Maryland had not carried out a really useful threat evaluation on the Baltimore bridge that collapsed after it was struck by a ship final March, the Nationwide Transportation Security Board stated on Thursday.
In a information briefing, the board’s chairwoman, Jennifer L. Homendy, stated if Maryland officers had carried out the evaluation, they’d have discovered that the bridge, the Francis Scott Key, was at severe threat of collapse from a strike by a big ship.
Six staff on a crew doing in a single day repairs to the bridge roadway died within the collapse, which paralyzed one of many nation’s busiest ports for days.
Dozens of different bridges throughout the nation, together with landmarks just like the Brooklyn Bridge, haven’t had the identical really useful evaluation, and thus carry an unknown stage of threat, Ms. Homendy stated.
“Frankly, we’ve been sounding the alarm on this for the reason that tragedy occurred,” she stated on the information convention in Washington.
Investigators with the board discovered that dozens of bridges in 19 states had not been assessed for threat of collapse, though the quantity of vessel site visitors passing beneath these bridges instructed a strike by a ship was a definite risk. The N.T.S.B. has contacted the operators of those bridges — most often, state transportation departments and regional port authorities — to induce them to conduct assessments and, if wanted, give you measures to cut back the chance of collapse.
Had officers with the state of Maryland finished this, Ms. Homendy stated, “the collapse may have been prevented.”
The Maryland Transportation Authority didn’t reply to messages searching for remark.
The report comes virtually precisely a yr after the Dali, a 984-foot-long container ship, crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
The federal authorities sued the proprietor and operator of the Dali final September, asserting a settlement roughly a month later, with the defendants paying greater than $100 million to cowl the price of the federal response. The F.B.I. opened a felony investigation into the incident final yr, although particulars haven’t been made public.
The Dali, which has returned to transcontinental delivery after present process repairs, is registered in Singapore and owned by Grace Ocean Personal Ltd. and managed by Synergy Marine Group, each of that are based mostly in Singapore.
The method of changing the bridge is nicely underway. Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland has unveiled the design of a new bridge, the state Division of Transportation has entered into contracts with construction firms and the U.S. Military Corps of Engineers has issued permits. Development of the brand new bridge on the website is predicted to start in early fall.
A federal spending bundle that was handed late final yr contains the price of rebuilding the bridge, although the state is constant to pursue the Dali’s proprietor and operator in courtroom to pressure them to pay for damages. Together with the state, victims’ households are suing for wrongful loss of life claims, native governments are suing for financial harm and varied non-public companies are suing for financial loss.
Days after the collapse, the Dali’s homeowners and operator petitioned in admiralty courtroom to restrict their damages, a difficulty that must be resolved earlier than a lot of this litigation can proceed. A federal choose in Maryland has scheduled a trial on this query for June 2026.
Bernard Mokam and Makaelah Walters contributed reporting.
About The Author
