Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg stated that no existing bridge could have withstood the impact of a modern freighter that caused the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, which led to the closure of the city’s port. The bridge was not designed to handle a vessel of that size, weighing about 200 million pounds, leading to its destruction. The accident resulted in the death of six highway maintenance workers who were on the bridge at the time.
Efforts are underway by state and federal authorities to clear the debris, remove the vessel that caused the collapse, and reopen the channel for ships to resume travel in and out of Baltimore, one of the busiest ports on the East Coast. The timeline for these actions is still uncertain, as investigators are also examining the reasons behind the bridge’s collapse and assessing the condition of the remaining sections. Rebuilding the bridge is expected to be a lengthy and costly process, with President Joe Biden likely to request funding from Congress to initiate the project.
A similar incident involving a bridge collapse occurred in Tampa Bay in 1980, leading to the construction of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge as a replacement. The new bridge features large concrete pilings in the water to protect it from potential impacts from ships. However, Buttigieg mentioned that it remains unclear whether such design features are sufficient to withstand the forces of the largest and heaviest ships in operation today, such as the “NeoPanamax” freighters specifically designed to navigate through the expanded Panama Canal.
The focus is on understanding the factors that contributed to the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse and determining whether any known design enhancements could have prevented the tragedy. Buttigieg emphasized the need to learn from the investigation conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board to enhance safety measures for bridges moving forward. The urgency to reopen the port is crucial due to the significant economic impact of the closure, affecting the movement of goods worth millions of dollars and the livelihoods of longshore workers who rely on port operations for employment.
Rebuilding the collapsed bridge will require thorough planning and resources, extending the restoration process beyond the reopening of the port. Buttigieg stressed the importance of taking lessons from this incident to enhance infrastructure resilience against potential future accidents involving large vessels and critical bridge structures. Efforts are ongoing to assess the safety of bridges in light of modern freighter traffic and to develop strategies to mitigate risks associated with such maritime incidents to prevent similar tragedies from occurring in the future.
