I didn’t realize Baltimore was so important for the car market of the Midwest and East Coast. Apparently 800,000+ cars are delivered per year through the Port of Baltimore, but with the bridge collapse today it sounds like shipments could cause some car market issues for a swath of the country.
Who can even afford a new car anyways. Big auto is so deluded and none of them will make a budget everyman car any more. I don’t need your patented this or that and ultra spytech computer and head unit. Just basic time proven engine design and entry level for everything else. And an electric version with the same design principles. But obviously it’s not proprietary and anti right to repair enough for corporate bigwigs.
Chevy TRAX, Ford Maverick, Honda Accord Hybrid, Corolla Hybrid are all $23k or less brand new.
They’re pretty much entry level interiors and ~10-second 0-to-60 engines (rather slow), and are also quite popular. Weird of Ford to make their entry-level model a truck but they’re just taking advantage of their pro-Truck reputation. Its really Ford’s entry level car.
It seems like that’s not even true anymore. The Maverick starts at 25k now, the Corolla hybrid is 26k, and the Accord hybrid is 27-28k. This is saddening to me.
non sequitur
Thanks for the perspective in the comments! Been though a few wrecked bridges in Florida. It’s a far, far, far bigger deal than most think.
Regardless of how long it could take, I honestly see so many old models just sitting on dealer lots. People arent buying new cars like they used to. This economy simply won’t allow it.
I work for the auto industry, and this isn’t true unfortunately.
I am a tech at a dealer and they laid off like half of us and 2/3 of the sales lot is a wasteland, while the last 3rd is still 2022 models. Driving around the autocenter in my area in South California, none of the lots are full like they were in 2019.
https://www.coxautoinc.com/market-insights/new-vehicle-inventory-january-2024/
Toyota in Feb 2024 had only 36-days-of-supply. But multiple car companies had so much supply that it bleeds off of the graph (over 160 days of supply for Lincoln, Chrysler, and Dodge).
Japanese cars (or at least: Toyota, Honda, Lexus, and Mazda) are still selling like hotcakes. But American Luxury cars are doing very poorly right now.
The pandemic really put a freeze on car sales, however that just means that everyone who would have bought a car then, and have been putting it off due to the chip shortage and inflation are soon going to find themselves in situations where they will need to replace their cars.
I currently have a 12 year old car and a 10 year old car, and both are very quickly showing their ages to the point where I don’t feel confident taking either on a long drive. As much as I love not having a car payment, I have a feeling within the next year or so I’ll be buying a new one and I doubt I’m the only one in this position.
Aren’t these ships so slow to turn and stop, that most entries into ports and narrows require tugboats? With such valuable cargo as well, wouldn’t insurance companies also?
The Key Bridge was located on a rather wide mouth.
This wasn’t a crash at the “narrow” part of the port, but near the mouth of the river that feeds everything. It also means that the other 17ish ports inside of Baltimore are all cut off because of this bridge collapse is blocking the entire damn river.
Can’t speak to tugs, but most (all?) major ports require a local to pilot the final bit. That was the case here.
“A maritime pilot, marine pilot, harbor pilot, port pilot, ship pilot, or simply pilot, is a mariner who has specific knowledge of an often dangerous or congested waterway, such as harbors or river mouths. Maritime pilots know local details such as depth, currents, and hazards. They board and temporarily join the crew to safely guide the ship’s passage, so they must also have expertise in handling ships of all types and sizes. Obtaining the title “maritime pilot” requires being licensed or authorized by a recognized pilotage authority.”
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It’d take over a week just to move the 95,000 ton ship out of the wreckage. Honestly 2 or more weeks I’m thinking, there’s a giant hundred-ton metal beam just resting on top of the ship now, its not going to be easy to move that safely.
Then weeks after that to clear out the rest of the old bridge to make enough room for the port to open back up.
Then its going to take years to reconstruct the bridge and bring things back to normal.
Don’t forget how big container ships are. Don’t you remember Evergiven?
These things aren’t easy to move around, dig around, or work with.
Having that ship bob around semi-trapped for weeks will likely cause much more grief.
They don’t exactly have a choice.
I’m sure they’ll work on removing the ship, and the remnants of the bridge, ASAP. But its not going to be easy.
Only slightly related, when Sea of Thieves released their named/captained ships update, I immediately named my galleon Evergiven.
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I wish I was as confident in my area of expertise as this guy is in fucking whatever.
Just yank the six lanes of highway guys. What the fuck is your problem.
This guy is a straight-shooter with upper management written all over him.
You’re seriously underestimating the size of things here to an absurd degree.
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The boats pulling cargo ships are pulling a freely floating object. This shit is jam up.
Lol, a few days? The ship is trapped under the truss, they’re going to have to do a full engineering review and come up with a plan. It probably has hull damage from crashing into the bridge posts. Imagine the outcry if that ship sunk and dumps its fuel everywhere.
It’s going to be weeks.
Imagine the outcry if that ship sunk and dumps its fuel everywhere.
Well… we don’t have to worry about the ship sinking actually.
We have a big problem about the ship getting grounded and permanently stuck in the mud though… the Bay is famously shallow. One of the shallowest ports in existence. There’s only 50-feet of water here, just barely enough to clear these container ships.
You know… barely enough room before these container ships have a damn bridge on top of them pushing them down and into the mud.
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I’d guess at least a week but most likely more.
That’s awfully kind of you to volunteer.
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/s right? Right?
As someone who lifts very very heavy things for a living, whoever ends up running the cranes involved will remember this demo job as the sketchiest shit they ever did. Even after every cut and lift of the steel has been engineered to death, this will be a painfully slow process, just to keep the involved workers from getting added to the list of casualties.
Looks like Army Corps of Engineers are on the case.
1000+ ton crane and a plan for the part of the bridge on the ship is the current rumor. Estimated to be ~4000tons on top of the barge right now.
1000+ ton crane is far larger than I knew about and will reduce the number of needed cuts.
This is still very dangerous and will take weeks. But it’s cool to see the best equipment the USA can afford get on this case.
I’d hate to be the guy in charge of walking down there and cutting the bridge up. That’s got to be one of the most dangerous jobs here.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/29/us/francis-scott-key-bridge-collapse-friday/index.html
Largest I’ve operated is 500 ton, largest I’ve seen in person was 900. 1000 ton capacity is a lot of crane. That said, a 1000 ton crane can go over in a heartbeat. All it takes is a shock load from a piece dropping as it’s cut, a failure of the rigging, or even the piece rendering out causing the center of gravity of the load to move further from the crane. Any of those things could send it ass over tea kettle killing everyone in its path. Demo is hands down the most dangerous thing you can do with a crane.
For the same reasons, this is why little 24 ton boom trucks flip doing tree trimming work. Cut a limb loose, it shocks the boom, swings away from the crane, and over she goes.
I wish them luck.
I’m glad an expert like you has contributed to the discussion! Thanks.
Biggest thing I did was watch a few trees get cut down, lol. I’m no where near a real engineer (outside of electrical engineering, but that deals with small things, not big things…)
Thanks! I love my work. But like one of my old timer buddies says a lot “it’s amazing the kind of sketchy shit you get used to”.
This looks doubly dangerous, as the 1000+ ton crane is not just a big-ass crane, its also on water.
Lets hope for fair weather and good seas. They’ll need all the stability that they can get!
This is the Chesapeak 1000, the 1000 ton capacity crane barge that’s been conscripted to clean up the bridge debris.
Oooooh super fucking cool. I’ve never been around a barge crane. I know guys that ran big crawlers on barges. Barge work is a whole different ball of wax. You have separate capacity charts to factor how much the barge lists when the crane is loaded. Giant brass balls on the guys doing that shit.
