s limited road and rail connectivity to ports that can handle mega-ship container carriers, as well as the state of bridges across the nation.
Almost every American lives close to a bridge in poor condition, with 167 million people using them each day, according to estimates from the American Road &, Transportation Builders Association ( ARTBA ).
According to ARTBA’s 2023 Bridge Report, more than 43, 000 of the nation’s 615, 000 bridges are in poor condition and are considered to be” structurally deficient”.
