Major bridges across California need probes to determine risk of a catastrophic collapse, authorities say

A twelvemonth aft the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge successful Baltimore, an autarkic authorities bureau urged the owners of 7 bridges successful California — including the landmark Golden Gate Bridge — to urgently measure their hazard of a catastrophic collapse.

In a March 18 report, the National Transportation Safety Board identified a full of 68 bridges crossed the United States arsenic not having undergone a vulnerability appraisal based connected caller vas traffic. The bridges, it said, person an “unknown level of hazard of illness from a vas collision.”

The report, portion of the ongoing investigation into the Baltimore span collapse, said that the owners of the bridges — each built implicit navigable waterways frequented by ocean-going vessels — “are apt unaware of their bridges’ hazard of catastrophic illness from a vas collision and the imaginable request to instrumentality countermeasures to trim the bridges’ vulnerability.”

Some of the California span owners told The Times that, aft the Baltimore span collapse, assessments were underway.

The Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District said successful a connection that it was successful “full compliance with each authorities and national regulations, including national span inspection and valuation requirements” and that the famed span has “one of the astir robust vessel collision extortion systems of immoderate span connected the West Coast.”

Still, the territory noted, it hired a advisor earlier this twelvemonth to behaviour an appraisal of the bridge’s southbound operation fender system’s structural capableness for vessel collisions.

“The results of the survey volition beryllium submitted to the Federal Highway Administration,” the territory said.

John Goodwin, a spokesperson for the Bay Area Toll Authority, which administers each toll gross from toll bridges successful the country that are owned and operated by Caltrans, told The Times that his bureau began moving past July with Caltrans and different groups to measure vas postulation passim the Bay, including the waterways nether each 7 of the state-owned toll bridges.

“I deliberation it is astute that we measure the vulnerability of each of the bridges,” Goodwin said. “The hazard of illness is precise small, but it is not zero. There’s nary mendacious consciousness of information there.”

Most of the 7 California bridges identified arsenic perchance susceptible are successful the Bay Area: the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, the Carquinez Bridge, the Benicia-Martinez Bridge, the Antioch Bridge, the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge. The lone 1 successful Southern California is the San Diego-Coronado Bridge.

The San Diego-Coronado Bridge, which connects Coronado and San Diego, successful April 2023

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Caltrans, which owns the San Diego-Coronado bridge, has said the bureau is reviewing the report’s recommendations.

“All state-owned bridges are regularly inspected to guarantee strict structural information and person been seismically retrofitted to the highest nationalist standards,” a Caltrans spokesperson told CBS affiliate KFMB-TV successful a statement. “Caltrans is reviewing the National Transportation Safety Board’s recommendations and volition respond to its petition erstwhile the reappraisal is completed.”

The NTSB urged the owners of the 7 California bridges to transportation retired a hazard appraisal based connected guidance established by the American Assn. of State Highway and Transportation Officials, oregon AASHTO, much than 30 years ago.

If the span owners find that a span has a precocious hazard level, the bureau recommended that they make and instrumentality a “comprehensive hazard simplification plan” that identifies short- and semipermanent information strategies.

Experts told The Times past twelvemonth that California bridges were little astatine hazard of toppling successful a clang with an errant cargo vessel than galore bridges crossed the country, due to the fact that their enactment columns person been retrofitted to marque them withstand large earthquakes.

Still, Robert Dowell, an subordinate prof of structural engineering astatine San Diego State, said the Baltimore illness demonstrated however captious it is to support span piers from ample instrumentality ships by installing oregon upgrading ample fenders and ‘dolphins’ connected the bridges that support ships wide of bridges’ captious enactment piers.

“The interaction unit with these precise ample instrumentality ships is huge,” Dowell said. “If you look astatine the large instrumentality vessel that deed the span successful Maryland, the apical of the vessel stuck mode retired from the bottom, truthful adjacent if determination was a fender astir it, the apical of the vessel further up tin interaction the file portion mode up.”

In the 30 years since AASHTO introduced its guidelines, Goodwin said, vas postulation successful and retired of the Bay Area has increased, and overmuch bigger ships are plying its waters.

The busiest span successful the Bay Area — the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge — was not identified successful the NTSB report. Goodwin said the span was near retired due to the fact that it already has been assessed and a $100-million task is acceptable to statesman immoderate clip aft July to regenerate and upgrade the bridge’s fender system.

The upgrading of the Bay Bridge has been a determination precedence aft it was struck by ships successful 2007 and 2013, Goodwin said. In some cases, the fenders absorbed and deflected the energy, but the 2007 collision, with an lipid tanker, damaged the fenders and the ship, causing it to spill much than 53,000 gallons of oil.

The adjacent procreation of Bay Bridge fenders, Goodwin said, would beryllium constructed with rubber, truthful they could amended sorb the vigor from a vessel onslaught and support the span and the vessels.

Even so, Dowell said each bridges evaluated earlier the Baltimore span illness should beryllium reassessed, adjacent the Bay Bridge.

“Every azygous 1 of them should beryllium looked at,” helium said. “If the appraisal was done much than a twelvemonth ago, I would treble backmost and instrumentality different look, due to the fact that determination was a batch of enactment that’s been done successful the past twelvemonth since the span collapsed successful Maryland.”

The cargo vessel Dali struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge connected March 26, 2024, successful Baltimore. (Maryland National Guard via AP, File)

(Uncredited / Associated Press)

On March 26, 2024, a 948-foot-long cargo vas mislaid powerfulness arsenic it near Baltimore’s larboard and rammed into a enactment pier of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, shattering the operation astir instantly. In 25 seconds, the full span plunged into the Patapsco River.

Six members of a operation unit were killed.

The NTSB recovered that the Baltimore span was astir 30 times supra the acceptable hazard threshold for captious oregon indispensable bridges, according to guidelines established by AASHTO.

While the Golden Gate Bridge was built successful 1937, the different California bridges that could beryllium astatine hazard were constructed successful the 1950s done 1970s — agelong earlier AASHTO guidance was issued successful 1991 for caller bridges successful effect to the NTSB’s probe of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge illness successful Florida.

In the March report, the NTSB urged the Federal Highway Administration to found an interdisciplinary squad with the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to assistance the owners of perchance susceptible bridges measure and trim the hazard of collapse.

The Federal Highway Administration and AASHTO cannot necessitate span owners to measure a bridge’s hazard of catastrophic nonaccomplishment from a vas collision if it was designed earlier the 1991 guidelines were issued.

Even though existing bridges were not required to behaviour a vulnerability assessment, the NTSB said successful a news release that AASHTO recommended successful 1991 — and again successful 2009 — that each owners of bridges behaviour specified an appraisal connected existing bridges to measure their hazard of catastrophic collapse.

If the Maryland Transportation Authority, which was not required to execute a vulnerability appraisal to measure the Francis Scott Key Bridge, had conducted specified an appraisal based connected caller vas traffic, the NTSB noted, the authorities bureau would person been alert that the span was supra the acceptable hazard and could person taken steps to little the bridge’s hazard of illness and forestall deaths.

Dowell said the appraisal of older bridges — and upgrading, if indispensable — should beryllium mandatory.

“I deliberation they should beryllium required to bash a elaborate assessment,” Dowell said. “And if the assessment, pursuing the procedures that are laid out, show[s] that upgrades needs to beryllium done oregon should beryllium done, past I deliberation they should beryllium required to bash it.”