24 April 2014

Skagway's Floating Ferry Dock Sinks

The Associated Press reports:

— Ferry service has been suspended to the Southeast Alaska community of Skagway after the dock sank overnight.

This photo released by The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT&PF) shows the Alaska DOT&PF Alaska Marine Highway System floating dock submerged in Skagway, Alaska, on Thursday, April 24, 2014.


[snip]
People on their way to work saw the partially submerged floating dock about 6 a.m. Thursday, and the dock was completely under water within 90 minutes.

The 160-foot by 120-foot dock is comprised of 24 individual, airtight concrete chambers, each 12 feet deep.

Woodrow said every individual chamber has been inspected by the state in the last two years.
There was "no visible sign of wear or indication that would lead to this submersion," he said.
The 24 chambers are supposed to provide a redundancy backup, he said, meaning if one fails, the other airtight boxes keep the dock afloat. "To have the dock submerged like this, there has to be multiple failures or some other issue," he said.

Read the whole story at the link.

7 comments:

ProudHillbilly said...

Oopsy!

Cathy said...

Hey! Proud Hillbilly read my mind.
My response exactly:
"Oops."
Luckily . . no human casualties.

Rev. Paul said...

Oops, indeed. This one seems a bit suspicious, given the multiple-redundancy built into the system.

Sandy Livesay said...

Rev. Paul,

Good thing it happened over night and no one was hurt.

Rev. Paul said...

Good point, Sandy. Thanks!

threecollie said...

Same word as everyone else...oops.

Rev. Paul said...

"Oops" does seem to come up frequently, on this topic. :)