This is what the Crimean Bridge looks like “in cross-section” and its actual blown-up supports (highlighted in red in the photo)

by Ok_Paramedic_3422

40 comments

  1. Those support beams look quite susceptible to an attack. I am guessing that several of them were destroyed in the attack. And maybe one or two more hits might knock out the rest.

    If I were a train driver, I would be very nervous about taking a heavy load over that bridge now.

  2. Someone who understands structural engineering could explain if it was feasible to hit the strongest pillar. Of course it carries the load of strongest main span.

  3. Nice. This helps a lot. Hope the arch comes down soon.

  4. Awesome! They finally hit the rail bridge hard. Supply trains are going to stop, or at least be a lot reduced in capacity.

    There is another railway line via donetsk now, but parts of that are within range of a bunch of Ukrainian weapons.

  5. This is what the Crimean bridge “used to look like” FTFY

  6. Honestly question, why can’t Ukraine just hit the bridge with a missile or 10?

  7. Americans had Pearl Harbor. Russians have Blyat harbor.

  9. Let’s hope it finally goes down this time.

    What tactical benefits could we expect from it? Could Ukraine cut the supply to the Melitopol region or would it be more a symbolic win on the battlefield side?

  10. Pretty ingenious. Attack the weaker part of the support rather than the reinforced sections but still critical to the pillars support 

  11. They hit the piles, we need the educated guesses of a structural engineer.

  12. Oh, no! They should attack the next one because the total collapsing of it will damage also the biggest one.

    The best could be with a train over the bridge in that position.

  14. someone calculated that n number of poles are needed for strucural integrity of that section of bridge, now when n numbers of poles are destroyed who can tell that section is safe or not + its underwater, repair is not impossible, but will be very hard

  18. So much has happened in the past days, but Kerch bridge slipped my feed. What happened?

  19. It would be ideal to have a quick submerged water drone strike the foundation of the first column in the arch as it weakens a longer area would be unstable and take much longer to repair if it could be without demolition and re framing for the concrete pour.

  20. Oh wow, now it’s clear! Thanks. I didn’t understand what they had been “mining” for months and thought it was yet a mistranslation but they’ve been mining subsurface to plant this there.

    This sounds like an absolute bitch to repair compared to their earlier attempts.

  21. Wouldn’t a massive thermite drone attack potentially allow them to keep splashing it on the columns melting them?

    Thermite 2500C

    Concrete melts at 1150C

  23. Let her blow sky high 🌉 💥💥💥💥 4 supports, right!

  24. Concrete is cracked and comprised, rebar is now exposed to the sea. As trains travel over it, the structure will shift and move. Even if the support can hold today, this took decades off it’s usable life.

  25. So the bridge will slowly sink into the mud because the friction of the pillars is now to little to hold it up.

    The arch will, if it worked, colapse in the future.

    Repairing this is hard, nearly inpossible without big construction thingys.

  27. Even though the detonations were underwater – might have been less immediately damaging that attacking parts above water – but – getting explosives in place above water would likely have been noticed. But – any damage done underwater, even if less effective than attacking the pillars higher up – would be much harder to repair.

    All in all, awesome attack. Everyone always thinks they have a better idea online. Ukraine is hitting the targets that they can, where they can, how they can. This is the best that can be done in war, where the enemy and other circumstances outside ones control always have a vote in what is possible.

    Slava Ukraini!

  29. The blast most probably has taken away a lot of soil and has laid bare a number of the foundation pillars. These may still be in place but the concrete will have cracks and the steel reinforcement will be exposed to the salt water. It’s by far the strongest part of the bridge construction but indeed the hardest to repair.

  30. Depends.

    If they have used a shaped Charge, the rebar is Cut

    And the concrete has a Clean Cut .

    (You know the Films where Something got Cut, but dosnt Break apart -yet)

  32. What if plan all along was to just weaken the piles for the big kaboom to come.

  33. We need a good storm to roll through the straits and maybe they are stupid enough to have a train on it at that time. Load up those supports in every way possible.

  34. I’m a bit surprised that they didn’t mine the pylon where the rail bridge was already damaged from the train fire. The combination of damaged pylon and weakened bridge span would weaken the bridge far more than attacking it in a different place.

  35. I’m sure there’s a reason, but why can’t they use an unmanned submarine to shoot torpedos or suicide bomb it?
    Even if Ukraine doesn’t have unmanned submarines, there must be a western country / Israel who could sell one.

  36. Wouldn’t an air strike with a bunker busting bomb be more effective?

  38. ok that looks hard to repair, and very good that this is on the train-track side where the heaviest loads travel!

  39. The only way to catastrophically damage that bridge is with a literal boat load of explosives.  Similar to the boats loaded down with ammonium nitrate which have accidentally caught fire in the pass. You’d have to detonate that sucker right underneath the bridge.  1100kg will damage it but it’s likely to limit capacity and cause more damage in the long run.  It would take a series of explosions that size to make any obvious issues. 

  40. If the bridge span collapses, it will block shipping in the Azov Sea.

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