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The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) sounded an alarm during a news conference Thursday, warning 30 owners of 68 bridges across 19 states to conduct vulnerability assessments to determine the risk of a bridge collapsing due to being struck by a ship.
The NTSB also cited a Maryland state authority’s lack of an assessment that may have prevented the deadly collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.
The 984-foot Singapore-flagged cargo vessel Dali was moving out of Baltimore Harbor March 26, 2024, when it experienced a loss of electrical power and propulsion and struck the southern pier supporting the central truss spans of the Francis Scott Key Bridge on the Patapsco River.
The bridge collapsed, killing six construction crew members and injuring two other people.
The cargo ship Dali is stuck under part of the structure of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after the ship struck the bridge March 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
At the time, AASHTO also recommended that all bridge owners conduct a vulnerability assessment on existing bridges to “evaluate their risk of catastrophic collapse in the event of a vessel collision.”
Decades later, in 2009, AASHTO reiterated that recommendation again.
Since 1994, the Federal Highway Administration (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,” according to the NTSB.
Wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge rests on the container ship Dali as President Joe Biden takes an aerial tour of the collapsed bridge in Baltimore April 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Homendy added that the NTSB is also recommending the FHWA, U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers establish an “interdisciplinary team” to provide guidance and assistance to bridge owners in evaluating and reducing the risk.
Reducing the risk could mean infrastructure improvements or operational changes, according to the NTSB.
The NTSB will also be releasing more than 1,000 pages of investigative material on the public docket Thursday, including the bridge report and some interviews.
This 3D imagery shows the wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge resting at the bottom of the Patapsco River. (U.S. Navy’s Naval Sea Systems Command Supervisor of Salvage and Diving )
Next week, the NTSB intends to release the hazardous materials, meteorological and survival factors factual reports and a study conducted by its office of engineering on vessel size increases and associated safety risk.
Voyage data recorder audio transcripts and associated data will follow, leading up to the NTSB releasing its final report, which will likely happen in the fall.
The MDTA did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment Thursday afternoon.