Second Study Documents Bridges at High Risk of Being Struck by Ships

What happened: Some of the nation’s major bridges are likely to be hit by ships within the next two decades, according to an analysis published March 24 by Johns Hopkins University (JHU). Some of the most vulnerable bridges include the Huey P. Long Bridge outside New Orleans and the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in California.

Why it matters: This week marked the first anniversary of the tragic Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore after it was struck by the freighter Dali. The JHU findings come one week after the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) issued its own report, which said 30 owners of 68 bridges nationwide should conduct immediate vulnerability assessments to see if the structures might collapse if hit by a freighter or other large vessel.

What they’re saying: “With this investigation we wanted to know if what happened to the Key Bridge was a rare occurrence. Was it an aberration? We found it’s really not,” said Michael Shields, a Johns Hopkins engineer in risk assessment and lead investigator of the National Science Foundation–supported study. “In fact, it’s something we should expect to happen every few years.”