Single-loose-wire-caused-baltimore-bridge-collapse

[Delldude]

That wasn't Monday-morning quarterbacking. This was a choice not to regulate large shipping corps, refuse to properly construct & protect critical infrastructure.

These collisions were not unforeseen, because that same pier was hit decades earlier by another large cargo ship. Also the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in St. Pete, FL also suffered the same fate decades ago, so they made sure it couldn't happen again. This port refused the plans presented to protect those piers.

Properly built bridges extremally difficult to collapse. Ukraine has repeatedly attacked Russia's Kerch Bridge & can't bring it down.

If flairs are being shot over a bridge you are on, you can bet it would cause you to look to see that ship coming at it. This was a failure to plan & train for disaster.

One thing I noticed was there weren't any structures around the pylons to prevent a ship hitting the bridge piers.
If they had them they were woefully designed.

 

[Unkotare]

One thing I noticed was there weren't any structures around the pylons to prevent a ship hitting the bridge piers.
If they had them they were woefully designed.

Well, somebody should be brought to trial before a jury of their piers.

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

That's why we are just now hearing about the cost to repair it?

The feds are not in charge. The state of Maryland is rebuilding the bridge.

 

[Doc7505]

The Democrat money laundering/kickback schemes are probably already in high gear.

~~~~~~>
First move is to take the building of the bridge from the corrupt State of Maryland, then get the Corps of Engineers involved.
If Trump looks at this and gathers the Corps of Engineers, I'm sure he can come up with a a faster building schedule, better, stronger bridge at a less costly price.
He 's done this before.
Of course not bridges but he does know about construction and engineering.

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

~~~~~~>
If Trump looks at this and gathers the Corps of Engineers, I'm sure he can come up with a a faster building schedule, better bridge and a less costly price.
He 's done this before. Of course not bridges but he does know about construction and engineering.

That's probably true, but right now it's Maryland's call. The feds are supplying some of the bucks!

 

[FireFly]

~~~~~~>
If Trump looks at this and gathers the Corps of Engineers, I'm sure he can come up with a a faster building schedule, better bridge and a less costly price.
He 's done this before. Of course not bridges but he does know about construction and engineering.

Then why is Trump's Border Wall costing 10 times more than he said & still is not complete?

 

[Delldude]

Then why is Trump's Border Wall costing 20 times more than he said & still is not complete?

Try a search.

 

[FireFly]

Try a search.

These are the facts Ai search uncovered:

President Donald Trump's border wall project was not completed during his term and ended up costing far more than his initial estimates. The discrepancy was caused by factors including underestimated construction costs, legal battles over land acquisition, environmental and logistical challenges, and politically motivated contracting decisions.

Inaccurate initial cost estimates
Early on, Trump gave widely fluctuating estimates for the cost of the wall, sometimes claiming it could be built for as little as $8 billion. However, these figures were based on minimal research. Internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) estimates soon put the cost much higher, and some investment firms placed the final cost between $15 and $25 billion.
Actual per-mile costs ended up being several times higher than previous administrations had spent on fencing. For example, by early 2020, NPR reported that the project's price tag was over $11 billion and climbing, with costs reaching nearly $20 million per mile.

Significant unforeseen challenges

• Private land acquisition: A substantial portion of the land along the Texas border is privately owned. The federal government faced costly and time-consuming lawsuits to seize property through eminent domain. Some of these legal battles stretched on for years, dramatically increasing costs and slowing down construction.
• Difficult terrain: The border's diverse geography includes mountains, rugged desert, and flood-prone areas near the Rio Grande, posing significant engineering and construction challenges. In some places, such as the river valley, engineers encountered unexpected seepage issues that drove up costs.
• Environmental concerns: The project ran into legal hurdles from environmental groups over its impact on protected habitats and endangered species. The administration issued waivers to circumvent environmental laws, but concerns and legal actions persisted.

Contracting irregularities

• Rushed process: The DHS Office of Inspector General found that the rushed pace of the project, driven by a presidential executive order, led to poor planning and potentially exponential cost growth.
• Lack of competition: Some construction firms with ties to Trump were awarded multi-billion-dollar contracts through modifications rather than competitive bidding. These contracts often saw massive price increases through add-ons, a practice described as "amazingly high" by one contracting expert.

The wall was never completed

• By the end of the Trump administration in January 2021, about 458 miles of barrier had been completed.
• The vast majority of this work—more than 400 miles—involved replacing smaller or older barriers with new, taller steel bollard fencing.
• Only 52 miles of new wall were built where no barrier previously existed.
• The Biden administration ended the national emergency declaration used to divert military funds for wall construction and halted further work.

In summary, the project's soaring costs and incomplete status resulted from initial cost estimates that failed to account for the immense legal, environmental, and logistical complexities of building in remote and sensitive areas. These challenges were compounded by a rushed and politically influenced contracting process that contributed to dramatic increases in the final price.

 

[Unkotare]

~~~~~~>
First move is to take the building of the bridge from the corrupt State of Maryland, then get the Corps of Engineers involved.
...

"We're the government, and we're here to help you."

Yikes.

 

[Delldude]

These are the facts Ai search uncovered:

President Donald Trump's border wall project was not completed during his term and ended up costing far more than his initial estimates. The discrepancy was caused by factors including underestimated construction costs, legal battles over land acquisition, environmental and logistical challenges, and politically motivated contracting decisions.

Inaccurate initial cost estimates
Early on, Trump gave widely fluctuating estimates for the cost of the wall, sometimes claiming it could be built for as little as $8 billion. However, these figures were based on minimal research. Internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) estimates soon put the cost much higher, and some investment firms placed the final cost between $15 and $25 billion.
Actual per-mile costs ended up being several times higher than previous administrations had spent on fencing. For example, by early 2020, NPR reported that the project's price tag was over $11 billion and climbing, with costs reaching nearly $20 million per mile.

Significant unforeseen challenges

• Private land acquisition: A substantial portion of the land along the Texas border is privately owned. The federal government faced costly and time-consuming lawsuits to seize property through eminent domain. Some of these legal battles stretched on for years, dramatically increasing costs and slowing down construction.
• Difficult terrain: The border's diverse geography includes mountains, rugged desert, and flood-prone areas near the Rio Grande, posing significant engineering and construction challenges. In some places, such as the river valley, engineers encountered unexpected seepage issues that drove up costs.
• Environmental concerns: The project ran into legal hurdles from environmental groups over its impact on protected habitats and endangered species. The administration issued waivers to circumvent environmental laws, but concerns and legal actions persisted.

Contracting irregularities

• Rushed process: The DHS Office of Inspector General found that the rushed pace of the project, driven by a presidential executive order, led to poor planning and potentially exponential cost growth.
• Lack of competition: Some construction firms with ties to Trump were awarded multi-billion-dollar contracts through modifications rather than competitive bidding. These contracts often saw massive price increases through add-ons, a practice described as "amazingly high" by one contracting expert.

The wall was never completed

• By the end of the Trump administration in January 2021, about 458 miles of barrier had been completed.
• The vast majority of this work—more than 400 miles—involved replacing smaller or older barriers with new, taller steel bollard fencing.
• Only 52 miles of new wall were built where no barrier previously existed.
• The Biden administration ended the national emergency declaration used to divert military funds for wall construction and halted further work.

In summary, the project's soaring costs and incomplete status resulted from initial cost estimates that failed to account for the immense legal, environmental, and logistical complexities of building in remote and sensitive areas. These challenges were compounded by a rushed and politically influenced contracting process that contributed to dramatic increases in the final price.

So now you know why. Looks like it isn't all on Trump.

 

[candycorn]

Seems like there should have been a redundancy if that is the case.

 

[evenflow1969]

Single loose wire caused Baltimore bridge collapse that could cost Maryland $5.2B to replace

NTSB finds loose wire caused Dali cargo ship to crash into Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge, killing six. Maryland failed to assess bridge vulnerability, NTSB also said.

www.foxnews.com

Poor performance by the ship's crew and material condition caused the ship to lose power. The bridge was also not upgraded to prevent such disasters. The costs will rise to about 5.2 billion to replace the bridge.

Lol, so you wanna make me responsible for designing a bridge while taking into account a direct hit from a ship and the bridge is not supposed to fall. While we are trillions of dollars in debt. While the national grade on bridges is d minus on the national civil engineering report. It makes me a failure if I can not do it. Ya, not Biden, not Trump, not you not anybody can make this happen. As far as crew goes there admiral you should know this. If I lose power to late to drop the anchor I am at the wind and currents mercy. That ship is going to hit something. Maintenance issue ? Maybe this could have been avoided. Maybe not. I have had vehicles that I followed all recommended maintenance and still had them strand me. If you are so smart you go fix the situation.

 

[PeterPilot]

The Democrat money laundering/kickback schemes are probably already in high gear.

Such schemes are probably in high gear for sure, for both wings of our Uniparty.

 

[theHawk]

The Democrat money laundering/kickback schemes are probably already in high gear.

Yup, Maryland is a Dem run shithole.

 

[struth]

Now under Trump's admin replacing this bridge will cost 3 times more & take twice as long.

Xiden alresdy preapproved 8 billion of course the city of Baltimore made sure they hit that number

 

[my2¢]

Sorry! International maritime law says otherwise. The insurance provider is only liable up to the amount of the value of the vessel and that is about $200 million. That was stated immediately after the accident.

I checked into the status of things and it seems Biden's Justice Department settled for half of that back in October of last year. Their press release of 10/24/2024 begins:

The Justice Department announced today that Grace Ocean Private Limited and Synergy Marine Private Limited, the Singaporean corporations that owned and operated the Motor Vessel DALI, have agreed to pay $101,980,000 to resolve a civil claim brought by the United States for costs borne in responding to the catastrophic collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

 

[martybegan]

Single loose wire caused Baltimore bridge collapse that could cost Maryland $5.2B to replace

NTSB finds loose wire caused Dali cargo ship to crash into Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge, killing six. Maryland failed to assess bridge vulnerability, NTSB also said.

www.foxnews.com

Poor performance by the ship's crew and material condition caused the ship to lose power. The bridge was also not upgraded to prevent such disasters. The costs will rise to about 5.2 billion to replace the bridge.

As an Engineer I always have an issue with "this one thing caused the problem".

Most failures are cascade failures, with a root cause and then other contributing causes, as you have properly listed. They also usually require other conditions to create the final incident.

To me the root cause is lack up upgrades to the Ship as well as poor maintenance, which caused a situation where one bad wire led to the accident.

 

[AZrailwhale]

It does.

Got a link because the insurance company can't be let off the hook by a decision by Tater.

Biden announced that the Federal Government would BEAR THE ENTIRE COST of the bridge replacement. Here is an excerpt from a CBS News piece on the budget containing the costs:
"
BALTIMORE -- Hours before a looming government shutdown on Friday, Congress passed a deal on a federal spending package that includes the full cost to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

The spending measure allots $100 billion for disaster relief, including the entire cost of a new Key Bridge.

The bill was approved by the House in a 366-34 vote, while the Senate passed the bill in the early hours of Saturday morning, 85-11.

In a statement, President Biden said that the bill "delivers the urgently needed disaster relief that I requested for recovering communities as well as the funds needed to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge."

The new Key Bridge is estimated to cost nearly $2 billion and is expected to be completed by the fall of 2028."
Is that good enough for you?"

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

Xiden alresdy preapproved 8 billion of course the city of Baltimore made sure they hit that number

Got a link for that?

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

I checked into the status of things and it seems Biden's Justice Department settled for half of that back in October of last year. Their press release of 10/24/2024 begins:

The Justice Department announced today that Grace Ocean Private Limited and Synergy Marine Private Limited, the Singaporean corporations that owned and operated the Motor Vessel DALI, have agreed to pay $101,980,000 to resolve a civil claim brought by the United States for costs borne in responding to the catastrophic collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

So it is worse than you thought! Thanks for looking that up!

$101,980,000 is a drop in the bucket to repair and replace that bridge.