Francis Scott Key Bridge (I-695) complete collapse after large ship hits it

[bing101]

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/baltimore-bridge-disaster-immigrants-died-doing-job-others-do-not-want-do-2024-03-28/

Here is more on the DOT crews that died while assigned to protect the Francis Scott Key Bridge. 

[J N Winkler]

Why is there such a spread in cost between the Gordie Howe Bridge (main span length of 853 m, $5 billion) and the Corpus Christi Harbor Bridge replacement (main span length of 1001 m, $930 million)?  They are both designed to carry six lanes of motor vehicle traffic as well as a bike/pedestrian track.

[davewiecking]

Why is there such a spread in cost between the Gordie Howe Bridge (main span length of 853 m, $5 billion) and the Corpus Christi Harbor Bridge replacement (main span length of 1001 m, $930 million)?  They are both designed to carry six lanes of motor vehicle traffic as well as a bike/pedestrian track.

Do the Gordie Howe costs include the new interchange with (and rebuild of a portion of) I-75 and the 2 customs stations?

[Road Hog]

AR 16 in Arkansas had a pair of signature truss bridges across a couple of arms of Greers Ferry Lake. One of them got blown away in a tornado in 1984 and then-AHTD replaced it sadly with a boring conventional bridge. The OG truss bridge still exists across the Narrows at Higden.

[bwana39]

The bridge will also need to be redesigned due to the lack of redundant structural integrity, which is the reason it went down so quickly.

While this bridge lacked redundancy, I believe any bridge that lost a support tower would have fallen just the same.

As to cost, my guess is $1.5Bn + any costs associated with the economic support to offset the bridge loss and any costs directly related to expediting the process.

[kphoger]

When I look at other bridges near ports, and when I see the 'islands' around the pylons, I do wonder if they would even really do all that much good if a container ship ran into them.

[PColumbus73]

Whenever they do get around to rebuilding the bridge, and they do end up using another cable-stayed design, do you think they'll try to design something that would evoke the former Key Bridge, or do you think they'll go with something that resembles the Ravenel, Zakim, or the Savannah bridge?

Would the truss arch still be a viable bridge design? Any others that would suit?

[Rothman]

Whenever they do get around to rebuilding the bridge, and they do end up using another cable-stayed design, do you think they'll try to design something that would evoke the former Key Bridge, or do you think they'll go with something that resembles the Ravenel, Zakim, or the Savannah bridge?

Would the truss arch still be a viable bridge design? Any others that would suit?

I seriously doubt a truss will be used.  It'll be some sort of cable-stay.

[bing101]

Mileage Mike did a tour of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in 2021. Note I seen news outlets used parts of this video to give a national audience a perspective on how the bridge looked before it collapsed.

[Road Hog]

Must have been an early Sunday morning because dang, traffic was light.

[J N Winkler]

When I look at other bridges near ports, and when I see the 'islands' around the pylons, I do wonder if they would even really do all that much good if a container ship ran into them.

I am hoping the investigation will yield some clarity on this point.  The Sunshine Skyway is well-defended with much larger dolphins than the Key Bridge as well as artificial islands around the piers, but this will have been designed for the ships of 35 years ago as well as a shallower channel (43 ft versus 50).

TxDOT has gone to some trouble to keep the main piers for the Corpus Christi Harbor Bridge replacement out of the water altogether.  As a result, it will have a main span length of 3285 ft (1001 m), only about 10% shorter than the longest in the world.  Unfortunately, this will not be an option for the Key Bridge replacement because the over-water distance that must be covered is around 5200 ft.

[vdeane]

Meh, just wait for the "If we're going to build it, let's build it right" mentality to sink in.

Didn't the replacement Crown Point Bridge have to fit within the existing footprint or something like that in order to get the emergency waiver on environmental requirements?  If there are similar requirements for the Key Bridge, that would limit what they could do.

[JREwing78]

Gordie Howe bridge is up to 6.4 B $Cdn, nearly $5B US.

Cite: https://www.constructiondive.com/news/gordie-howe-bridge-delayed-cost-increase/704079/#:~:text=Construction%20on%20the%20span%20will,fallout%20from%20pandemic%2Dinduced%20problems.

There's a hell of a lot more to the Gordie Howe than the bridge itself. Two sets of border crossing infrastructure, freeway interchanges, a rebuild of mainline I-75 near the Gordie Howe, community impact mitigation, and so on.

[Thing 342]

In addition, I imagine that not having to do new environmental impact studies or RoW acquisition (or fight the Morouns in court...) would reduce the cost of this project by a fair amount over the Howe project.

[jeffandnicole]

Whenever they do get around to rebuilding the bridge, and they do end up using another cable-stayed design, do you think they'll try to design something that would evoke the former Key Bridge, or do you think they'll go with something that resembles the Ravenel, Zakim, or the Savannah bridge?

Would the truss arch still be a viable bridge design? Any others that would suit?

I would imagine if they go with an entirely new bridge, the old bridge will have nothing to do with the design.  At best, they can give it a name that represents the 6 who perished.

[KelleyCook]

Gordie Howe bridge is up to 6.4 B $Cdn, nearly $5B US.

Cite: https://www.constructiondive.com/news/gordie-howe-bridge-delayed-cost-increase/704079/#:~:text=Construction%20on%20the%20span%20will,fallout%20from%20pandemic%2Dinduced%20problems.

There's a hell of a lot more to the Gordie Howe than the bridge itself. Two sets of border crossing infrastructure, freeway interchanges, a rebuild of mainline I-75 near the Gordie Howe, community impact mitigation, and so on.

Yes, but it doesn't include the 1.4B Canada already spent for the Right Honourable Herb Gray Parkway project which extended the Hwy 401 by 11 km to the River (eventually to meet I-75), rebuilt major portions of both Hwy 3 and the EC Row expressway as well as made a park out of all it.

https://www.hgparkway.com/

[Rothman]

Meh, just wait for the "If we're going to build it, let's build it right" mentality to sink in.

Didn't the replacement Crown Point Bridge have to fit within the existing footprint or something like that in order to get the emergency waiver on environmental requirements?  If there are similar requirements for the Key Bridge, that would limit what they could do.

I don't remember.  All I remember about that project is that it would have been a lot cheaper just to move those who used the bridge to one side of it.

[Revive 755]

TxDOT has gone to some trouble to keep the main piers for the Corpus Christi Harbor Bridge replacement out of the water altogether.  As a result, it will have a main span length of 3285 ft (1001 m), only about 10% shorter than the longest in the world.  Unfortunately, this will not be an option for the Key Bridge replacement because the over-water distance that must be covered is around 5200 ft.

That wouldn't be a problem if they were willing to shell out for a suspension bridge.

[bing101]

Here is part 2 by Mileage Mike on the Francis Scott Key Bridge. 

[rickmastfan67]

[epzik8]

Here is part 2 by Mileage Mike on the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

I really appreciate these videos.

[roadman65]

How about a temporary ferry across the gap? Wouldn't that be feasible to handle cross river traffic and commerce?

[SteveG1988]

TxDOT has gone to some trouble to keep the main piers for the Corpus Christi Harbor Bridge replacement out of the water altogether.  As a result, it will have a main span length of 3285 ft (1001 m), only about 10% shorter than the longest in the world.  Unfortunately, this will not be an option for the Key Bridge replacement because the over-water distance that must be covered is around 5200 ft.

That wouldn't be a problem if they were willing to shell out for a suspension bridge.

Well, you would think that but... for a span to cross it without piers in the water, you will need to tear up everything on either side of the bridge, to do a totally new alignment, since you'd have to start the approaches to the main span farther out.

[jmacswimmer]

How about a temporary ferry across the gap? Wouldn't that be feasible to handle cross river traffic and commerce?

Sounds good in theory, but I imagine that a ferry crossing would still be slower than detouring via the tunnels and wouldn't get much use. Not to mention that once the shipping channel is reopened, these ferries would conflict with cargo & cruise ship traffic.

On an unrelated note, I realized going thru my photos that I unintentionally got a distant photo of the Key Bridge back on New Year's Eve, where it snuck into the background of a photo I took of the I-895 K-Truss bridge shortly before the toll plaza & tunnel. Which would make this my most recent photo of the Key Bridge rather than 2022 as I previously thought.

[Rothman]

How about a temporary ferry across the gap? Wouldn't that be feasible to handle cross river traffic and commerce?

Dear heavens, no.  There are no docks for a ferry.  There are no readily available ferry ships that can handle the mixed passenger/freight traffic.  The volume on I-695 was overwhelming for a ferry.  Then, you have the harbor traffic to deal with.

Might have even already been pointed out in this thread, but lots of discussion out there on the Interwebs about this and why it's infeasible for this location.