Eggner's Ferry Bridge Hit By a Barge and Partially Collapsed

[artcarney_agr]

Check these out!

http://media.wpsdlocal6.com/images/3...bridge+009.JPG

When you look at this picture, take a look to the left of the boat...definitely more clearance underneath those spans than the one he tried to go under...D'OH!

[Steeler_Boy]

Apparently there were no "rocket scientists" piloting that boat!!

Sorry, apparently I thought it was bad joke day today....

I was wrong-----it was a massive boat that hit the bridge. It wasn't a tug boat it was this boat:
http://marinetraffic.com/ais/shipdet...mmsi=338731000

It carries rocket engines or something like that for Boeing. WOW!

[Steeler_Boy]

From an article I read (WPSD, I think) the Transportation dept. knew there were no lights and was going to close 1 lane of traffic today and try to fix the problem.

Who would have thought the bridge needed lights at night???

[Carter1]

I saw that bridge, intact, just this past Saturday as I was fishing near it. WOW!

[artcarney_agr]

From an article I read (WPSD, I think) the Transportation dept. knew there were no lights and was going to close 1 lane of traffic today and try to fix the problem.

Who would have thought the bridge needed lights at night???

Reports indicate that some of the bridge's navigational lighting was inoperative at the time of the incident. Paducah television station WPSD reported earlier in the week that the bridge was to be reduced to one lane on January 27 for a Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) crew to repair the lights. KYTC spokesman Keith Todd stated that the lights facing the MV Delta Mariner were operational, and that the Coast Guard had made the lighting situation known to vessels operating on the waterway.

[offdtop]

http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/a.../IMG957824.png

Taken from the Kenlake side

[bankbuster]

maybe they will widen the bridge to two lanes instead of original 1.5. Thats gotta be the narrowest bridge i've ever crossed. Pucker up everytime I go over it, especially when meeting a semi. LOL

[kc]

Just saw a picture on foxnews.com and the ship went through the first "wide" span on the east side of the bridge which as you say has less clearance than the spans in the middle. I also noted some of the news articles saying that two spans were down which is not true. I saw a video off of news channel 5 in Nashville and the ship went between two piers(the first wide span on east of bridge) and only that span is down -- or rather is wrapped around the nose of the ship.

As far as the bridge lights go I have navigated by those lights hundreds of times coming back to Fenton or Ken Lake and there are green lights over the center of the wide spans and red lights on the piers. I guess the light malfunction must mean that one of the green lights in the center was out.

Sure going to mess up traffic (and fishing) in that area for a good while...

kc

[MagikSmallie]

It doesn't make a difference what section or span he was going under, none of them were tall enough. The typical route for this ship was on the Mississippi River, the clearance for this ship could have never made it under any section of the bridge.

[UK_Angus]

maybe he was lost ....thought he was on the mississippi

[mkmsports41]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...s_Ferry_Bridge
Good Pictures There


The boat has been under that bridge before. There is a link that has pictures at BBC that shows it going under in the past.

[09Z7SC]

It doesn't make a difference what section or span he was going under, none of them were tall enough. The typical route for this ship was on the Mississippi River, the clearance for this ship could have never made it under any section of the bridge.

That boat navigates the Tennessee-Tombigbee waterway regularly. That is the only way to get the rocket engines from Boeing in Decatur, AL.