Maryland’s transportation authority failed to assess the Francis Scott Key Bridge for threats for decades, leaving the bridge 30 times more vulnerable than thresholds set by industry standards, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
The state had decades to conduct the calculations, as the standards and recommendations were set by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), said NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy during a press hearing Thursday.
Homendy said the Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA) missed opportunities that could have averted disaster.
“The MDTA would have been able to proactively identify strategies to reduce the risk of a collapse and loss of lives associated with a vessel collision with the bridge,” Homendy said. “What's frustrating is, not only did MDTA fail to conduct the vulnerability assessment on the Key Bridge, they did not provide, nor were they able to provide, the NTSB with the data needed to conduct the assessment, including the characteristics of vessel traffic passing under the bridge, vessel transit speeds, vessel loading characteristics.”
The NTSB said Maryland also failed to do proper assessments on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, a 4-mile-long span.
“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,” MDTD said in a statement. “As requested, the MDTA will provide an update to the NTSB within 30 days, which will include any action we intend to take based on our active evaluation of the pier protection systems, operational changes, and vessel transit procedures of the Bay Bridge. 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.”
As a result of the findings, the NTSB is issuing urgent recommendations to 30 bridge owners in 19 states that 68 bridges need to be assessed for vulnerabilities because they were not built and designed to AASHTO specifications.
Homendy said the owners need to conduct “a vulnerability assessment of their bridges risk of catastrophic collapse from a vessel collision, determine whether they need to implement countermeasures to reduce vulnerability and report their findings to the NTSB.”
Those owners include the Golden Gate Highway and Transportation District, the Skyway Concession Company and transportation departments and authorities in California, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Louisiana, Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island, Oregon, New Hampshire, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Wisconsin and Washington.
“We're recommending that those 30 bridge owners take action now, frankly, we've been sounding the alarm on this since the tragedy occurred, and in testimony before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee last April,” Homendy said.
The NTSB is also recommending that the Coast Guard, Federal Highway Administration and the Army Corps of Engineers establish an interdisciplinary team to provide guidance to bridge owners to reduce the risk of collapse and collision.
Homendy noted that many of the bridges were built before vessels became larger and carried more cargo.
“At one point in the 1950s we had vessels that had just 800 containers on them. Now we're talking 24,000 containers,” Homendy said.
The report stems from the collapse of the Key Bridge after the cargo ship, the Dali, rammed into the bridge on March 26 last year.
Six people died in the incident and the Port of Baltimore had to partially close as about 50,000 tons of wreckage were removed from the channel.
The company that owns the ship, Grace Ocean Private, and the management company Synergy Marine Group are still in litigation with the state and other entities over the collision.
Grace Ocean settled with the U.S. Justice Department for more than $100 million.
Correction: Maryland’s Bay Bridge is four miles in length. The article previously misattributed its length.
