Dali Hit Key Bridge with the Force of 66 Heavy Trucks at Highway Speed
The cargo ship Dali knocked down three main truss spans, constructed with connected steel elements forming triangles, on the Francis Scott Key Bridge just seconds after crashing into one of the bridge piers early on Tuesday morning, March 26, 2024.The bridge collapse happened so fast that it left little time for the work crews on the bridge to escape. Civil engineers like me have been paying attention to this disaster, because we want to find ways to make infrastructure like these large bridges more resilient. For a bridge this large to collapse would require a catastrophic collision force.
Multi-Agency Operation Focuses on Containers in Port of Baltimore
The Coast Guard, along with other federal, state and local agencies, will conduct a joint operation today at the Maryland Port Administration's Seagirt and Dundalk Marine Terminals to promote awareness and verify compliance with federal and state shipping regulations. Inspections on containerized cargo ships are conducted daily by individual agencies, but this multi-agency strike force operation is one in a series of similar initiatives conducted in ports nationwide since September 1998. This joint operation is coordinated between agencies that have jurisdiction so that shipments can be simultaneously inspected for compliance with all applicable requirements. The operation will involve the inspection of trucks, cargo containers and cargo tanks as they enter and leave the marine terminals.
