Baltimore bridge collapse caused by ship hitting critical support point?

Baltimore bridge collapse: In the early hours of Tuesday morning, the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed after being struck by a container ship, resulting in what officials are describing as a “mass casualty event.”

Rescue operations following the collapse of a bridge

“There were likely multiple people on the bridge at the time of the collapse,” Baltimore City Fire Department Chief James Wallace has told a news conference, revealing that a search and rescue operation is looking for at least seven people.

As the water in Baltimore Harbor was around 45 degrees Fahrenheit at the time of the collapse, there are concerns about how long victims will survive in the Patapsco River, with the possibility of hypothermia a major concern. During his interview with reporters, Wallace stated that two individuals have already been pulled out of the water. One person was uninjured, and the other was hospitalized in very serious condition.

The accident occurred at 1:30am local time on Tuesday, when the Singapore-flagged ship the Dali collided with one of the support columns underneath the 1.6-mile-long bridge, which runs across the Patapsco River and is the outermost of three toll crossings of the harbor. When the collision occurred, vehicles were on the bridge, which caused them to fall into the water.

“Every column one of bridge’s critical points of support”

Francis Scott Key Bridge, which opened in 1977, is connected to Interstate 695, a beltway that runs around Baltimore and is used by around 11.5 million vehicles annually. As originally called the Outer Harbor Crossing, this steel arch continuous truss bridge was constructed with a load-bearing superstructure, but its primary support was provided by columns.

“Every column is one of the bridge’s critical points of support,” the Spanish radio station Cadena SER was told by Antonio Martínez, a representative of Spain’s Society of Road, Canal and Bridge Engineers. “If the point of support fails, you’re pretty much looking at an inevitable outcome: partial or total collapse.”

A chief support column was struck by the Dali, as it was traveling from Baltimore to Colombo, Sri Lanka. According to him, the point of impact was the worst possible location for this to occur, and “when a bridge is designed, you take into consideration the probability that things like this may occur.” “This is the most critical situation that the engineers who designed this bridge will have encountered.”

Martnez further noted that the Dali’s momentum must have caused a brutal force of impact on the bridge as a result of its size and weight.

There may be a key factor involved in the design mismatch

In an interview with Northeastern Global News, Jerome Hajjar, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Northeastern University, explained that container ships have significantly grown in size since the Francis Scott Key Bridge was built nearly a century ago, potentially leading to a crucial shortfall in the amount of force that the structure was designed to withstand.

“The mismatch between the size of the load and the expected loads at the time of the bridge design could be an important link,” he said.