Road bridge from Russia to Crimea opens

[JohnnyMo]

Is Putin's table long enough to bridge the gap?

That joke was made by one of the papers

[KeithW]

Partially reopened: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63183404

It appears to be the Crimea-bound carriageway that has collapsed into the sea whilst the Russia-bound carriageway has remained intact and is passable to some extent. Clearly the road bridge would only be able to function as a single carriageway in the short to medium term if its use can even be deemed safe anymore accounting for security concerns. The railway also seems to be back in operation.

The last thing the Russians needed was a slowdown in logistics which is already a major problem for them but an attack in Russian territory is going to cause a lot of anxiety and a major loss of face. Putin himself drove the first truck over the bridge !

Something that doesnt seem to have been reported widely yet is the explosion of a cargo train in Ilovaisk Donbas which has caused major damage to another vital transport hub.

https://edition.cnn.com/europe/live-new ... 9a75f388f5

[M4 Cardiff]

Partially reopened: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-63183404

Something that doesnt seem to have been reported widely yet is the explosion of a cargo train in Ilovaisk Donbas which has caused major damage to another vital transport hub.

https://edition.cnn.com/europe/live-new ... 9a75f388f5

Those Russians are really careless with smoking in places with lots of flammable material around

[jervi]

https://t.me/pilotblog/1396

Update of the bridge.

The destroyed carriageway has been dismantled and plan to be rebuilt by 20th December 2022.
The adjacent carriageway (still open) where damaged will then be dismantled and planed to be rebuilt by 20th March 2023.
The railway bridge is currently operating as a single track and two of the spans will be dismantled and restored by September 2023.

[Chris5156]

https://t.me/pilotblog/1396

Update of the bridge.

The destroyed carriageway has been dismantled and plan to be rebuilt by 20th December 2022.
The adjacent carriageway (still open) where damaged will then be dismantled and planed to be rebuilt by 20th March 2023.
The railway bridge is currently operating as a single track and two of the spans will be dismantled and restored by September 2023.

That’s fast work, all things considered - though I fully understand how and why it’s happening so quickly.

Possibly this is an obvious point to make, but of course the above timetable assumes that nothing else will happen to the bridge in the meantime.

[KeithW]

https://t.me/pilotblog/1396

Update of the bridge.

The destroyed carriageway has been dismantled and plan to be rebuilt by 20th December 2022.
The adjacent carriageway (still open) where damaged will then be dismantled and planed to be rebuilt by 20th March 2023.
The railway bridge is currently operating as a single track and two of the spans will be dismantled and restored by September 2023.

May open a book betting on the date of the next attack

[Vierwielen]

https://t.me/pilotblog/1396

Update of the bridge.

The destroyed carriageway has been dismantled and plan to be rebuilt by 20th December 2022.
The adjacent carriageway (still open) where damaged will then be dismantled and planed to be rebuilt by 20th March 2023.
The railway bridge is currently operating as a single track and two of the spans will be dismantled and restored by September 2023.

That’s fast work, all things considered - though I fully understand how and why it’s happening so quickly.

Possibly this is an obvious point to make, but of course the above timetable assumes that nothing else will happen to the bridge in the meantime.

All the damage appears to have been done to the bridge decks rather than the supports. I went to a lecture about bridge disasters last week and the Russia to Crimea bridge was covered. It appears that the supports are 64 metres apart and that the decks for the road bridge are built in 225 metre prefabricated sections. The deck broke at about the 100 metre point and when it collapsed it pulled the rest of the prefabricated section along with it, using the expansion-contraction rollers to minimise the friction. (See here for more info.

[Conekicker]

https://t.me/pilotblog/1396

Update of the bridge.

The destroyed carriageway has been dismantled and plan to be rebuilt by 20th December 2022.
The adjacent carriageway (still open) where damaged will then be dismantled and planed to be rebuilt by 20th March 2023.
The railway bridge is currently operating as a single track and two of the spans will be dismantled and restored by September 2023.

May open a book betting on the date of the next smoking related accident

FTFY

[bothar]

There was some discussion in the New York Times about this. While this was supposed to explain things, there are still quite a few unknowns. The bomb in the middle of the road section maximised damage. They reckoned though that the arched section of the bridge was probably the best place overall for the bomb, although the detonation of the bomb alongside the fuel train might have determined the actual location of detonation. They were fairly convinced that the bomb was in the truck and not below.

[Mark Hewitt]

There was some discussion in the New York Times about this. While this was supposed to explain things, there are still quite a few unknowns. The bomb in the middle of the road section maximised damage. They reckoned though that the arched section of the bridge was probably the best place overall for the bomb, although the detonation of the bomb alongside the fuel train might have determined the actual location of detonation. They were fairly convinced that the bomb was in the truck and not below.

NYT seems pro-Russia from what I've seen.

But yes the timing of the bomb to be alongside the train at the exact moment must have taken a fair bit of planning.

Was it therefore a suicide mission?

[Vierwielen]

There was some discussion in the New York Times about this. While this was supposed to explain things, there are still quite a few unknowns. The bomb in the middle of the road section maximised damage. They reckoned though that the arched section of the bridge was probably the best place overall for the bomb, although the detonation of the bomb alongside the fuel train might have determined the actual location of detonation. They were fairly convinced that the bomb was in the truck and not below.

NYT seems pro-Russia from what I've seen.

But yes the timing of the bomb to be alongside the train at the exact moment must have taken a fair bit of planning.

Was it therefore a suicide mission?

I doubt very much that it was a suicide mission. Given that the Ukraine is (at least nominally) Eastern Orthodox rather than Muslim (... Zelenskyy is Jewish), suicide is very much taboo. IMHO, it is more likely that th ebomb was stapped onto the lorry by a member of a covert Ukrainian group, was followed by a drone (or somebody following in a car) and detonated remotely. The presence of the fuel train might have been fortuitous (or the person detonating the bomb had advance knowledge and was able to time the detonation to co-incide with the passing train.

[bothar]

There was some discussion in the New York Times about this. While this was supposed to explain things, there are still quite a few unknowns. The bomb in the middle of the road section maximised damage. They reckoned though that the arched section of the bridge was probably the best place overall for the bomb, although the detonation of the bomb alongside the fuel train might have determined the actual location of detonation. They were fairly convinced that the bomb was in the truck and not below.

NYT seems pro-Russia from what I've seen.

But yes the timing of the bomb to be alongside the train at the exact moment must have taken a fair bit of planning.

Was it therefore a suicide mission?

I doubt very much that it was a suicide mission. Given that the Ukraine is (at least nominally) Eastern Orthodox rather than Muslim (... Zelenskyy is Jewish), suicide is very much taboo. IMHO, it is more likely that th ebomb was stapped onto the lorry by a member of a covert Ukrainian group, was followed by a drone (or somebody following in a car) and detonated remotely. The presence of the fuel train might have been fortuitous (or the person detonating the bomb had advance knowledge and was able to time the detonation to co-incide with the passing train.

The bomb may have been organised, in part at least, by other anti Moscow elements, in cooperation with Ukraine. The driver would appear to have a Moslem name and is at least from a non Russian nationality.