2:00 PM ET April 5, 2024
Major U.S. bridges could be vulnerable to ship strikes, including those just downstream of the Key Bridge
From CNN’s Casey Tran, Isabel Chapman, Kurt Devine and Yahya Abu-Ghazala
Chesapeake Bay Bridge in 2021.
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The Francis Scott Key Bridge served as an economically important gateway until its tragic collapse last week. Thousands of container ships have passed under the decades-old bridge, crossing from the Atlantic Ocean to the port of Baltimore.
But the now-ruined structure is not the only bridge on the same important shipping route. Twenty miles downstream, a huge container ship bound for Baltimore also passes under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge near Annapolis.
And one of these ships could also be at risk of collapse if it were to collide, according to experts who reviewed its design for CNN.
Experts say some of the concrete piers of the four-mile-long Bay Bridge, located in the middle of the shipping channel, appear vulnerable to the type of ship strike that destroyed the Key Bridge.
Adel El-Safti, an engineering professor at the University of North Florida, said the bridge “lacks safety measures” and the structure needs to be reevaluated in light of the Key Bridge collapse. He added: “It could be very vulnerable to ship collisions.”
CNN reviewed the protective design features of more than a dozen major bridges in the United States that cross seaways leading to the nation’s largest ports.
According to statements from local officials and interviews with more than a half-dozen structural engineering experts, most bridges are built with stronger fender systems and larger concrete structures designed to deflect oncoming vessels. It is said to have a stronger protection against ship collisions than the Key Bridge.
But experts say some other bridges, including the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, have less significant protection and could be at risk as increasingly larger container ships pass under them. It is said that there is.
