Minyvonne Burke is a senior breaking news reporter for NBC News.
As questions surround the collapse of a Baltimore bridge after a containership crashed into it Tuesday, engineering experts say that while bridges have some built-in defenses against collisions, this one was most likely too extreme to withstand. “Bridges are and should be designed to withstand ship impacts. That’s typical of the design process,” said Sanjay R. Arwade, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
“In some cases, they’re called sacrificial elements, because they might be damaged beyond repair if an event of this type occurs, but of course, they save the bridge,” he added. John Pistorino, a structural engineer in Florida, said dolphins are in use to protect the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa, Florida, which was reopened in 1987, seven years after it was hit by a freighter. Thirty-five people died after the bridge collapsed into Tampa Bay.
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