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from the details-matter-even-really-little-details dept.
The root cause of the collapse of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge when hit by container ship Dali has been identified. It was the wrong placement, by a few millimeters, of the label on one wire. As usual, the National Transportation Safety Board has taken their time and done a detailed investigation--summarized in this short video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=bu7PJoxaMZg
tl;dr - the wire was not completely inserted into a terminal block, due to the wire label wrapped over the ferrule. Over time the connection became intermittent and eventually shut off power on the ship...after which it drifted into the bridge. Of course there were additional contributing problems as well.
The YT video comments include some more interesting details.
[Ed. note: For those not inclined to watch the YouTube video, the narrative summary of the video is listed in the spoiler below.]
1. The Dali electrical system distributes power and control signals throughout the vessel.
2. The control circuits contain hundreds of terminal blocks that organize thousands of wires.
3. The wires on the Dali were terminated with metal sleeves called ferrules that allowed for easier assembly into the terminal blocks.
4. Each wire was identified with a labeling band.
5. This image shows several terminal blocks on the Dali with wires connected.
6. To assemble a wire into a terminal block, a tool inserted into a side port opens a spring clamp, which allows the wire's ferrule to slide into place.
7. Removing the tool closes the spring clamp, securing the ferrule firmly against the terminal block's internal conductor bar.
8. Labeling bands identify wires and are typically positioned on the wire insulation.
9. However, many labeling bands on the Dali wires were placed partially on the ferrules, which increased the ferrules' overall circumference.
10. As a result, during vessel construction, some of the ferrules could not be fully inserted in the terminal blocks, including the ferrule on wire 1 from Terminal Block 381.
11. On that wire, the labeling band prevented full insertion of the ferrule, so the spring clamp gripped only the ferrule's tip, resulting in an inadequate connection.
12. Due to this unstable connection, over time the ferrule on wire 1 slipped out of the spring clamp to rest atop the spring clamp face, resulting in a precarious electrical connection.
13. When a gap occurred between the ferrule and the spring clamp face, the electrical circuit was interrupted, leading to a blackout on the Dali.
(Score: 3, Informative) by epitaxial on Tuesday December 02, @02:37PM (2 children)
I recall the right wing blaming the Baltimore "DEI mayor" over the incident. https://www.npr.org/2024/04/04/1242294070/baltimore-key-bridge-mayor-brandon-scott-racist-attacks [npr.org]
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday December 02, @08:14PM (1 child)
Technically, he got roasted for his entire leadership response being a suggestion to pray, not that him being a DEI mayor directly resulted in the collapsed bridge.
Of all the things a mayor could do during a crisis, his choice was get his face in front of the cameras for self-aggrandizement rather than actually do anything.
Well, thats what you get from DEI hires. He's not going to "do" anything productive. He's just going to be present with the "correct" skin color. Consider the alternatives:
- Budget shuffling to make public transport temporarily cheaper/free to get traffic off the alt-routes. Public transit sucks but at least if it were cheaper and "better" temporarily it might help with traffic.
- City services like police and fire reorganized to never need to cross the bridge or take insane reroute detours.
- Temporarily, more traffic cops to help with the reroute traffic load. Maybe do "something" with parking to either make more lanes for traffic or discourage car use temporarily.
- Expedite paperwork WRT disaster recovery financial assistance.
- Immediate work-at-home or alternate shifts for every city employee under his control and soft power attempt to get every private employer in the city to stay off the roads as much as possible until repaired or at least not do the 9-5 traffic jam thing temporarily.
- Budget shuffle and massive project pressure to complete current DPW road projects earlier to keep the rest of the roads clear during the reroute.
- Probably other stuff but realize I'm not a professional Mayor. Well, neither is he, but at least I'm not pretending to be mayor.
Instead of the above, all they got was "look at meeeeeeeee". He got absolutely roasted for that. If he got his job for being competent, he wouldn't have gotten roasted, but he got his job for skin color alone, so ...
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 03, @01:07AM
Calling for an immediate state of emergency addressed a lot of your issues. Also, you should look on a map as to where the bridge is in relation to his jurisdiction and see that some of your other points don't apply or are actually pretty humorous. Here [maryland.gov], show me where the bridge is on this map.
He got roasted for being black, pure and simple. And apparently still being roasted for that.