Speaking to “Fox & Friends” on Tuesday, March 26, structural engineer John Pistorino said that he was “surprised” the vessel was able to take down the hulking bridge and send it and the commuters on it tumbling into the freezing water below. His position was not that the bridge should have handled the massive vessel, but rather surprise that Baltimore has not installed devices that keep even large vessels from being able to collide with the bridge.
As background, the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore was gone in an instant in the early hours of the morning on Tuesday, March 26. Apparently, the vessel, the Singapore-flagged Dali, lost power and veered off course, which unfortunately led to it smashing into one of the support pillars of the bridge. Its momentum took out the pillar and sent the massive bridge crashing into the water outside Baltimore’s port.
After the bridge’s collapse, a structural engineer named John Pistorino appeared on “Fox & Friends” to comment on the tragic incident and explain why it surprised him. Beginning his explanation, Pistorino said, “At this point, I’m surprised that a container ship like that, which is so large, would be able to [take it down] even if it’s off course.”
Continuing, Pistorino explained that, after Tampa saw the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in the Tampa Bay taken out in a similar disaster decades ago, it installed underwater means of keeping even large cargo vessels from reaching the bridge. He said such devices work by diverting adrift ships from the critical parts of the bridge, such as its support pillars.
Making that point about the bridge protections in Tampa, Mr. Pistorino explained, “Back over in Tampa, we do have some means underwater now, so if the ship does get out of its own direction, it will divert it away from the critical parts of the bridge. There’s underwater structures that the ship would come across before it actually got to the bridge itself.”
Pistorino then explained how modern bridges are designed with “redundancy in mind, so even if part of the structure is damaged, the rest of the bridge can survive. Explaining how that appears to not have been the case with the Francis Scott Key Bridge, he said, “If we lose the critical part of one column, the structure itself tries to redistribute the load and then goes to the other column, which is apparently then overloaded… That’s the nature of the structures.”
He also commented that such design features ought to be included in all bridges for safety reasons, saying, “It could be a money thing, but I think, really, that the design of the redundancy would be something that should always be considered.”
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Watch him here:
President Biden, commenting on the terrible tragedy and those involved, said, “Our prayers are with everyone involved in this terrible accident and all the families, especially those waiting for news of their loved one right now.” He added, “I know every minute in that circumstance feels like a lifetime. I just don’t know. It’s just terrible.”
Watch the bridge get hit here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video