Last night around 8PM, the supply ship, MV Delta Mariner, operated by Foss Maritime, struck the Eggner Ferry Bridge on the Tennessee River in Kentucky, taking out a 300′ span. The MV Delta Mariner is a 312-foot long and 8,000 horsepower supply ship, designed to transport rocket booster cores for Boeing’s Delta IV rocket program. Four cars were on the bridge when the ship hit but there are no injuries reported on the bridge or aboard the ship. The ship was not seriously damaged. The bridge normally handles around 2,800 cars per day.
Ship carrying space rocket parts to Cape Canaveral crashes into Ky. bridge, causing collapse
The Coast Guard is investigating the cause of the crash, which may be related to high water levels on the river. The ship has passed under the bridge numerous times on its way from from the Boeing factory in Decatur, Alabama down the Tennessee-Tombigbee waterway to Mobile Bay and then on to launch stations in either Florida or California. Thanks to Phil Leon for passing along the news.
Story doesn’t make sense.
Parts made in Alabama to be shipped to Florida, so why was the ship way up north on what most of us in Ohio consider this to be a part of the Ohio River?
An excellent question.
Google is your friend. The Tennessee River flows into the Ohio. Tennessee to the Ohio to the Lower Mississippi to the Gulf to the Atlantic. I had to laugh at the above comments.
Orrr…Tennessee to the Tenn Tom to the Gulf. Your choice.
The information from several sources, that we then parroted, says that the ship carried rocket components from Decatur, AL to Mobile via the Tenn Tom. Exactly why the ship needed to head that far North was the question. Do you have any insight as to why the ship did not turn South at the Ten Tom but instead kept heading North?
I’m not sure which route they were taking but the Tennessee flows north in that area. You would normally cut south down the Tenn Tom at Yellow Creek. It’s been many years since I ran up there.
The ship is much too big for many of the bridges on the Tenn Tom water way. Water levels are not deep enough to handle this size ship.
Yes Jeff, a draft of nine feet in a twelve foot channel is too much.
According to the Wikipedia page on the MV Delta Mariner, that literally sprang up over night, it appears that she used the Tenn-Tom when in ballast and the Tennessee – Ohio – Mississippi route when fully loaded. The plant in Decatur, AL is only about 300 miles from the Gulf, but the ship has to travel over a thousand to reach salt water when carrying cargo.
Soo, I’m still confused. Did the ship hit the bridge heading north to Ky. Dam or was it heading south on the lake to the TennTom waterway. Would it have locked through the dam on to the Ohio then Miss.? I know the ship was eventually heading south but was it north or south ON the lake?
I believe that it was heading North to the Ohio. Fully loaded it appears to have too deep a draft to navigate the Tenn-Tom. My guess is that it returns to Decatur from the Gulf via the Tenn-Tom after it has discharged its rocket cargo and is sailing in ballast.
The ship was out of the channel. It took out the two spans furthest from the shipping channel span. Headed north.
It was headed north to Paducah where the Tennessee and Ohio rivers meet then dump into the Mississippi 20 miles down river. I’ve sethseen the ship up close and went over the bridge 4to hours earlier he wouldn’t have made it even if he was in the channel plus the fog was bad that night.
Looks like some of the nav lights were out on the bridge causing them to think they were running the channel span.
Amazing what people don’t know about America’s Inland Waterways.