Without the pier, they said, it was impossible for other components of the bridge to assume the load and keep the bridge standing.
The piers on a bridge act as a kind of leg and are what is known as “nonredundant” parts of a bridge’s structure.
Yet the collapse in Baltimore on Tuesday might have been avoided, some of the engineers said, if the piers were adequately equipped with blocking devices with a self-explanatory name: fenders.
It was not clear whether any such protection built around the bridge’s piers was sufficient to guard against even a glancing hit from a 95,000-gross-ton container vessel.
The Maryland Transportation Authority did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the design of the piers, or whether any fenders were installed around them.
Organizations:
Maryland Transportation Authority
Locations:
Baltimore