Baltimore Bridge Disaster

[texasdago 7552]

8 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

It’s so weird how the same psychotic idiots keep showing up in DT threads, spouting conspiracy theories, get roundly rejected and mocked, and then show up again in similar threads. Fuck you internet, fuck you. 

They have a promising future in elected office

[Zeus 5945]

11 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

It’s so weird how the same psychotic idiots keep showing up in DT threads, spouting conspiracy theories, get roundly rejected and mocked, and then show up again in similar threads. Fuck you internet, fuck you. 

Boat carshes hitting close to home now

Chinese cyber attacks zeroing in on aggy (the real super power in America)

everyone at TAMUG are stuck unless they gotta boat ride

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/f23jheC7Vk58X1J8/?mibextid=K35XfP

[Zeus 5945]

[BabaYaga 15205]

12 hours ago, Zeus said:

This is all I was looking for 

https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/Documents/DCA24MM031_PreliminaryReport 3.pdf

There's someone, somewhere, with a mullet and a trailer-adjacent proximity saying to himself, I can make that shit fit in my leased Dodge TRX

Quote

55,626-hp (41,480-kW) diesel engine manufactured by Hyundai

 

[bolverk 29392]

Don't feel like it really deserves its own thread since it seems relatively minor, so I'm putting it here because boat/bridge. Island aggy is cut off.

Barge hits a bridge in Galveston, Texas, damaging the structure and causing an oil spill

 

[Redneck Mutha 7935]

"Terrorists from tu destroyed the bridge, cutting off the food supply to those poor, brave, starving Aggies who are left to defend Pelican Island, much like William B Travis and Mike McKinney at the Alamo!"

-The Battalion, 5/16/24

[Fuck Tim Beck 3806]

21 minutes ago, Redneck Mutha said:

"Terrorists from tu destroyed the bridge, cutting off the food supply to those poor, brave, starving Aggies who are left to defend Pelican Island, much like William B Travis and Mike McKinney at the Alamo!"

-The Battalion, 5/16/24

P.S. Send more sheep! 

[Zeus 5945]

Maybe doesn’t need its own thread but it’s national news. My uncle in Canada just texted me asking about oil spill in the river by us lol. 
 

it’s the bay

 

 but yeah a little more pollution to our little piece of paradise here in Galvatraz island

 

i dont see a huge amount of oil or anything from the drone

 

 

 

 

[Zeus 5945]

[Foosters 17724]

[Hook1997 5270]

23 minutes ago, Zeus said:

Maybe doesn’t need its own thread but it’s national news. My uncle in Canada just texted me asking about oil spill in the river by us lol. 
 

it’s the bay

 

 but yeah a little more pollution to our little piece of paradise here in Galvatraz island

 

i dont see a huge amount of oil or anything from the drone

 

 

 

 

If there’s an oil spill in Galveston can anyone even tell?  The answer is no evidently.  

[Zeus 5945]

25 minutes ago, Hook1997 said:

If there’s an oil spill in Galveston can anyone even tell?  The answer is no evidently.  

It's all fun and games until you are picking tar balls off your surfboard and your kids feet.

 

[Brisketexan 104534]

4 minutes ago, Zeus said:

It's all fun and games until you are picking tar balls off your surfboard and your kids feet.

 

Interestingly enough, I grew up going to Galveston-area beaches, and every house had bottles of rubbing alcohol to remove the frequent tar stains.  And over the past 20 years, we grew up taking our kids down to the Texas coast, and when my daughter was maybe 10, she spotted a small spot on her foot -- "what is that?"  Oh, it's a little tar stain.  She freaked, we laughed - told her it was a regular thing when we were kids.

The Oil Pollution Act back in the 70s really DID make a big difference.

Also, I fished more than a time or two at Seawolf Park back in the day.  My daughter hooked a massive black drum on her little Barbie fishing rod setup one time down there.....it was not up to the task.

[TwiceHorn 31239]

2 hours ago, BabaYaga said:

There's someone, somewhere, with a mullet and a trailer-adjacent proximity saying to himself, I can make that shit fit in my leased Dodge TRX

 

An interesting note from the report.  That diesel and single prop/screw apparently are direct drive because it notes that to reverse, the engine must be stopped and restarted.

I'm not a marine engineer, but stopping and restarting one of those gigantic marine diesels is a non-trivial endeavor.  

 

Many other vessels use reduction gearing that includes a reverse gear.

I think this means that this vessel effectively had no practical means to reverse itself, or to steer sharply by reversing some engines.  The thruster(s) in the bow may obviate that to some degree, but not completely, and that of course requires pretty much full electrical power.

Edited May 15 by TwiceHorn

[Zeus 5945]

7 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Interestingly enough, I grew up going to Galveston-area beaches, and every house had bottles of rubbing alcohol to remove the frequent tar stains.  And over the past 20 years, we grew up taking our kids down to the Texas coast, and when my daughter was maybe 10, she spotted a small spot on her foot -- "what is that?"  Oh, it's a little tar stain.  She freaked, we laughed - told her it was a regular thing when we were kids.

The Oil Pollution Act back in the 70s really DID make a big difference.

Also, I fished more than a time or two at Seawolf Park back in the day.  My daughter hooked a massive black drum on her little Barbie fishing rod setup one time down there.....it was not up to the task.

Yeah even when I was a kid in the 90s there was way more out there, always finding chunks on the beach.

I found a few after that deepwater horizon spill but not really bad at all.

Haven't had too much bad shit in Galveston in quite a while, not even another big seaweed die off like we had a few years ago that caught up a bunch of little fish that died and stunk up the beach. 

 

[Zeus 5945]

6 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

An interesting note from the report.  That diesel and single prop/screw apparently are direct drive because it notes that to reverse, the engine must be stopped and restarted.

I'm not a marine engineer, but stopping and restarting one of those gigantic marine diesels is a non-trivial endeavor.  

Many other vessels use reduction gearing that includes a reverse gear.

I think this means that this vessel effectively had no practical means to reverse itself, or to steer sharply by reversing some engines.  The thruster(s) in the bow may obviate that to some degree, but not completely, and that of course requires pretty much full electrical power.

I guess the anchor drop brake needed manual release or power as well and even though they started dropping it 2 mins before they hit the bridge it wasn't down and catching or didn't catch enough to stop them. 

[texasdago 7552]

All those three-eyed fish are about to grow a fourth eye. 

I rag on Galveston a lot but I will point out that even early Spanish explorers would find tarballs because of the naturally occurring oil in the area.  In theory, Galveston's water is actually semi-okay but good Lord. I can't even imagine what's in the ship Channel

[locodos 5330]

 

[Scheiss Meister 8398]

10 minutes ago, locodos said:

 

If you're on that bridge you do not want to hear a little Chinese kid say, "Hang on, lady.  We're going for a ride."

[locodos 5330]

this one better?

 

[Incredulity 11541]

[SurlyGator 860]

40 minutes ago, Incredulity said:

This may be the most appropriate use of this meme ever.

[WBT 20410]

I've sat and watched the dolphins from just over to the aggy side of that bridge so this hits close to home

[PRONG HORN 3109]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Blotto 23424]

Quote

The main shipping channel into Baltimore’s port has fully reopened to its original depth and width following the March 26 collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which blocked most maritime traffic into the harbor.

Officials announced the full reopening in a news release Monday evening. It comes after a massive cleanup effort as crews removed an estimated 50,000 tons of steel and concrete from the Patapsco River.

The channel was blocked by wreckage of the fallen bridge, which collapsed after a container ship lost power and crashed into one of its supporting columns, sending six members of a roadwork crew plunging to their deaths. All of the victims were Latino immigrants working an overnight shift to fill potholes on the bridge.

The Port of Baltimore, which processes more cars and farm equipment than any other in the country, was effectively closed for several weeks while the wreckage was removed. Crews were able to reopen portions of the deep-draft channel in phases, restoring some commercial traffic in recent weeks.

On May 20, the wayward cargo ship Dali was refloated and guided back to port. The vessel had been stuck amid the wreckage for almost two months, with a massive steel truss draped across its damaged bow.

After the Dali was moved, crews opened a channel that was 50 feet (15 meters) deep and 400 feet (122 meters) wide. The full federal shipping channel is 700 feet (213 meters) wide, which means two-way traffic can resume, officials said. They said other additional safety requirements have also been lifted because of the increased width.

Thousands of longshoremen, truckers and small business owners have seen their jobs impacted by the collapse, prompting local and state officials to prioritize reopening the port and restoring its traffic to normal capacity in hopes of easing the economic ripple effects.

The announcement Monday means the commerce that depends on the busy port can begin ramping back up.

Its a start, anyway. So much crazy shit happens these days, this event seems like it was at least 6 months ago. 

[Ted Lange 16037]

On 3/26/2024 at 7:15 AM, FORTY NINE TO ZERO said:

Or lake Charles

 

[Hate 20103]

So glad I flew to NO…and that wasn’t the Crescent City Bridge.

Edited June 12 by Hate

[Matuka 1305]

Interesting thread on the future of the bridge.  It states bridge should be fully operational in 2028.  Surprisingly Helobius’s prediction of fully operational in one year appears to be wrong.

 

Edited June 12 by Matuka

[AUS-97HORN 11668]

honestly that sounds like a bullshit timeframe set up by a Chief Engineer named Scotty, so that he could tell his Captain that the ship was repaired 6 hours earlier than he said.

3.5 years is bullshit. hell they rebuilt the I35 Minneapolis bridge in a year and that was a complete tear down, start from scratch rebuild.  Im not saying the bridge can be built in a year. but 2 seems doable.

 

The bridge design wasnt that fucked up, honestly, if it only had deflector piers on both sides of the main legs, those would have kept the ship from hitting the pier at full force, and maybe even redirected the ship away entirely (with a big hole in it)

Other than the pier that was hit by the ship, the other piers should still be structurally sound. All they might need to do is sink some caissons around those piers to pump out the water, dig deep alongside the existing pier, and then expand the bulk weight of the pier with eleventy billion tons of conrete around them, and set up deflector piers on both sides to keep the accident from happening again.

The bridge was decently designed. use the blueprint already set out to rebuild the bridge.  add in more safety features... maybe see if its possible to raise to roadway another 50 feet or so to allow the biggest ships into the harbor and run with that on a 24/7 build schedule 

 

[NotActuallyALonghorn 4968]

All that may be true, but it seems like you might not be factoring in the fact that this is Baltimore. 

[Rockwell Torrey 1277]

1 hour ago, NotActuallyALonghorn said:

All that may be true, but it seems like you might not be factoring in the fact that this is Baltimore. 

[royiv 9145]

Lawsuits filed by both the State of Maryland and the USDOJ. It will be fascinating to see how the massive insurance syndicates handle this claim. Bunch of attorneys working for the insurance companies are going to make a whole lot of money on these claims.

Maryland Files Suit Following DOJ Lawsuit

[Ghost of LL 15465]

Just now, royiv said:

Lawsuits filed by both the State of Maryland and the USDOJ. It will be fascinating to see how the massive insurance syndicates handle this claim. Bunch of attorneys working for the insurance companies are going to make a whole lot of money on these claims.

Maryland Files Suit Following DOJ Lawsuit

It warms the heart.

[Captainant 27398]

2 minutes ago, royiv said:

Lawsuits filed by both the State of Maryland and the USDOJ. It will be fascinating to see how the massive insurance syndicates handle this claim. Bunch of attorneys working for the insurance companies are going to make a whole lot of money on these claims.

Maryland Files Suit Following DOJ Lawsuit

I wonder how much is gonna be like getting blood from a stone. The reporting is that the ship was probably NOT seaworthy in the first place and was riddled with shitty jury rigged fixes and cost cutting measures

Quote

The Justice Department complaint points to “excessive vibrations” on the ship that attorneys called a “well-known cause of transformer and electrical failure.” Instead of dealing with the source of the excessive vibrations, they “jury-rigged” the ship, the Justice Department alleges.

The complaint notes cracked equipment in the engine room pieces of cargo being shaken loose. Inspectors have found loose bolts, nuts, and washers and broken electrical cable ties, the Justice Department says. The state of the ship’s electrical equipment was so bad that an independent testing agency stopped further electrical testing because of safety concerns, according to the lawsuit.

“In sum, this accident happened because of the careless and grossly negligent decisions made by Grace Ocean and Synergy, who recklessly chose to send an unseaworthy vessel to navigate a critical waterway and ignored the risks to American lives and the nation’s infrastructure,” said Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Chetan A. Patil.

When that transformer and breaker system failed, power should have automatically transferred to the ship’s other transformer within seconds, the lawsuit says, “but this automation, a safety feature tailor made for the occasion at hand, had been recklessly disabled.” Instead, the ship’s engineers had to manually restore power, which took a full minute, according to the complaint.

Power was momentarily restored, but it again switched off because of a problem with the ship’s fuel pumps, which resulted from a cost-cutting measure, the Justice Department alleges.

I think Maryland is about to take a bath on her bridge, because insurance companies are gonna fight to the death over this

[royiv 9145]

Seems like negligence on the part of the ship owners. I don’t know the first thing about maritime insurance policies, but are you saying the insurance companies are going to argue that they’re not on the hook if the owner didn’t keep the vessel in seaworthy condition? 

[Deej 76524]

As long as the lawyers get overpaid, we're all good here. 

[NeverMarryAStripper 21781]

This is going to be like the Blockbuster late fee lawsuit.  The lawyers are going to collect hundreds of millions and the plaintiffs will get a coupon for a free VHS rental

[RPM 26208]

Doesn't help they documented shoddy repairs like wedging a 2 x 4 to hold the breakers in place instead of fixing the problem. Penny-pinching ship owners. Who could have suspected such a thing?

[Incredulity 11541]

13 minutes ago, RPM said:

Doesn't help they documented shoddy repairs like wedging a 2 x 4 to hold the breakers in place instead of fixing the problem. Penny-pinching ship owners. Who could have suspected such a thing?

Where are you seeing details of the issues and shitty fixes?

[Incredulity 11541]

1 hour ago, royiv said:

but are you saying the insurance companies are going to argue that they’re not on the hook if the owner didn’t keep the vessel in seaworthy condition? 

Not a lawyer, but I would assume they will make the argument that owner/operator were grossly negligent which I'm sure is exclusion on the policy.   

[RPM 26208]

9 minutes ago, Incredulity said:

Where are you seeing details of the issues and shitty fixes?

I believe I saw it on CNN. There were pics of a 2 x 4 wedged against an electric panel so the breaker wouldn't pop. I couldn't find that story, but I did find this:

https://www.marineinsight.com/shipping-news/loose-electrical-cable-on-mv-dali-ship-led-to-the-collapse-of-baltimore-bridge/

A preliminary assessment had already identified these issues, but new reports reveal additional details on the ship’s electrical system failures that led up to the accident.

The ship’s power outage occurred while it was docked in Baltimore. It was caused by a crew member’s error during maintenance that led to an engine stall.

The ship’s crew then changed its electrical configuration, switching to a different transformer and breaker system just before departure. The new reports show that investigators found the problematic loose cable in this secondary system.

Further investigation found that the loose wire could cause an open circuit and a breaker to trip, leading to a blackout. Engineers from Hyundai, the ship’s electrical system manufacturer, confirmed that removing the wire in simulations resulted in a complete power outage on the Dali.

 

[Incredulity 11541]

from that article

Quote

The MV Dali ship left Baltimore for Virginia in late June and was scheduled for repairs there.

I'd sure like to see the "jury rigging".  As I said in the direct aftermath of this, a ton of critical stuff is currently being held together with jury rigging.  Specifically, many electrical components are literally impossible to source.  Now the monday morning quarterbacks can certainly take the tact of, dock the vessel until its "right" whatever the hell that really means.  I don't think the world is ready to accept the consequence of a ton of those decisions.  Also, it could be pure unadulterated incompetence and neglect that caused the problem too.

[Captainant 27398]

33 minutes ago, Incredulity said:

from that article

I'd sure like to see the "jury rigging".  As I said in the direct aftermath of this, a ton of critical stuff is currently being held together with jury rigging.  Specifically, many electrical components are literally impossible to source.  Now the monday morning quarterbacks can certainly take the tact of, dock the vessel until its "right" whatever the hell that really means.  I don't think the world is ready to accept the consequence of a ton of those decisions.  Also, it could be pure unadulterated incompetence and neglect that caused the problem too.

The lawsuit (link to document cloud) has a picture in the court filing

 

Quote

 

This disaster was entirely preventable had the DALI’s owners and operators exercised proper care and diligence. Investigation has established that the ship experienced two electrical power failures on March 25, hours before she departed from her berth. The ship’s owner and operator did not diagnose or correct these electrical system failures. Nor were these failures reported to the United States Coast Guard, as required by law. Similarly, these failures were not divulged to the two local pilots from the Association of Maryland Pilots (the “Pilots”) who boarded the DALI to guide its departure from the Port of Baltimore, which was also required by law. In fact, the DALI’s master falsely reported to the Pilots that everything was in good working order.

Yet shortly after the DALI set sail on March 26, the ship lost electrical power again, which−predictably−caused the ship to lose propulsion and steerage. This loss of power should have come as no surprise to Grace and Synergy, the ship’s owner and operator, respectively, given the serious and longstanding vibration problem on board the ship. The vibration was so severe that the crew was forced to improvise remedies in an unsuccessful effort to curb damage to the ship’s electrical transformers and switchboards.

Grace and Synergy’s failure to rectify the severe vibration problem resulted in loose nuts and bolts (some of which fell completely out) and broken cable ties within the ship’s electrical transformers and switchboards. In fact, the vibration damage was so severe that an independent electrical testing contractor refused to conduct testing on the DALI’s transformer and switchboard due to “safety concerns.”

4 Investigation has revealed that the initial loss of power on March 26 was the result of a loose connection in the electrical switchboard. When the blackout occurred, the ship’s equipment−intended to automatically restore electrical power−failed to function as designed, because the ship’s owner, operator, and crew intentionally circumvented critical safety features. Although power flickered on briefly, the ship quickly went black for the fourth time. The defects in the DALI’s equipment that caused these repeated blackouts also compromised the ship’s ability to restore power and caused her essential navigation and safety capabilities to likewise fail. These defects had been present for many months. The DALI’s owner and operator failed to address these critical defects in equipment and the concomitant deficiencies in ship personnel.

 

 

[Incredulity 11541]

1 hour ago, Captainant said:

The vibration was so severe that the crew was forced to improvise remedies in an unsuccessful effort to curb damage to the ship’s electrical transformers and switchboards.

Grace and Synergy’s failure to rectify the severe vibration problem resulted in loose nuts and bolts (some of which fell completely out) and broken cable ties within the ship’s electrical transformers and switchboards. In fact, the vibration damage was so severe that an independent electrical testing contractor refused to conduct testing on the DALI’s transformer and switchboard due to “safety concerns.”

It would be a lot more of a smoking gun to have a picture of the bolded vs. the above bracing.  That image doesn't really scream gross negligence to me.  Again, it may well be true the vessel has significant issues and shouldn't have been operated.   

[wildcat09 29213]

5 hours ago, Captainant said:

I wonder how much is gonna be like getting blood from a stone. The reporting is that the ship was probably NOT seaworthy in the first place and was riddled with shitty jury rigged fixes and cost cutting measures

I think Maryland is about to take a bath on her bridge, because insurance companies are gonna fight to the death over this

Naw, it couldn't have been shoddy maintenance that ultimately bricked the ship at the worst possible time. Zeus is right, they must've been hacked by the Eyeranians. Or was it the Eyetalians?

[shadow_operative2.0 15824]

 

Quote

The owner and manager of the cargo ship that caused the Baltimore bridge collapse have agreed to pay more than $100 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the Justice Department, officials said Thursday.

The settlement comes a month after the Justice Department sued Dali owner Grace Ocean Private Ltd. and manager Synergy Marine Group, both of Singapore, seeking to recover more than $100 million that the government spent to clear the underwater debris and reopen the city’s port.

"This resolution ensures that the costs of the federal government’s cleanup efforts in the Fort McHenry Channel are borne by Grace Ocean and Synergy and not the American taxpayer," Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General Benjamin Mizer said in a statement.

The Justice Department alleged that the electrical and mechanical systems on the ship, the Dali, were improperly maintained, causing it to lose power and veer off course before striking a support column on the Francis Scott Key Bridge in March.

The collapse snarled commercial shipping traffic through the Port of Baltimore for months before the channel was fully opened in June. 

 

[Captainant 27398]

9 hours ago, shadow_operative2.0 said:

 

 

This is just for the cleanup cost, nothing to say for wrongful death claims and liability for replacing the bridge

[SydneyCarton 47835]

Yeah. It's going to cost a fuck ton more than 100 million to rebuild that bridge. 

[AUS-97HORN 11668]

honestly surprised they got anything out of the boat company.

 

its probably owned through 2-5 shell corporations, is a POS, old run down ship that they could have probably just said fuck it you keep it and walk away.

 

I am going to guess that we talked to whoever the real owner of the ship is and basically threatened them that if they didnt pay this, every single time any ship that the umbrella corporation owned that came to any US port , those ships would be told to wait at anchor for 3 weeks until a full safety inspection was done. 

that kind of delay over 20-50 ships would easily cost more than 100m in late delivery fees, spoiled produce, delays and additional fuel needed to speed up to try to get back on their timetable.

[Jameslaw121 4445]

5 hours ago, AUS-97HORN said:

honestly surprised they got anything out of the boat company.

 

its probably owned through 2-5 shell corporations, is a POS, old run down ship that they could have probably just said fuck it you keep it and walk away.

 

I am going to guess that we talked to whoever the real owner of the ship is and basically threatened them that if they didnt pay this, every single time any ship that the umbrella corporation owned that came to any US port , those ships would be told to wait at anchor for 3 weeks until a full safety inspection was done. 

that kind of delay over 20-50 ships would easily cost more than 100m in late delivery fees, spoiled produce, delays and additional fuel needed to speed up to try to get back on their timetable.

I have a better idea. Don't buy these ships. But better ships.