Friday, March 7, 2014 — A 600-foot tanker hit the north pier of the New Memorial Bridge a glancing blow about 5:26 a.m. this morning. According to the New Hampshire Department of Transportation, damage to the bridge was superficial.
We captured these images from SebecTec’s wonderful PortsmouthWebCam.
The NHDOT’s press release is below:
Memorial Bridge in Portsmouth-Kittery Struck by Ship
At approximately 5:15 AM today (March 7, 2014), a ship struck a pier on the Memorial Bridge that carries US Route 1 between Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Kittery, Maine.
The 600-foot long oil tanker “Seapride” was outbound on the Piscataqua River when it struck a pier of the lift bridge.
Preliminary inspections have found no apparent structural damage to the bridge. The fender system designed to protect each bridge pier was damaged. The struck pier was pier 3 on the Maine side of the channel.
The incident has not affected lift operations at the Memorial Bridge and the bridge remains open to motor vehicle traffic.
New Hampshire Department of Transportation and Maine Department of Transportation engineers are on site to further evaluate the situation.
The U.S. Coast Guard is investigating the incident.
Bill Boynton
Public Information Officer
NH Department of Transportation
603-271-6495
wboynton@dot.state.nh.us
Don:
They’re hard to see in the glare of the rising sun, but I believe there’s one tug visible on the ship’s starboard bow early in the .gif cycle.
Later in the cycle another tug, on the port side near the stern, seems to hang back, upriver of the bridge pier, until the ship gets past.
Where were the tugs?