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Eggner's Ferry Bridge collapses after ship strike

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Sorry, struggling trying to make it larger.

I vow never to complain about the extra 25-ish miles per day I have now. I heard the detour adds ~50mi each way. Good grief!

I vow never to complain about the extra 25-ish miles per day I have now. I heard the detour adds ~50mi each way. Good grief!
If the goal was simply to cross from one side of the bridge to the other, 50 miles would be about right. Probably the quickest way would be to take "The Trace" - which is road that splits LBL - via Dover, TN, back to Murray and out HWY 80.

Is it just me or does it look like he simply went under at the wrong place? Are they saying this is the cause of the accident or is it due to the rain lately causing water to rise?

  • Author
Is it just me or does it look like he simply went under at the wrong place? Are they saying this is the cause of the accident or is it due to the rain lately causing water to rise?

 

I am with you, it looks like he just went under the wrong bridge support!

 

Have been over that bridge a couple of times and while driving over bridges has never really bothered me a bit, driving over that bridge always gave me the willies!

Is it just me or does it look like he simply went under at the wrong place? Are they saying this is the cause of the accident or is it due to the rain lately causing water to rise?

 

I own a cabin cruiser and pass under this bridge often and from experience I can tell you that is exactly what happened. The bridge has a main center span and 2 two slightly smaller spans on each side. These are the only spans that are susposed to be used by boat traffic. There are warning signs posted warning not to use the other spans due to under water cables (today Murray State, and all the schools in the Jackson Purchase have no internet due to the cable getting cut as it ran across that bridge). Anyway, the center span is the tallest and widest and is the only span that a boat of this size should use but this boat was 2 spans over where the bridge is not as tall or wide granted width was not a issue in this case but height was. Why and how this boat went under the wrong span is a mystery to me espically given that this boat regularly uses this stretch of water and has done so with the same captain that was on the boat this time. The lake is currently 2 feet below summer pool and 3 feet above winter pool which is somthing the captain would have known and at this level would still beable to clear the higher center span.

I read that some gentleman was crossing the bridge and had to slam on his breaks when he noticed the section was gone. Talking about a nightmare.

Having to deal with this for the past 24 hours, here are some more details --

  • The ship is a cargo ship carrying empty rocket boosters and other rocket parts. It contracts with NASA
  • The Coast Guard says it traveled under the bridge using the recreational channel and not the commercial channel.
  • The bridge was scheduled to be reduced to one lane Friday to fix some navigational lights on the bridge. It's not known if they were working or not
  • Four cars were either on the bridge or entered the bridge at the time of impact. Somehow, three people are claiming they almost went into the water and slammed on their brakes. One of the four on the bridge was an off-duty trooper who blocked off his side
  • Work was scheduled to replace the bridge later this year and be complete by 2016.
  • The span gap is 322 feet. The Corps of Engineers can only bridge a gap of 200 feet without total reconstruction
  • The boat has passed under the bridge successfully before
  • Rand Paul, Ed Whitfield, Lt. Gov. Abramson, and all of the local politicians were at the bridge today. It may speed up the construction if it becomes a federal project.
  • Jack and Rose survived.

For more information and a whole truck load of pictures, visit WKDZ Radio in Cadiz.

[*][*]The Coast Guard says it traveled under the bridge using the recreational channel and not the commercial channel.

 

The recreational channel runs along the west shoreline and then makes a turn to the east where it merges at the bridge with the main bardge or commercial channel so at the bridge the two channels are briefly one that consists of the 3 most center spans and the boat missed all 3 of those going one span to far in.

Am I misreading this?

 

...was carrying space rocket parts from Decatur, Ala., to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The ship was traveling on its typical route to Florida's Atlantic coast when it hit the aging steel bridge, which was built in the 1930s and handles about 2,800 vehicles a day

 

How the hell is this the most direct route between the two?

Am I misreading this?

 

...was carrying space rocket parts from Decatur, Ala., to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The ship was traveling on its typical route to Florida's Atlantic coast when it hit the aging steel bridge, which was built in the 1930s and handles about 2,800 vehicles a day

 

How the hell is this the most direct route between the two?

 

Most direct shipping route. May be cargo too big for road/railroad. You take the Tennessee River to the Ohio then the Mississippi then the Gulf.

Most direct shipping route. May be cargo too big for road/railroad. You take the Tennessee River to the Ohio then the Mississippi then the Gulf.

 

Traditional bardge traffic would take the more direct route down the Tom Bigby Waterway (a canal running from Kentucky Lake/Tennessee River) to Mobile Bay but this ship is to tall to fit under some of the bridges and has to use the Mississippi River.

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