Posted on 03/26/2024 8:57:44 AM PDT by MeganC
The tragedy in Baltimore with the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge is fresh. Brave people are currently searching the dangerous tangled wreckage for any possible survivors and the dead.
But where the news media this morning is also talking about the impacts on shipping on the East Coast of the USA and the impacts on traffic on the East Coast it is a valid topic of discussion to consider the next steps.
1. Reopening the Port of Baltimore will be a priority. The NTSB will predictably conduct a speedy investigation and conclude the primary cause of the collapse as the cargo ship "Dali" having allided (correct word) with the bridge support.
The center span of the bridge will then be removed to clear the shipping channel. This may happen within a month if not sooner.
2. The bridge will be replaced. The questions are when and by what? Maryland being a Democrat regime the new bridge will cost untold billions, it will likely be a complex design, and it will of course have to feature a costly bike/pedestrian trail.
With the San Francisco Bay Bridge as an example it took fourteen years to replace the earthquake damaged section of the bridge with a costly and probably seismically unsound replacement. This came at an exorbitant cost.
The new bridge in Baltimore will likely take just as long to design, argue about, grift, and construct and no doubt multiple criminal scandals will occur during construction.
The Francis Scott Key Bridge replacement is very unlikely to bear the same name. In all due likelihood it will bear the name of someone favored by woke Democrats.
Anyone else care to weigh in here?
The earmarks alone in the most recent “continuing resolution”(i.e., bill of theft) would have covered the cost of a new bridge.
But SF isn’t Baltimore. In Baltimore we’re still proud of him.
My guess is that it will be called the Brian Frosh Bridge, after Maryland’s hard-left former Attorney General and State Senate leader.
Good suggestions, especially segregating truck and passenger traffic among the two tunnels and stopping the construction north of Baltimore (unless it’s relatively close to completion—I haven’t been over that way in some time).
Construction on the west side of the Beltway, where I live now, should be stopped to handle the increased load.
I’m just glad they finished the I-895 rehab before this happened!
The Barbara Mikulski Bridge!
Already with two highway tunnels in the area, they will add a third. It will be The Buttigieg Tubes.
They need to add BUMPERS to the new bridge!
You have it covered, perfectly...
This was a suicidal head on collision, imo and I believe SOMETHING would have been done to stop or reposition the ship before it impacted the bridge, WAY before it occurred.
Name contest for the replacement already? That was quick. My entry is: “Stolen Indegenous Peoples Land Bridge.”
That is a pretty accurate assessment.
It shouldn’t take that long to start the removal of the debris and if they were serious, they could have the port reopened within days.
However, Baltimore, being a corrupt Democrat-run cesspool, will be in the midst of grift and money-grubbing croneyism for months, if not years.
Biden said the feds will pay it all. Grrrr.
According to Wiki, 95,128 GT
The fact they are downplaying this is proof enough to a thinking man that this is too down obfuscation and suppression. And a cyberattack. Trump, in one of his many many failings, did not destroy the mainstream media hierarchy as president. They are hiding it. The ones at the top got the message, and the little fish are cowards or do not question anything
I am guessing the new bridge will be designed with a longer span at its center, between supports.
Never believe anything until the government officially denies it.
Honestly, what better way to conduct terrorism than making it look like an *accident* and then have the complicit alphabet agencies declare it so.
Now I'm even more suspicious that it was.
If a ship actually lost all ability to maneuver, would that help?
If we were a capitalist country that bridge would be back and running in under a year. The heavy lifting is already done.
BUT... The government and unions will milk it for everything they can. Lawsuits will take years. POliticians will make hay. Then all the ridiculous EPA rules and EIS will take years, if ever, Then we will get the envirowhacko types protesting and blocking any construction. Democrats will force any spending for the repair to fund abortion, LGBTQWTF, and eliminate border security earmarks. AND being Baltimore, a progressive dump, they need their grift.
7 years minimum.
For a lot of workers a commute of a few miles just became thirty or more.
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