After Baltimore bridge collapse, Philly officials say they’re confident in the city’s collision protection

In the wake of a major bridge collapse in Baltimore, Philadelphia officials say they’re confident in the safety of the area’s river crossings.

A container ship lost power and struck a support beam of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing the span to buckle. The collapse sent construction workers and several vehicles into the river below.

John Hanson of the Delware River Port Authority said officials are constantly inspecting their facilities to make sure they are not vulnerable.

Hanson said officials have taken measures to prevent a ship collision from damaging their bridges, especially the Commodore Barry and Betsy Ross bridges, which are built similarly to the Key Bridge that failed.

“At the Commodore Barry, those piers are protected by rock islands that we’ve constructed around the piers that would cause a ship to run aground on the island before it could strike the pier,” he said.

The Besty Ross Bridge also has prevention measures, Hanson said.

“We’ve got concrete dolphins. They’re called dolphins. They’re substantial concrete structures that protect the piers from being struck by ships of this nature and are constantly undergoing inspections,” he said. “Every four years our entire system is inspected. The bridges and trainline are comprehensively inspected every two years.”

The Walt Whitman and Ben Franklin bridges have a different construction, but Hanson said they too have collision prevention systems.

“The Ben Franklin and Walt Whitman, there are suspension towers that are built on foundations. They’re structural steel. They’re protected also by collision prevention systems, but they’re in shallow water. So it’s unlikely that a big ship could get anywhere near those towers and foundations without running around,” he said. “We have a collision protection system in place around those towers that is more than capable of preventing collision with any type of threat that we would see. So the probability of this happening in our system is extremely low.”

A nearly $100 million project is underway to install a similar bumper system to protect the Delaware Memorial Bridge.