• Wet Noodle@sopuli.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    8 months ago

    If the bridge can’t take a bump from the traffic that goes underneath there should’ve been additional pylons or something just to prevent direct collisions like this

    • BraveSirZaphod@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      8 months ago

      “Bump” is a galactically humble description of a collision with a container ship weighing nearly 200 million pounds.

      To illustrate this more cleanly, the momentum of a loaded Boeing 787 flying near top speed is 17,760,000 N.s. For this ship going at just 10 km/h, the momentum is about 260,600,000 N.s. In other words, the bridge would need to be able to sustain the equivalent of 14 9/11 attacks, simultaneously.

      The way to tolerate incidents like this is to add multiple points of isolated failure so that even if one point is catastrophically destroyed, only a portion of the bridge goes down while the rest remains intact. I don’t think there are many, if any, structures on the planet that can withstand that much force

      • RubberElectrons@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        8 months ago

        This right here. You’d need a frankly ridiculous amount of solid stainless steel to build pylons for seaway protection, and that’s for low speed impacts.

        Kinetic energy increases with the square of velocity!

        I’m not a sailor it anything, but I suppose requiring tugboats for all harbor travel of shops over a gross weight might be a good thing. Makes more jobs, at least.

    • Passerby6497@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      8 months ago

      Saying the bridge was bumped by the cargo ship is like saying someone got bumped in the head after having a brick thrown at them.