Because of a conversation earlier today with a friend (you know who you are) I thought I would look up how much bigger container ships have gotten over the years. Why is it is of interest? It is because the size of ships today is quite different from what engineers were envisioning in the '70s.
First a definition. TEU is a measure of containers, it stands for Twenty-foot Equivalent Units. 20 ft containers are fairly standard in international shipping, even if most of the ones you see in the US are 40 foot - exactly the size of a semi trailer.
The Francis Scott Key Bridge over the Patapasco River in Baltimore was built in the 1970s, so the types of vessels that the engineers had in mind were (probably) at most the Panamax ships from the 1980s. These ships are in the 3,000 to 3,400 TEU range. Even if the engineers accounted for some growth is size starting with Pananmax, I don't think they would have planed for a threefold increase in size.
The MV Dali is rated at 9,971 TEUs - roughly between the C and D categories of the diagram.
Container ships continue to grow. As of January 2024 the largest ships are of MSC's Irina-class with the capacity of 24,346 TEU, or roughly two and one half times the size of the MV Dali.
You can find info on the collision of the MV Dali with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore anywhere. For my reaction to the insanity surrounding that incident see my post MV Dali Has Become the Conspiracy Theory Du Jour.
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