The National Transportation Safety Board is issuing urgent safety recommendations due to its investigation into the deadly collapse of the Key Bridge in Baltimore last year after it was struck by a container ship. News4’s Adam Tuss reports.
What to Know
- The NTSB says the Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA) failed to assess the Francis Scott Key Bridge for vulnerability from a vessel collision, despite encouragement from the NTSB to do so prior to the March 2024 collision by a container ship
- If the assessment been done, the NTSB says, the MDTA would have known the risk for a collision and could have taken action to prevent the collapse
- The NTSB also says the MDTA has still not properly assessed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and it's unknown what the risk is to the Bay Bridge if it were to be hit by a ship
- Bridge owners need to "take action now" on urgent safety recommendations to assess the vulnerability of 68 bridges in 19 states, including the Bay Bridge, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is issuing urgent safety recommendations stemming from its investigation into the deadly collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore last year after it was struck by a container ship.
NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said 30 owners of 68 bridges across 19 states should conduct vulnerability assessments to determine the risk of collapse from a vessel collision.
In a briefing Thursday afternoon, Homendy said the Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA) did not perform a recommended safety assessment before the collapse. That calculation could have shown the Key Bridge was at a heightened risk of collapsing if struck by a vessel.
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In the early-morning hours of March 26, 2024, while it was still dark, a 984-foot Singapore-flagged cargo vessel, the Dali, lost power and slammed into the bridge, sending a portion of it tumbling into the Patapsco River below. Six workers on the bridge were killed.
The NTSB said Thursday that if proper steps had been taken – something that they've been warning about for years – safety measures could have been put in place to prevent that collapse.
Back in 1991, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) developed and published what they call a "vulnerability assessment calculation" for new bridges on the National Highway System, in response to the NTSB’s investigation of a 1980 bridge collapse in Florida.
At the time, AASHTO also recommended that all bridge owners perform the same assessment on existing bridges. They again stated that recommendation to states in 2009, according to the NTSB.
Yet there are dozens of bridges around the country, including the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, that have not undergone this risk assessment, Homendy said.
"Had they ran the calculation on the Francis Scott Key Bridge, the MDTA would have been aware that the bridge was almost 30 times greater than the risk threshold AASHTO sets for critical essential bridges – 30 times greater," Homendy said.
"The MDTA maintains the catastrophe and the tragic loss of life was the sole fault of the DALI and the gross negligence of her owners and operators who put profits above safety," the MDTA said in a statement.
"Over the past 50 years, hundreds of thousands of vessels transited under the Key Bridge without incident. The Key Bridge, like other bridges in America, was approved and permitted by the federal government and in compliance with those permits," the statement read in part.
Barges and container ships have gotten significantly larger since many of the nation's bridges were constructed.
"Since 1994, the Federal Highway Administration, or FHWA, has required new bridges be designed to minimize the risk of a catastrophic bridge collapse from a vessel collision, given the size, speed and other characteristics of vessels navigating the channel under the bridge. The Key Bridge was built before vulnerability assessments were required by FHWA," the NTSB said in a release.
Homendy said the MDTA will have to conduct an assessment to determine whether extra safety measures are warranted around the Bay Bridge.
The MDTA said in its statement there is an active evaluation of the Bay Bridge's "pier protection systems, operational changes, and vessel transit procedures."
"The evaluation is being conducted using American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials methodology and was underway when the NTSB requested its results last fall," the MDTA said.
Homendy said drivers should make their own choices when it comes to which bridge they choose.
While the NTSB is not not saying that these bridges are at imminent risk, they are saying that those bridges need to be evaluated on what might happen in the event of a ship strike and whether extra safety measures need to be put in place – something that they said could have played a huge factor in the Key Bridge collapse.
You can see a PDF of the NTSB's report on its website here. The list of bridges with unknown levels of risk of collapse from a vessel collision is available on pages 22-25 of that report.
