Sobel Network Shipping Co., Inc.’s Post

With bridges on our minds, it's important to factor the safety precautions necessary when building or revamping the I-5 bridge over the Columbia River. Modern reinforcements will definitely raise the cost of the bridge and we still feel building a new bridge to Washington may be the most beneficial solution for both states. https://bit.ly/3IZpr0G

Since the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in March, #shipments have been rerouted from the Port of Baltimore to New York, Norfolk, and Newark-Elizabeth. project44 data shows: ⏱️ Rerouted #containers in New York are experiencing delays up to 50% longer 🚢 Rerouted containers in Norfolk are experiencing delays up to 85% longer 💰 Demurrage charges on rerouted containers are estimated to be $3.9 million per week Read about project44’s latest #SupplyChain data in Mike Schuler’s recent story in gCaptain. https://bit.ly/4dlsGxc

So, this huge cargo ship crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, and it collapsed! It happened because the ship lost control while leaving the harbor and smashed into one of the bridge's support pillars. The bridge fell into the river below, which is super scary.   The bridge was made of steel and supported by concrete piers in the water. If we were building the bridge today, we'd probably make it differently, maybe using a cable-stayed design instead. But this collapse wasn't because the bridge was old or falling apart—it was just hit hard by the ship.   The bridge collapse is a big deal because it's a major route for a lot of vehicles, and now there's a big gap in the road. The people who study bridges and stuff are going to learn a lot from this, like maybe they'll change how they protect bridges from ships in the future. And hopefully, they'll make sure something like this doesn't happen again.   https://lnkd.in/eviA_2F3

The tragic Francis Scott Key bridge accident in Baltimore will reverberate across not only the United States but the world. It poses a significant three-pronged challenge. 1. Reopen the port which is vital to global commerce. Baltimore ranks as the ninth biggest US port for international cargo. It handled a record 52.3 million tons, valued at $80.8 billion, in 2023. It’s also the closest ocean port to the Midwest. 2. Address the supply chain issues. Our nation has dealt with supply chain disruptions for the past several years and started to rebuild and modernize supply chains. This presents one more challenge. 3. Rebuild the FSK Bridge. This will be a multi-year undertaking with design and construction. This is where American exceptionalism, ingenuity, and innovation will reign. Manufacturers, and America, have risen to challenge after challenge throughout history and will do so again. We will see it in this moment. I’m optimistic that our leaders will put politics aside and work collaboratively with government and the private sector to fund new bridge construction, rework supply chains and get the port reopened. I’ve heard various talking heads talk about a 5-year time frame - I’ll bet the under because we will get it done faster. https://lnkd.in/giVDG622

What do you do when a major piece of infrastructure comes crashing down? More importantly who figures out all the logistical problems? Where’s the work in the future? Supply chain for sure as we continue to ship goods around the world at unprecedented rates. Construction as we continue to replace aging infrastructure. While this incident was not related to the age of the structure, it does speak to who is in charge of such mega projects. It’s easy for us to go on about our merry once the government has said they will give support and funds to help clean up the mess but just like with the pandemic, a lot of work goes on behind the scenes. Who are the many people who will be figuring out how to remove the bridge structure, salvage all the bridge material, reroute goods, and then rebuild the bridge? #baltimorebridge #careers #jobs #jobsearch #careerplanning careerplanningforthefuture

Hello Connections! #SNSInstitutions #SNSDesignThinkers #DesignThinking April month Article about "BALTIMORE BRIDGE CRASH" Here's a summary of what I found about the Baltimore bridge crash: Incident: A cargo ship named Dali lost power and collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore on February 6th, causing a major section to collapse into the river. Impact: Six construction workers on the bridge were presumed dead. Two other workers were rescued. The bridge, a vital shipping port artery, was shut down for an extended period. Possible Cause: The investigation focused on potentially contaminated fuel as the reason for the power loss on the cargo ship. Aftermath: The focus shifted to recovery efforts and assigning blame for the accident. Questions arose about the adequacy of bridge safety standards and the prevalence of bad fuel in the shipping industry.

Lots of opinions and posturing around the terrible bridge collapse this week and I was not going to weigh in, but changed my mind since I don't agree with many of the things being written. Will this change how bridges are built? Probably not. We have already done that. This bridge was built in 1977. Changes were implemented in 1980 in response to the Sunshine Skyway Bridge collapse, and codes and designs have continued to mature since then. We build good bridges today. We do need to rethink two items : 1. Protection - again, I disagree with the statements that nothing can protect the piers. Rock Islands placed around them can probably deflect even modern large container ships. In addition, protection can take different forms, such as requiring harbor pilots and longer tug escorts. The harbor pilot at the helm in this incident certainly saved lives because they knew who to contact and what to say. Perhaps mandating that tugs take these ships past the bridges would be another layer of protection in the future. 2. More robust and automated warning systems - People were lucky that Baltimore PD was able to block traffic at each end of the bridge so quickly. Unfortunately the evacuation warnings just couldn't get to the workers posted up on the bridge deck in time. Automatic gates and alarms, the ability for the Pilot to activate them, and training anyone doing bridge maintenance how to respond, may be another needed layer of protection moving forward. Finally, I do think this tragedy has highlighted the need to consider these layers of protection as mandatory retrofits for our existing bridges that do not have them. We cannot undo what's done, but we should learn from it and take measured, reasonable, steps to prevent it from happening again. #alwaysbelearning #constructionishard

How many more bridges, tunnels are subject to a potential collapse and catastrophic event in the US? How many water pipelines still have lead and are toxic which water people drink every day? The US is in dire need of core infrastructure renovations. If the municipalities have a hard time borrowing with high interest rates, and banks cannot lend much nor long anymore, the private sector could finance those necessary renovations. If there are enough and much too large equity infrastructure funds, there are no private debt funds in the US, especially of size and duration, to finance these works. Investors are still chasing double digit returns from private credit funds and taking much too much risk in a dangerous current economic environment. #CeresInfrastructurePrivateDebtFund is a long-term large size fund meant to finance the renovation of strategic US core infrastructure assets. Ceres provides very defensive and inflation indexed high single digit yields from tangible assets' cash flows. If you are a long-term investor or have long-term liabilities, Ceres may be a home for some of your fixed income or private debt allocation. Check with us at www.Ceres-AM.com

📰 Learn how the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge is affecting supply routes nationwide. Our very own Carley Taslov shares insights with ABC 7 News. #BaltimoreKeyBridge #SupplyChainChallenges

📰 Learn how the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge is affecting supply routes nationwide. Our very own Carley Taslov shares insights with ABC 7 News. #BaltimoreKeyBridge #SupplyChainChallenges