Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse

39°12′56″N 76°31′47″W / 39.21556°N 76.52972°W / 39.21556; -76.52972TypeBridge collapseCauseLoss of propulsion on ship, leading to collision with pier and subsequent collapse of the bridge truss.Deaths6 (2 confirmed, 4 presumed)Non-fatal injuries1+Property damage

• Collapse of bridge spans
• Allision^[a]-related damage to Dali and its cargo
• At least seven vehicles submerged

On March 26, 2024, at 1:28 a.m. EDT (05:28 UTC), the main spans and the three nearest northeast approach spans of the Francis Scott Key Bridge across the Patapsco River in the Baltimore metropolitan area, Maryland, collapsed after the container ship Dali struck one of its piers.

Two people were rescued from the river; one had no injuries, while the other was transported to a hospital in critical condition. Six members of a construction crew working on the roadway were reported missing; two bodies were recovered, and the other four are presumed dead.^[1]

Much of the Port of Baltimore remains closed to shipping as a result of the collapse. Wes Moore, the Maryland governor, called the event a "global crisis" and said that more than 8,000 jobs were affected. The closure of the waterway is causing estimated losses of $15 million per day.

Background

The Francis Scott Key Bridge was a steel arch-shaped continuous truss bridge. It opened in 1977, and it ran northeast from Hawkins Point, Baltimore, to Sollers Point in Dundalk, crossing the Patapsco River, a vital shipping route giving access to the Port of Baltimore^[3] and one of the busiest in the United States.^[4] The port handled more than 444,000 passengers and 52.3 million tons of foreign cargo valued at $80 billion in 2023,^[3] and was the leading U.S. port for automobiles and light trucks for the preceding 13 consecutive years (with more than 847,000 vehicles in 2023) and the second largest U.S. port for coal.^[5][6] It also employed 15,000 people and indirectly supported 140,000 others.^[7]

The bridge was the second-longest continuous truss bridge in the United States and third-longest in the world.^[8] The 1.6-mile-long (2.6 km) bridge carried four lanes of Interstate 695, a beltway around Baltimore.^[3] Two lanes of traffic in each direction^[9] were used by about 34,000 vehicles each day.^[4] A cargo ship collision in 1980 left the Key Bridge undamaged.^[10]

MV Dali is a container ship registered in Singapore, and at the time of the allision^[a] was operated by Synergy Marine Group^[11] and owned by Grace Ocean Private Ltd.^[12] It was built in 2015 with a length of 980 feet (300 m), a 157-foot (48 m) beam, and a 40-foot (12.2 m) draft.^[13] Danish shipping company Maersk chartered Dali upon its delivery.^[14] Dali passed two port inspections in 2023, according to the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA). The first inspection was completed in June at San Antonio, Chile, where a monitor gauge for fuel pressure was repaired. A second inspection in September by the U.S. Coast Guard in New York did not identify any problems.^[15]

Dali had previously traveled from Panama to the U.S., arriving in New York on March 19, 2024.^[16] From there, the ship sailed to the Virginia International Gateway in Portsmouth, Virginia, before departing for Baltimore on March 22, arriving on March 23.^[16][17]

The main shipping channel under the bridge was estimated to be 50 feet (15 m) deep, while National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) charts show the depth at the bridge supports to be about 30 feet (9.1 m).^[18]

Despite a ship collision with one of the bridge's piers in 1980 with limited damage,^[19] former agency officials have stated anonymously that the Maryland Transportation Authority reportedly did not consider the possibility of a ship collision with one of the bridge piers and instead spent decades studying potential risks to the bridge from terrorism.^[20] When the bridge was completed in 1977, the largest container ships could hold 2,000 to 3,000 containers, and while the Dali was designed to fit through expanded canals such as Baltimore's (since the vessel's construction was completed in 2015 and prior to the completion of the Panama Canal expansion project in 2016), the ship was at near capacity with 4,700 containers on the voyage that ended in the collision.^[21][22] Current federal guidelines for protecting bridges from ship collisions were released in 1991 and drafted in the wake of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge collapse in 1980, but owners of bridges completed prior to 1991 were not compelled to comply with the regulations.^[23]

Collapse

Dali left the Port of Baltimore at 12:44 a.m. EDT (04:44 UTC) on March 26, 2024,^[25] bound for Colombo, Sri Lanka.^[26] The ship's crew of 22 were Indian nationals,^[27] and the ship had two local American harbor pilots on board.^[2] At 1:24 a.m.,^[28][29] the ship suffered a "complete blackout" and began to drift out of the shipping channel; a backup generator supported electrical systems but did not provide power to the propulsion system.^[7] At 1:27 a.m., a mayday call was made from the ship,^[29] notifying the Maryland Department of Transportation that control of the vessel had been lost and that a collision with the bridge was possible, citing loss of propulsion.^[30] One of the pilots requested that traffic be stopped from crossing the bridge immediately.^{[9][31][32][33]} The ship's lights went out and came on again some moments later; the lights then went off again and powered back on immediately before impact as renewed smoke was emitted from its funnel.^[2][34] At the pilot's request, Maryland Transportation Authority Police dispatch requested officers to stop traffic in both directions at 1:27:53 a.m.; outer loop (eastbound/northbound) traffic was stopped at the south side after 20 seconds. Inner loop (westbound/southbound) traffic was stopped at the north side by 1:28:58 a.m., around the time of the collapse.^[35] Singapore's Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) reported that the ship dropped its anchors before hitting the bridge, as part of its emergency procedures.^[9]

At 1:28:45 a.m.,^[36][37][38] the ship struck the southwest pier of the central truss arch span, at roughly 8 knots (9.2 mph; 15 km/h).^[3] AIS data showed the ship traveling at a speed of 8.7 knots (10.0 mph; 16.1 km/h) at 1:25 a.m. before departing the channel and slowing to 6.8 knots (7.8 mph; 12.6 km/h) by the time of the collision two minutes later.^[34][39]

Within seconds of the collision, the bridge broke apart in several places,^[40] leaving sections protruding from the water and the roadway's approaches cut off.^[3] The main span fell onto the ship's bow and a section of it came to rest there.^[9][41] The bridge strike and partial collapse were recorded on video.^[42][43]

Multiple vehicles were on the bridge at the time it collapsed, though initially no one was believed to be inside them.^[3] Workers were repairing potholes on the bridge^[3] and were in their vehicles on a break at the time of the collapse.^[44] A resident living near the bridge recalled being awakened by deep rumbling that shook his residence for several seconds following the collapse, which he said "felt like an earthquake".^[3]

Emergency teams began receiving 911 calls at 1:30 a.m.^[9] The Baltimore Police Department was alerted to the collapse at 1:35 a.m. Large-scale rescue and recovery efforts were begun.^[42] The United States Coast Guard deployed boats and a helicopter as part of rescue efforts.^[9] Fifty public safety divers in eight teams were dispatched to search for people who fell into the river.^[45][9]

Damage

The bridge's continuous truss relied on its overall structure to maintain integrity; in engineering terms, it was fracture critical, meaning it had no redundancy against removal of support of any particular part of it.^[36] The ship's collision destroyed the southwest main truss pier of the bridge, causing the south and central spans to collapse, which led to the collapse of a northern span.^[42][46] Each failure sequence took seconds, and within 30 seconds the entirety of the central span had fallen into the river.^[47]

The bridge was determined to be fully compliant with the building code^[which?] when it collapsed.^[9] The bridge had dolphin and fender protection against ship impact, but these protections were insufficient.^[48][49][50]

Of Dali's 4,700 shipping containers, 13 were damaged in the collision.^[51] Two fell into the water, neither of which carried hazardous substances.^[52] Dali sustained hull damage above the water line and the ship was impaled by remnants of the bridge superstructure,^[53] which pressed it against the channel floor.^[54] The ship remained watertight,^[53] and the shipping company initially claimed there was no water pollution directly from the ship.^[55][56] Authorities installed 2,400 feet (730 m) of water containment booms^[57] around the ship after a sheen was detected in the waterway, which was believed to have been produced by 21 US gallons (17 imp gal; 79 L) of oil that leaked from a bow thruster on the ship.^[58] On March 27, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced an investigation into a hazmat spill resulting from breached containers aboard Dali, including some of the 56 containers that carried about 764 tons of hazardous materials: primarily corrosive and flammable substances, including lithium batteries.^[59][60]

Casualties

NOAA reported a water temperature of 47 °F (8 °C) at the time of the collapse.^[3] Two people were rescued from the river, one of whom was in "very serious" condition, while the other walked off with no injuries.^[61] One of those rescued was a Mexican national.^[12] Six people, all part of the maintenance crew working on the bridge, were reported missing and are presumed dead following the suspension of a U.S. Coast Guard search effort.^{[1][9][62][63][64]} One was identified as a Honduran national, two were from Guatemala, and the others were from El Salvador and Mexico.^[12][29]

Five submerged vehicles, including three passenger vehicles and a transit mixer, were detected using sonar.^[65] Emergency services also used drones and infrared technology in search efforts.^[36] The bodies of two of the construction crew were recovered from inside a pickup truck: a 35-year-old Mexican national and a 26-year-old Guatemalan national.^[1][66] They were found at a depth of 25 feet (7.6 m) below the mid-section of the bridge.^[67] The search was abandoned based on the condition of the debris and risk of further collapse.^[1] A 38-year-old Honduran national and a 49-year-old citizen of El Salvador have been identified as among the missing.^[68]

The ship's crew, including its two pilots, were accounted for and did not sustain any serious injuries.^[55] However, one crew member was slightly injured and required some stitches.^[52] Groups such as the Baltimore International Seafarers' Center made efforts to support the crew members as they remained on the boat.^[69]

Unified Command

A Unified Command Joint Information Center was established on March 27, 2024, to coordinate the investigation and salvage.^[70]

The command includes team members from the U.S. Coast Guard, Maryland Department of the Environment, Maryland Transportation Authority, Maryland State Police, and Synergy Marine, as the primary stakeholders. The team coordinates with other involved agencies and organizations.^{[citation needed]}

Investigation

External videos
Press conference with NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy, March 26, 2024, C-SPAN

The NTSB began an investigation and sent a team to the site.^[71][72] The agency is expected to release a preliminary report two to four weeks after the collapse and later issue urgent safety recommendations, while its investigation could take between 12 and 24 months.^[1][73] The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was also deployed to the scene, but said that terrorism was not suspected in the incident.^[74][3]

As the flag state, Singapore's Transport Safety Investigation Bureau (TSIB) and the MPA sent personnel to Baltimore to assist in investigations. The MPA said it reached out to the NTSB and the Office of Marine Safety to offer support.^[75]

NTSB personnel boarded the ship late on March 26 and obtained the voyage data recorder (VDR), which would help investigators develop a timeline of events leading up to the collision.^[76][77] Several possible factors were being considered, including the possibility that contaminated fuel or an improper grade of fuel had caused the loss of the ship's power.^[78][79][80]

Timeline

This timeline is based mostly on NTSB's preliminary timeline of events from the ship's VDR and the Maryland Transportation Authority Police (MDTA) Police log.^[81][82][83] All times are a.m. EDT on March 26, 2024.

Time	Event
00:39	Dali departs Seagirt Marine Terminal[84]
01:07	Dali enters Fort McHenry Channel[84]
01:24	Dali underway at a heading of ~141° at ~8 knots (9.2 mph; 15 km/h)
01:24:32	The lights first go out on Dali per on-shore footage[43]
01:24:59	Total power failure; propulsion is lost. Multiple audible alarms; VDR ceases recording of ship systems, but continues to record audio
01:25:31	The lights on Dali come back on for the first time per on-shore footage[43]
TBD	Verbal rudder commands are recorded by VDR
01:25:40	Dense black smoke from Dali's funnel per on-shore footage[43]
01:26:02	VDR resumes recording of ship systems
01:26:37	The lights go out for the second time on Dali per on-shore footage[43]
01:26:39	Pilot requests tugboat assistance—the first signal of distress
TBD	Pilot association dispatcher informs the MDTA duty officer of Dali's lack of steering
01:27:04	Pilot commands that port anchor be dropped; issues additional steering commands
01:27:09	The lights on Dali come on the second time per on-shore footage[43]
01:27:25	VHF Mayday: Pilot reports total blackout and that Dali was approaching the bridge—the second signal of distress
01:27:53	MDTA duty officer dispatches units to close the bridge
01:28:09	Last moving vehicle exits bridge per on-shore footage[43]
01:28:49	Dragging anchor, Dali at ~7 knots (8.1 mph; 13 km/h) first collides with the bridge
01:29:00	Dali continues dragging anchor; first sounds of collision recorded by VDR
01:29:27	MDTA reports collapse of bridge
01:29:33	Sounds of collapse cease
01:29:39	Pilot reports collapse of bridge
01:29:51	All vehicular approaches to the bridge reported shut down

Impact force

Estimating the momentum of the ship and duration of the collision (as the time-averaged force is equal to the quotient of the impulse over the duration of force application as a consequence of Newton's second law), the force of the impact with the pier was estimated by New York Times writers as between 120 million and 230 million newtons. In comparison, Saturn V rockets generate 35 million newtons of thrust at launch.^[85]

Aftermath

The debris from the collapse has blocked maritime access to virtually the entirety of the Port of Baltimore; nearly 30 ships had signaled the port as their destination, and more than 40 were trapped there.^[86] Only one part of the Port of Baltimore was unaffected: the Tradepoint Atlantic marine terminal at Sparrows Point, on the seaward side of the Key Bridge.^[87]

Maryland governor Wes Moore declared a state of emergency shortly thereafter,^[9] and Maryland Secretary of Transportation Paul Wiedefeld ordered the suspension of all shipping to and from the Port of Baltimore^[88] until further notice; trucking facilities remained operational.^[3] At 4:15 a.m., the Federal Aviation Administration imposed a 5-nautical-mile (5.8 mi; 9.3 km) temporary flight restriction around the incident site.^[89] Maersk, which chartered the vessel,^[90] saw its shares decline by about 2% when trading opened at Nasdaq Copenhagen on March 26.^{[citation needed]}

Salvage

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is taking the lead in first removing portions of the bridge, and the U.S. Navy is planning to remove the submerged portions using barges with heavy lift cranes, including the "largest crane ship on the East Coast", the Chesapeake 1000 of Donjon Marine Co., able to lift 1,000 short tons (890 long tons; 910 t);^[91][92] the designated salvor is Resolve Marine.^[54] Thirty-two USACE personnel and thirty-eight Navy contractors were deployed to the scene.^[57] More than 1,100 engineering specialists will join them.^[93] A total of seven floating cranes, ten tugboats, nine barges, eight salvage vessels, and five Coast Guard boats were deployed around the bridge.^[94] An estimated 3,000 to 4,000 tonnes of bridge wreckage laid upon the vessel and submerged the ship's bow to the bottom of the river, while the NTSB stated that 14 containers were breached as a result of the collision (which spilled soap, perfume products, and resin materials into the water) and that 56 of the 4,700 containers held 764 tonnes of hazardous materials (including flammables, corrosives, and Class 9 materials).^[95][96] On March 30, engineers began removing the first piece of the bridge from the river.^[97][98][99]

Long-term

For the foreseeable future, I-695 will remain closed between the MD 173 and MD 157 interchanges.^[100] Traffic is being detoured along I-95 and I-895, which cross Baltimore Harbor respectively at the Fort McHenry and Baltimore Harbor tunnels; vehicles carrying hazardous loads are not permitted in either tunnel.^[2] Vehicles with hazardous loads and those exceeding the tunnels' vertical clearances are being detoured along the western section of I-695.^[101] Advisories were issued to motorists as far away as Virginia warning of resultant traffic delays.^[3]

Except for the Sparrows Point terminal,^[87] Baltimore's marine terminals closed to shipping and will remain so until a channel is cleared.^[102] This had a significant impact on the shipping industry, as shipping lines sought alternate ports and shippers attempted to arrange for land transportation from those ports before late fees (detention and demurrage charges) began to accrue.^[103]

On March 26, CMA CGM was the first shipping line to declare force majeure in terminating their contracts of carriage with clients once cargo is delivered to diversion ports, followed by COSCO and Evergreen.^[103] On March 28, the Mediterranean Shipping Company followed suit, while Maersk announced that it would provide transport from diversion ports to its clients.^[104] Maersk paused all service to Baltimore indefinitely.^[72]

Stellantis and General Motors said they will divert vehicle imports to other ports, and Toyota reported that some of their exports could be affected.^[105] The bridge collapse also isolated the terminals of Mercedes-Benz, CSX at Curtis Bay, and Consol Energy.^[106] On April 1, CSX announced a new route for diverted Baltimore imports arriving at the Port of New York and New Jersey and that freight destined for Baltimore would rerouted to New York and New Jersey.^[107] Governor Moore said that 8,000 jobs could be affected by the bridge's collapse and called the disaster a "global crisis". The waterway's closure is causing an estimated daily loss of $15 million.^[91] On March 28, New York governor Kathy Hochul and New Jersey governor Phil Murphy offered the use of ports in their states in handling affected cargo shipments to minimize supply chain disruptions.^[108] On March 30, the Small Business Administration announced that it would make low-interest and long-term loans of up to $2 million to small businesses impacted by the bridge collapse in the Mid-Atlantic states.^[109]

In the Maryland General Assembly, Bill Ferguson, the president of the Maryland Senate, and state delegate Luke Clippinger introduced emergency legislation providing income replacement for workers and local businesses affected by the disaster.^[110] Republican state senators Bryan Simonaire and Johnny Ray Salling introduced another bill that would allow the governor to declare a year-long state of emergency after damage to critical infrastructure, though it would eliminate the authority to seize private property for government use, as now allowed under a state of emergency.^[111] Governor Moore also plans to introduce legislation to establish a permanent state scholarship for the children of surviving spouses of construction workers killed during the bridge collapse.^[112]

On March 27 the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, stated that the U.S. Department of Transportation would apply the findings of the NTSB investigation of the bridge collapse in considerations of "regulation, inspection, design or funding of bridges in the future" and noted that the bridge was not designed to withstand the impact of a vessel with the Dali's weight (approximately 95,000 tonnes when empty).^[23] Data compiled in the National Bridge Inventory by the Federal Highway Administration shows that 8 bridges in the United States—the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, the Lewis and Clark Bridge over the Columbia River, the St. Johns Bridge, the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge, the George Washington Bridge, the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, and the Chesapeake Bay Bridge—are fracture critical (a condition flagged by the NTSB in its investigation) with a similar vertical clearance to the Francis Scott Key Bridge.^[23]

Barclays and Morningstar DBRS estimated that the insured losses from the collision could range from $1 billion to $4 billion, and Lloyd's of London chairman Bruce Carnegie-Brown suggested that the claims could end up representing the largest marine insurance loss in history (potentially exceeding the losses from the Costa Concordia disaster in 2012) while Moody's Ratings officials suggested that the majority of the claims would likely fall on reinsurance companies.^[113][114] The Maryland state government's insurance for the bridge covers up to $350 million for damage, while the bridge cost $60 million to construct in 1977 (about $302 million in 2023).^[115] Replacing the bridge is estimated to take up to 10 years and cost hundreds of millions of dollars.^[96]

On April 1, the US Coast Guard opened a temporary passage for vessels involved in recovery and clearing efforts, with a controlling depth of 11 feet (3.4 m), a horizontal clearance of 264 feet (80 m) and a vertical clearance of 96 feet (29 m).^[116]

Responses

External videos
Remarks by U.S. president Joe Biden on the bridge collapse, March 26, 2024, C-SPAN

President Joe Biden was briefed on the disaster.^[3] In an address later that day, Biden said that he would ask Congress to fund the bridge's reconstruction.^[117] The federal government released an initial $60 million in aid.^[58]

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg contacted Maryland governor Wes Moore and Baltimore mayor Brandon Scott to offer his department's support.^[118] Moore also described the bridge's collapse as "heartbreaking", while Maryland Center for History and Culture vice president David Belew said that "Our harbor, port and many families are fundamentally changed" by the disaster.^[8] Moore also addressed the families of the victims in Spanish, saying Estamos contigo, ahora y siempre (we are with you, now and always).^[73]

Rafael Laveaga, Mexico's consul in Maryland, visited Baltimore to meet with the families of the Mexican victims. He confirmed that one of the rescued was from Michoacán, while the two who are still missing are from Michoacán and Veracruz. The Mexican embassy in the U.S. is providing consular assistance to the families, with a dedicated phone line for affected Mexican nationals.^[119] Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said the disaster "demonstrates that migrants go out and do risky jobs at midnight", and criticized their treatment by "certain insensitive, irresponsible politicians in the United States".^[120]

On March 27, Moore and Biden thanked Dali's crew for transmitting the mayday call warning of the ship's power failure and the impending collision.^[121][122]

On March 28, three officers of the Maryland Transportation Authority were recognized at the opening game of the Baltimore Orioles for their role in stopping traffic before the bridge collapsed.^[58]

See also

• List of bridge failures
• Tasman Bridge disaster – a similar incident in Australia in 1975
• Almö Bridge collapse – a similar incident in Sweden in 1980
• Sunshine Skyway Bridge – a similar incident in Florida in 1980

Notes

References

External links

ShipwrecksOther incidents