Baltimore begins massive cleanup after bridge collapse; feds say 17,000+ US bridges are vulnerable

Huge crane ships, thousands of relief workers and millions of dollars headed toward Baltimore on Thursday, as efforts turned from recovery after the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge to a massive cleanup. The U.S. Navy deployed several floating cranes, including one that could lift 1,000 tons. A second crane is en route and expected to arrive soon to assist the effort. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said it would send more than 1,100 engineering specialists and other experts to begin removing the hulking debris that has crippled the Port of Baltimore. The Baltimore bridge that collapsed Tuesday was “fracture critical,“ the National Transportation Safety Board, or NTSB, said in a briefing Wednesday. To be “fracture critical,“ a bridge has to lack built-in redundancies, meaning if a single vital piece of the structure were to fail, either a part or the entire bridge could crumple. Fracture-critical bridges are a minority in America — but the Francis Scott Key Bridge isn’t the only one. Of about 615,000 bridges in the United States, 17,468 are fracture critical, according to data from the Federal Highway Administration. Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed into Patapsco River on Tuesday morning after cargo ship collided with it, leaving at least six construction workers dead. U.S. President Joe Biden announced he has approved $60m in initial aid to rebuild the bridge. He said he plans to visit the city next week. __________________ ShanghaiEye focuses on producing top-quality contents. Nobody knows SHANGHAI better than us. Please subscribe to us ☻☻☻ __________________ For more stories, please click ■ What’s up today in Shanghai, the most updated news of the city ■ Amazing Shanghai, exploring the unknown corners of the city, learning the people, food and stories behind them ■ What Chinese people’s lives are like during the post COVID-19 period ■ Views of foreign scholars on China and its affairs ■ Foreign faces in Shanghai, people living in this city sharing their true feelings ■ Mini-docs showing why China is the country it is today __________________ ☎Leave us messages if you have any suggestions or questions! Thank you!