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Fenders and such. A major problem is this bridge was designed and built in an era where ships were substantially smaller (3000 TEU) than they are today (20000 T
by 1letterunixname 3y ago
Fenders and such. A major problem is this bridge was designed and built in an era where ships were substantially smaller (3000 TEU) than they are today (20000 TEU).
- fl7305 3y agoThe ship that brought down the bridge had a capacity of 10 000 TEU. It's max weight (DWT) was 115 000 tons. There were container ships with a DWT of 50 000 tons when the bridge was built. There were also tankers with 10x that (500 000 tons), so large and heavy ships shouldn't be a Pikachu-face surprise to the bridge designers. If nothing else, the trend in increasing ship sizes was clear to anyone looking at it. Do you think the bridge steel pylons would have resisted a 50 000 tons ship plowing into them?