By: Dan Belson and Sam Janesch
Source: Baltimore Sun (TNS)
The Maryland Transportation Authority did not conduct a risk assessment that, if acted upon, could have allowed the state to protect the Francis Scott Key Bridge from collapsing, the National Transportation Safety Board’s chair said Thursday.
Such a vulnerability assessment would have found the bridge was highly vulnerable to a vessel collision, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said.
Homendy said the federal board had to conduct its own vulnerability assessment of the Key Bridge while investigating its collapse nearly a year ago. The state had decades to conduct such a study based on national standards, but never did, she said. It also had not conducted a similar study of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, leaving it as one of dozens that the NTSB has identified as still having an “unknown level of risk” if struck by a vessel.
“This is not new, MDTA could have done this evaluation numerous times over the past several decades,” Homendy said.
Had the MDTA conducted a vulnerability assessment based on recent vessel traffic, the agency would have been aware that the risk of a “catastrophic collapse from a vessel collision” was nearly 30 times higher than standards set by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. The March 26, 2024, collapse could have been prevented if the MDTA had done the study and took action to protect the bridge, she said.
Homendy, leveling a strict criticism of the state at the NTSB headquarters in Washington, D.C., said there was “no excuse” that Maryland officials had not conducted the vulnerability assessments and that they did not even have the data necessary to do so. She faulted the state for not collecting data on vessel traffic and said it remained unclear whether it was doing so now for other bridges.
“That was a surprise to all of us,” she said of the results of her agency’s own assessment of the Key Bridge. “But it’s something that MDTA could have known and should have known.”
AASHTO had set standards and recommended the evaluations in the 1990s. Maryland had been on the executive committee that developed those recommendations, and during a 2009 update.
Homendy said Thursday that the board was recommending that the owners of nearly 70 U.S. bridges in 19 states assess how vulnerable their bridges are to vessel collisions.
Three Maryland bridges are on the list of 68 bridges that the NTSB said still have an “unknown level of risk of collapse” if a vessel struck them. The eastbound and westbound spans of the Bay Bridge are two, and the other is the Chesapeake City Bridge, built in 1948.
The MDTA, as of October, had not conducted a risk assessment for the Bay Bridge.
Homendy’s briefing on the four “urgent” recommendations contained some of the most striking remarks to come from the board’s nearly yearlong investigation of the bridge collapse. The MDTA, which had conducted some risk assessments after the September 11 attacks, did not immediately respond to Homendy’s remarks.
Spokespeople for Gov. Wes Moore and Senate President Bill Ferguson both declined comment at the State House soon after the press conference ended.
The risk of a catastrophic collision was nearly 50 times greater for the support column that the Dali freighter hit early in the morning after the cargo ship lost power and control, Homendy said.
She said that the NTSB would release over 1,000 documents related to its investigation of collapse over the past year. A preliminary NTSB report from last May laid out a timeline that included multiple electrical blackouts on the Dali immediately before and after it departed the Port of Baltimore. The next month, the board said it had zeroed in on a small electrical component that they linked to the power outages.
Pre-construction work began earlier this year on a new bridge to replace the span that collapsed on March 26, 2024, killing six construction workers. Officials hope to open the new bridge by fall 2028.
The federal government is expected to cover the cost of the new bridge, which is projected to be up to $1.9 billion. Insurance claims and lawsuits could cover a large chunk of those costs.
Part of the pre-construction work involves blasting the spans that remain in the Patapsco River. That demolition work is not yet scheduled but is expected in late spring to early summer, Maryland Transportation Authority spokesperson Bradley Tanner said. Meanwhile, the 984-foot Dali went back to sea in January.
Along with the NTSB investigation, the FBI also boarded the Dali last April for what appeared to be a separate investigation into possible violations of federal criminal laws, also boarding a similar ship months later. A separate Maryland Occupational Safety and Health investigation led to a fine against Brawner Builders, the construction firm that the crew was working for.
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