News

On March 26, 2024, The Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore collapsed due to a cargo ship ramming into it at 9 mph. The Bridge immediately collapsed, killing 6 out of 8 construction workers that were working on the bridge. 2 were found and rescued. The ship had issued a mayday shortly before it hit the bridge, but many wonder what was behind the loss of control of the ship. The power of the ship seemingly went out multiple times before it appeared to lose control, and even though the US Coast Guard stated that the ship had gone under a routine maintenance check very recently, there is understandable cause to wonder what really happened with the ship’s mechanics. Not only are people doubting the integrity of the ship mechanics, but also how structurally sound the bridge was. While there was no way the bridge could have survived the crash, even with the most up to date standards, this incident acted as a sort of wake up call for the need for routine checks on the infrastructure that people rely on daily since 35 major bridge collapses have happened worldwide from 1960-2015 due to ships. For instance many US bridges use much larger protection barriers than the Francis Scott Key bridge used.Engineers argue that there are more advanced and better ways to build and check bridges and similar infrastructure, especially ones that were built a long time ago. The collapse also caused issues for people who routinely take the Key Bridge, and for other ships on the passage that went through the area. Detours for both issues were provided, but it was still an inconvenience to traffic. 60 million dollars was issued in federal aid to clean up debris, search for missing people.