OUR PICKS: BALTIMORE BRIDGEBridges Can be Protected from Ship Collisions | Port of Baltimore Bridge Collapse Rattles Supply Chains | Bridge Collapse to Trigger One of the Biggest Insurance Losses in History, and more
· Baltimore Bridge Collapse to Trigger One of the Biggest Insurance Losses in History
Lloyd’s of London warns of multibillion-pound hit after container ship crash
· Failure of Francis Scott Key Bridge Provides Future Engineers a Chance to Learn How to Better Protect the Public
Once engineers understand the forces that a structure will be subjected to, they can design a structure to withstand them
· Port of Baltimore Bridge Collapse Rattles Supply Chains Already Rocked by Troubles in Panama and the Red Sea
In 2023 alone, the port moved around 50 million tons of goods between the U.S. and other countries
· Bridges Can be Protected from Ship Collisions – an Expert on Structures in Disasters Explains How
Theoretically, you could build a structure that would never fail, but you’d have to put infinite money into it. For a critical bridge of this type, we would consider an acceptable chance for failure to be 1 in 10,000 years
· After the Baltimore Bridge Collapse, We Need Clear-Eyed Assessments of the Risks to Key Infrastructure
With many bridges being over 50 years old, a bridge’s condition may have been compromised by deterioration and increased traffic loads, and older bridges were designed to standards that have been superseded by new knowledge and technology
· Baltimore Bridge Collapse Leaves Military Ships on Standby for War Trapped
Rapid reaction vessels intended to supply fighting units around the world are stranded until the wreckage is cleared
Baltimore Bridge Collapse to Trigger One of the Biggest Insurance Losses in History (Michael Bow and Adam Mawardi, The Telegraph)
The Baltimore bridge collapse will trigger one of the largest insurance losses in history, Lloyd’s of London has warned.
The market, founded in 1688 to offer shipping insurance, predicted that the disaster would likely trigger a multibillion-pound loss once all claims are settled.
Failure of Francis Scott Key Bridge Provides Future Engineers a Chance to Learn How to Better Protect the Public (Michael J. Chajes, The Conversation)
Based on the weight and speed of the ship that hit the Francis Scott Key Bridge, today’s U.S. bridge design code would call for the bridge to be designed to resist a lateral force of 11,500 tons. This means the bridge has the ability to withstand a lateral hit of that magnitude.
Port of Baltimore Bridge Collapse Rattles Supply Chains Already Rocked by Troubles in Panama and the Red Sea (Simona Stan, The Conversation)
The Port of Baltimore is the ninth largest U.S. port by overall trade volume. In 2023 alone, it moved around 50 million tons of goods between the U.S. and other countries, much of it in large shipping containers, like those stacked on the ship that rammed into the bridge.
Bridges Can be Protected from Ship Collisions – an Expert on Structures in Disasters Explains How (Sherif El-Tawil, The Conversation)
I estimate, based on the published speed and weight of the MV Dali, that the impact force was in the range of 30 million pounds. This is a massive force, and you need a massive structure to withstand that kind of force. But it is doable if you have a huge pier.
After the Baltimore Bridge Collapse, We Need Clear-Eyed Assessments of the Risks to Key Infrastructure (Marios Chryssanthopoulos, The Conversation)
Catastrophic collapses of major bridges are thankfully rare. When such events do occur, public attention is understandably focused on the nature of the collapse, which can extend over hundreds of meters in seconds, and its underlying causes.
Baltimore Bridge Collapse Leaves Military Ships on Standby for War Trapped (Alistair Dawber and Michael Evans, The Times)
Four US military cargo ships on standby for war are among the vessels trapped in Baltimore as concerns grow about the effect of the bridge collapse on the local economy and global supply chains.
