by Anura Guruge
on March 27, 2024
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This is crazy. This is STUPID. I first heard this, this morning, on the radio — how Congress will have to appropriate funds from us, the U.S. taxpapers.
NO BLOODY WAY.
The ship owners/operators (or whoever) should pay.
Confiscate the damn ship, the ‘Dali‘, right now. It has to be worth a few million, if scrap metal alone.
This is NOT right.
Take notice. Don’t pay for this. Don’t!
I hope that this will be a case of “build back better”…a video news clip from a Philadelphia station pointed out that bridges over the Delaware River have concrete barriers called “dolphins” that surround bridge supports to stop any ship from hitting them.
Doing it too quickly or cheaply would risk repeating the disaster.
Per your oft stated refrain, shouldn’t it be ‘it must be taller’?
Not just bridges in Delaware, many bridges have protective islands to prevent ships hitting key supports. This bridge built in late 1970s. It was struck by a ship in 1980 and didn’t sustain much damage.
*****
It will be built WELL and hopefully taller. Question is who will PAY FOR IT?
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Why is sabotage not being mentioned at all, at all?
“Taller” is certainly useful for anything ships pass under.
As to design,I’ve seen pictures of the “Yavuz Sultan Selim” bridge that connects Europe and Asia at the mouth of the Black Sea…it’s a combined suspension/cable-stayed bridge with one tower on the European side and one on the Asian side supporting the entire span.
Scale this down to the Patapsco estuary and it would remove the need for anything in the water that a ship could hit.
I see hardly any chance that sabotage was intended.