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Maryland’s transport authority failed to evaluate the Bridge Key Francis Scott For vulnerability and risk as a result of the collision, the National Transportation Security Board announced on Thursday.
On March 26, 2024, the duration of interest could be avoided if the MDTA had reviewed the risk and taken corrective actions, said NTSB President Jennifer Homendy during a press conference on Thursday, almost a year after the tragedy.
Homendy referred to an analysis provided by the American State Road Association and transport officials created in 1991 as a result of the collapse of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa, Florida, in 1980. The Aashto Vulnerability Evaluation Calculator for new road bridges evaluated the collapse level if a SPAN was beaten by a ship.
Although the key bridge was completed in 1977, Aashhto says his calculator is not only for the new bridge construction and urges owners to evaluate the existing extensions built before the guide.
But before Key Bridge collapsed, Maryland officials had never performed the analysis, so the NTSB had to investigate the risk after the fact. The MDTA has not yet evaluated the next bridge of Chesapeake Bay, built in 1948, by risk, said Homendy.
“There is no excuse,” Homendy said.
When evaluating the period, the NTSB discovered that the risk of the key bridge was almost 30 times greater than the acceptable threshold for critical or essential bridges, said Homendy.
“We were very surprised [the risk numbers] were high, “he said.” But it is something that MDTA could have known and should have known. “”
National risk
In addition, Homendy said the NTSB recommends that 68 bridge owners Through 19 states, they carry out evaluations of vulnerability and take protection measures if needed. All bridges were built before the 1991 AASHTO guide was established and were not evaluated with vulnerability based on recent ship traffic. Therefore, they have an unknown level of risk of collapse of a collision.
These extensions include the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City and the new Sunshine Skyway bridge.
He emphasized that the candidacy of these bridges does not mean that they are automatically dangerous, only that their risk must be calculated. At the same time, the other bridges are not automatically secure from possible damage, Homendy said, as he warned surveillance.
The key bridge collapsed when the loading ship Dali collided with one of the piers of interest. If the analysis had been performed, Homendy indicated that the MDTA could have invested in dolphins or in other protections to remove the ships that move quickly away from the bridge’s life support.
