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Elon Musk wants to rebuild the Baltimore bridge with the damaged steel trusses

CaughtInThe

CaughtInThe

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I want to see the comments here for this one.



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I appreciate Elon's cost-conscious attitude, but his foray into structural engineering needs work. I think. Any engineers here?

Myself, I'm thinking the beams are headed for the scrap pile.
 
WorldWatcher said:
Come on Elon...

..... ..... ..... Rebuilding a bridge with damage parts?

..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... Bridge engineering ain't rocket science.

WW
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🤣 🤣
 
I wanted to reply that he should worry more about how to get Twitter functioning after its collapse, but I can't find the post.
 
So Elon, you do realize that every truss will have to be examined for internal stretching, stress and structural integrity for any one of them to be used.

Well maybe you don't realize that.

Hey.....a visible example of "If you believe that, I have a bridge to sell if you."

Hint: Its all junk now Elon. Perhaps you would like to buy it.
 
People need to quit pretending that Musk knows everything about whatever he posts about day to day.
 
WorldWatcher said:
Come on Elon...

..... ..... ..... Rebuilding a bridge with damage parts?

..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... Bridge engineering ain't rocket science.

WW
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Musk needs to be told to shut his hole.

All government contracts with Musk's companies need to be cancelled and Musk needs to lose his citizenship.
 
CaughtInThe said:
I want to see the comments here for this one.



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He's not talking about a widget factory building. Bridges are different. Everything has to be perfect. When bridge members are being fabricated every joint is preassembled in the fab shop before the pieces are sent to the job site. Splice plates are made with one hole out of pattern. Welds are x-rayed. My guess- if a contractor wanted to re-use a structural assembly that had fallen he'd have to disassemble it. All the bolts would have to be replaced, rivets would have to be checked, welds re-tested, sounds like a pain in the ass.
My experience was that engineering, to some extent, was negotiable (better to tell 'em what you did than to ask 'em what to do) but not on bridges. There's nobody more hide-bound, by-the-book, than a Department of Highways or railway company bridge engineer.
 
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Michael Cole said:
I appreciate Elon's cost-conscious attitude, but his foray into structural engineering needs work. I think. Any engineers here?

Myself, I'm thinking the beams are headed for the scrap pile.
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The material itself could be recycled and considered as an input.

The bigger question here is whether to simply rebuild the 1970s era bridge as it was (potentially saving on some level of design costs) or designing a new bridge altogether which will carry a higher price tag.
 
phoenix2020 said:
The material itself could be recycled and considered as an input.

The bigger question here is whether to simply rebuild the 1970s era bridge as it was (potentially saving on some level of design costs) or designing a new bridge altogether which will carry a higher price tag.
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Or hybrid.

Same basic bridge (upper structure) but with upgraded base structures (at water level) able to take the higher impact energies of the newer larger ships.

WW
 
phoenix2020 said:
The material itself could be recycled and considered as an input.
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Yes but at that point it is no longer "the steel" from "the former bridge".
phoenix2020 said:
The bigger question here is whether to simply rebuild the 1970s era bridge as it was (potentially saving on some level of design costs) or designing a new bridge altogether which will carry a higher price tag.
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The answer to that question is NO. Vessels are much larger, carrying much more tonnage of material than they did in the 1970's. While I would not suggest they build a 1970's style bridge in 2025, what was truly lacking was tug boats to guide the vessel that had lost propulsion and steerage. That is not to blame the harbor's navigation system for the failure. The failure will likely turn out to be a maintenance failure. However it does not take a rocket scientist to consider the usefulness of tugs to aid vessels leaving port.
 
Michael Cole said:
I appreciate Elon's cost-conscious attitude, but his foray into structural engineering needs work. I think. Any engineers here?

Myself, I'm thinking the beams are headed for the scrap pile.
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That steel is soaking in corrosive salt water but more importantly is was exposed to stress well beyond the plastic stage. The steel is junk and will be melted down.

The bridge would not have met the requirements for new construction had it been built since 2010.
 
Lisa said:
That steel is soaking in corrosive salt water but more importantly is was exposed to stress well beyond the plastic stage. The steel is junk and will be melted down.

The bridge would not have met the requirements for new construction had it been built since 2010.
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That steel might still be handy in the new construction. If you have a big crane at one end of a barge you could pile that scrap on the other end for counter-weight.
 
Grand Mal said:
That steel might still be handy in the new construction. If you have a big crane at one end of a barge you could pile that scrap on the other end for counter-weight.
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They have a 1000+ ton plus barge crane pulling it out of the channel right now so the port of Baltimore can reopen.
 
Questerr said:
The guy who designed the Cybertruck maybe isn’t a good authority on safe and sound construction of steel objects.
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Thank you!!
Me three, I want my bridges to perform A LOT BETTER THAN one of "ME-Lon's" Cybertrucks.
 
jnug said:
The failure will likely turn out to be a maintenance failure.
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Or one of those "Apollo 13" type defects where a two dollar relay failed and there wasn't enough redundancy to back it up.
NASA could be forgiven seeing as how a spacecraft's weight is supercritical whereas a giant freighter does not need to achieve escape velocity, so there is indeed room for better backup.
Rest assured the Key Bridge accident WILL figure prominently in freighter safety systems development in future.

We might witness a lot of retrofitting pretty soon for all ships of that size here on out.
 
Checkerboard Strangler said:
Or one of those "Apollo 13" type defects where a two dollar relay failed and there wasn't enough redundancy to back it up.
NASA could be forgiven seeing as how a spacecraft's weight is supercritical whereas a giant freighter does not need to achieve escape velocity, so there is indeed room for better backup.
Rest assured the Key Bridge accident WILL figure prominently in freighter safety systems development in future.

We might witness a lot of retrofitting pretty soon for all ships of that size here on out.
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I’m not so sure. Most of these large container ships have no redundancy of power, screw or rudder. While surprising on the surface, if you consider how infrequently something like this event occurs, and the degree to which the risk can be mitigated by tugs, it seems unlikely that we will see a major migration toward redundant propulsion and rudder control. It would take several more bridge collapses or other prominent events for that to happen.

This isn’t to say that I’m not in support. I find it shocking how something so large has so little redundancy. It’s just that there aren’t many, if any industries so cut-throat on cost as transoceanic shipping.
 
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