Engineering and traffic experts tell ABC7 News that Bay Area bridges are built to withstand major earthquakes and vessel collisions - to a certain degree.
Could Bay Area bridges withstand an impact from a cargo ship like the one on Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore?About 11 million cars cross the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore annually. In the Bay Area, that's roughly as busy as the Dumbarton Bridge or the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.
"The bridges are designed for a certain factor of safety. They can take earthquakes. They can take typhoons. But they are not designed to be rammed into by a 940-foot ship," said Shahbodaghlou. "There's very little to be done to prevent these accidents. Even if we protect the pier, the protection would have been rammed by the ships. That would not have stopped the ships."
Hassan Astaneh is professor emeritus at UC Berkeley who has studied bridges like the Golden Gate and Bay Bridge for 52 years. He's very surprised that the Key Bridge there did not have what are called Dolphins in this area where the collision occurred. Those are often steel cylinders with concrete in them built from the bottom of the sea and into the air.
But while Astaneh doesn't believe a collision is likely here in the Bay Area. He'd like for the state of California to do more to ensure that. If there's a critical incident or a catastrophe involving one of the Bay Area bridges - like during the Loma Prieta earthquake - Caltrans says they can quickly clear traffic to keep people safe.
Metropolitan Transportation Commission said the fenders made a huge difference in protecting the Bay Bridge.
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