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When Florida's Sunshine Skyway bridge was partly collapsed by a similar incident in 1980, the replacement bridge was built with a series of "structural dolphins

When Florida's Sunshine Skyway bridge was partly collapsed by a similar incident in 1980, the replacement bridge was built with a series of "structural dolphins" and concrete barriers to protect against ship strikes. You can see them in the image linked below: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_Skyway_Bridge#/media/File:Skyway_Bridge_old_and_new.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_Skyway_Bridge#/media/...

WarOnPrivacy 3y ago
> the replacement bridge was built with a series of "structural dolphins" and concrete barriers to protect against ship strikes. Given how the Skyway collapse is burned into the local consciousness, I suspect some of the benefit comes from their visibility. I truly don't know how the dolphins would fair against a massive ship strike but I can imagine them doing their job. (ship passing): https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FPgQhy2X0AE8yw1.jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FPgQhy2X0AE8yw1.jpg
- tomatotomato37 3y ago
  I would also add those barriers seem to depend on the ship staying intact during collision. Given the immense inertia involved on the bigger ships I could just as easily see a scenario where the barrier ends up ripping through the lower hull while the rest of the ship continues forward.
  - krisoft 3y ago
    > easily see a scenario where the barrier ends up ripping through the lower hull while the rest of the ship continues forward I don’t think that is likely? My intuition is that in order to stay seaworthy ships are constructed with more integrity than that. I don’t have any hard evidence though, just that I have looked at many ship collision/allision aftermath photos and what you describe is not a failure mode I have seen so far.
    - semireg 3y ago
      See also: Titanic vs Ice
dathinab 3y ago
interestingly the bridge has such dolphins but only on per-pillar per-direction and with quite a bit of distance between it and the pillar one some pictures you can see that the ship barley missed one of them due to the angle it was going at

WarOnPrivacy 3y ago

> the replacement bridge was built with a series of "structural dolphins" and concrete barriers to protect against ship strikes. Given how the Skyway collapse is burned into the local consciousness, I suspect some of the benefit comes from their visibility. I truly don't know how the dolphins would fair against a massive ship strike but I can imagine them doing their job. (ship passing): https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FPgQhy2X0AE8yw1.jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FPgQhy2X0AE8yw1.jpg

tomatotomato37 3y ago
I would also add those barriers seem to depend on the ship staying intact during collision. Given the immense inertia involved on the bigger ships I could just as easily see a scenario where the barrier ends up ripping through the lower hull while the rest of the ship continues forward.
- krisoft 3y ago
  > easily see a scenario where the barrier ends up ripping through the lower hull while the rest of the ship continues forward I don’t think that is likely? My intuition is that in order to stay seaworthy ships are constructed with more integrity than that. I don’t have any hard evidence though, just that I have looked at many ship collision/allision aftermath photos and what you describe is not a failure mode I have seen so far.
  - semireg 3y ago
    See also: Titanic vs Ice

dathinab 3y ago

interestingly the bridge has such dolphins but only on per-pillar per-direction and with quite a bit of distance between it and the pillar one some pictures you can see that the ship barley missed one of them due to the angle it was going at