The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is harshly criticizing Maryland
officials for failing to conduct a risk assessment of the Francis Scott Key Bridge be
fore it collapsed a year ago and is recommending that 30 owners of 68 bridges across 19 states conduct a vuln
erability assessment to determine the risk of bridge collapse from a vessel collision.
The agency indicated that had Maryland conducted such an assessment, it could have taken steps to reduce the risk of and p
ossibly prevented last year’s tragic Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore. In its own as
sessment, NTSB found that the Key Bridge was considerably above the acceptable risk threshold for essential bridges.
The federal agency warned that many of the nation’s bridges may be above the
acceptable level of risk, although it stopped short of suggesting they are in danger of imminent collapse.
The report is part of the ongoing investigation into the Key Bridge collapse. The
NTSB found that the Key Bridge, which collapsed after being struck by the containership Dali on March 26, 2024, was almost 30 times a
bove the acceptable risk threshold for critical or essential bridges, according t
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o guidance established by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, or AASHTO.
Over the last year, the NTSB said it identified 68 bridges including the Key Bridge that were designed before 1991 when the AASHT
O guidance was established and do not have a current vulnerability assessment using AASHTO’s calculation.
The NTSB is recommending that these 30 bridge owners evaluate whether t
he bridges are above the AASHTO acceptable level of risk and implement a risk reduction plan if their bridge has a risk level above the AASHTO threshold.
Since 1994, the Federal Highway Administration, or FHWA, has required new bridges be designed to minimize the risk of a catastrophic bridge collapse from a vessel collision, given the size, speed and other characteristics of vessels navigating the channel under the bridge. The Key Bridge was built before vulnerability assessments were required by FHWA.
Neither the FHWA nor AASHTO can require a bridge owner to complete a vulnerability assessment for a bridge designed before the release of the 1991 guidelines. The MDTA had not performed, nor was it required to perform a vulnerability analysis, NTSB noted.
