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The Key Bridge Collapse


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38 minutes ago, WxUSAF said:

Think it’s lucky to have happened at the time of the day with the least possible traffic. 

Absolutely this. Horrifying to imagine if this had been during the morning or evening rush hour especially. 

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That ship seemed to be having issues. No way does this happen without a cause. Awful tragedy that ruined lives for some. Hoping that traffic was light and the construction workers somehow were able to bail out. Saw that 3 might have been rescued?

 

Will be years before a bridge is built to replace. Harbor closed will be a big impact as well. Big shipping port. This is huge for our area

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Was at Fort McHenry for the first time yesterday.  Wife wanted to see the cherry blossoms. (We moved to Lutherville from Tysons/Vienna three years ago). As we walked around, my wife asked what bridge was in the distance.  I said the Key Bridge. We used to go on it to go to NJ when the old Harbor Tunnel (I-895) was backed -up like on Thanksgiving ( before the I-95 tunnel opened) but its been years since we were on it.

 

  I thought it was an Onion headline when I first saw the headline. The collapsing video is unbelievaable.

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Just now, 09-10 analogy said:

Evidently the cargo ship issued a "mayday," which was relayed to the bridge authority, allowing it to stop vehicular traffic and preventing a potentially greater loss of life. That's from the news conference they held. 

 

that saved countless lives no doubt

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Couple of key points:

  • Ship appears to have lost power twice within 30 minutes of departing the port of Baltimore.
  • Pilot on ship immediately called coast guard, declared may day, and advised bridge be shut down. You can see this on the video where traffic appears to stop suddenly. This occurred less than 7 minutes before impact.
  • Police shut down both directions of the bridge as soon as they could. For context, about 32,000 cars traverse the structure each day. Had this been even 4:30 or 5:00 am it would have been a totally different scenario
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This is  a good channel for anything involving the shipping industry. Here he syncs the video footage with the marine traffic tracking software and explains what is likely occurring at key points . Great watch.

 

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When I first saw the headline I imagined it was like the Philly bridge collapse last year and that it was only a small segment of a bridge that would be repaired in a few weeks. Seeing the entire thing collapsed made my jaw drop. I've taken that bridge a few times to go home when I lived in Maryland, and whenever I drove on that or the Bay Bridge at night, I always felt a little uneasy for that reason. I've felt that way ever since the Minneapolis bridge collapse a while back. Just a terrible tragedy and there are going to be significant supply chain and economic ramifications around here. Not to mention traffic through the tunnels, which are a major artery for East Coast travel, will be even more of a nightmare.

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1 hour ago, Interstate said:

Watching the video was insane... could you imagine being one of the last cars to make it over the bridge.  It looks like mostly construction vehicles on the bridge as it falls in the river.

I wonder if they will build another bridge or make it a tunnel.

I would think they will rebuild a bridge. Right now - that's a major way people go if they can't tolerate the tunnel (other interstate option would be all the way around the western side of 695. Obviously the decision probably won't factor in people's tunnel phobias...but I imagine due to the logistics of tunneling, they will keep it as a bridge when rebuilt. 

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33 minutes ago, Kmlwx said:

I would think they will rebuild a bridge. Right now - that's a major way people go if they can't tolerate the tunnel (other interstate option would be all the way around the western side of 695. Obviously the decision probably won't factor in people's tunnel phobias...but I imagine due to the logistics of tunneling, they will keep it as a bridge when rebuilt. 

Logistically the bridge has a necessity, it is the bypass that trucks especially ones carrying hazardous materials use because they can't use the tunnel, and the west side of 695 around Baltimore has too much traffic/longer distance

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27 minutes ago, stormtracker said:

I'm trying to figure out a realistic timeframe for rebuilding it with full force of federal and state behind it.   Can't be under 2 years I would think?

Possibly 2 years.  Everything would need to be fast tracked.  From design(unless they already have one because they wanted to replace already), funding, permitting, contract bids, and the actual construction.  Even if everything went fine it will take months and months.  

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27 minutes ago, H2O said:

Possibly 2 years.  Everything would need to be fast tracked.  From design(unless they already have one because they wanted to replace already), funding, permitting, contract bids, and the actual construction.  Even if everything went fine it will take months and months.  

from some of my sources, Maryland is already working with penndot on all the documents they need since Pa just went through tis on I-95

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2 hours ago, stormtracker said:

I'm trying to figure out a realistic timeframe for rebuilding it with full force of federal and state behind it.   Can't be under 2 years I would think?

Hopefully you're right because we  drive across that bridge every freaking day twice and I guarantee you there's going to be a crap ton of car accidents due to people not familiar with taking another route the big trucks are going to be out there again cuz they can't go through the tunnel it's really going to be horrible

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1 hour ago, RickinBaltimore said:

President Biden did just say that the federal government was going to fully fund a replacement for the Key Bridge. I would think the earliest it's ready to go is 2026. 

When the bridge collapsed in Minnesota in 2007. Government passed funding to fix the bridge in four days. Bush signed off on it no hesitation. 

Curious to see how they act with this one as volitale as politics has been.  

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7 hours ago, Kmlwx said:

I would think they will rebuild a bridge. Right now - that's a major way people go if they can't tolerate the tunnel (other interstate option would be all the way around the western side of 695. Obviously the decision probably won't factor in people's tunnel phobias...but I imagine due to the logistics of tunneling, they will keep it as a bridge when rebuilt. 

If you were carrying hazardous materials you cannot use the tunnels and the key bridge was the alternative route. They will rebuild the bridge and not go for another tunnel for this reason.

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9 hours ago, Kmlwx said:

I would think they will rebuild a bridge. Right now - that's a major way people go if they can't tolerate the tunnel (other interstate option would be all the way around the western side of 695. Obviously the decision probably won't factor in people's tunnel phobias...but I imagine due to the logistics of tunneling, they will keep it as a bridge when rebuilt. 

The bridge will be rebuilt. Hazmat can't navigate the harbor tunnel, so bulk carriers frequently used the FSK bridge. If this were converted to a tunnel, then it would cause even more of a choke point for logistical movement of hazmat commodities coming from Curtis Bay refineries and warehouses. 

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Have read time estimates of anything from a year (I do not believe) to at least four.  It takes so long for anything to be built these days that to me the 4 years sound more believable. I wonder if they will have to do any enviroment studies and even enviroment lawsuits which slow down everything even more. Look how long it takes to build pipe lines or the Purple Line.

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