The Key bridge has large concrete bollards too (you can’t miss seeing them in the pictures.) Unfortunately, the Dali came at the pier at an angle, missing the bollard completely.
Keep in mind, this bridge stood for 47 years (and 3 days) without that additional protection without incident.
But I agree, you can bet, a barrier around the main piers will be added.
IMO, sounds like they took a calculated risk when they originally designed the bridge.
Plus when it was built Neo-Panamax ships weren’t really a thing yet.
I’ve been playing the Bridge Constructor series these past two weeks and now I know that the way bridges collapse on there is almost exactly the way bridges collapse in real life. Good physics.
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Makes sense. It’s a well understood phenomenon. Bridges always collapse exactly the way engineers predict they’ll collapse.
I’ve also come to learn that with the right budget and materials, I can build waaaaay better bridges than the cost-savings BS we have deteriorating throughout the country right now. 
I’ve never played bridge simulator but I assume they don’t include the haggling and politics that usually goes around a bridge building project.
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No, but they do pull a lot of BS like, “no anchor points where they’re needed” and “cables and wood only!” so it does take a lot of pretending like I’m a corrupt bidder in order to complete the goals laid out. 
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Not really. For example, here is your Commodore Barry Bridge:
While there is a protective island around the two main piers, a vessel the size of the Dali could easily smack the concrete pillars coming from an angle as happened in Baltimore. And I don’t see any bollards at these piers. A 100,000 ton vessel moving at 8 knots. Could probably reach those columns head on. Also, notice that only the two center piers (on either side of the shipping channel) are protected.
All engineering creations deal with calculated risks. Take the World Trade Center for example. The designers anticipated that a medium sized aircraft could accidently hit the buildings (as had happened at the Empire State Building decades before) but they could not anticipate that someone would deliberately fly 767 passenger jets into them at 500 mph.
Yes. The effect of gravity is highly predictable.
I might add (since I just mentioned them) the WTC buildings fell exactly according to physics too.
Unfortunately, money is usually the biggest limitation of engineering projects. Everybody wants a building or bridge or highway to stand under all circumstances “forever,” but nobody wants to pay for what it would take to do that.
I’ll bet it doesn’t include environmental assessment and permits either. 
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And yet the movies always seem to get it wrong.
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That should tell you not to use movies as evidence for anything.
They were able to stop the traffic, but the 13 road crew workers on the bridge went in. In videos you can see their vehicles and their flashing lights. They’re located just to the right of the center green light.
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Yeah that’s not cool…then the guy they interviewed on the news was being pretty liberal with what they called barriers.
The Betsy Ross has actual bollards…and no a ship couldn’t crash through them…they are more robust than they appear in this image.
And yes they did mention only the center channel supports have them, but the plans are to put them around all the supports in the water, and they are going to beef them up now as well.
according to news reports
the waters near the bridge are being contaminated … "There were 56 containers of hazardous materials on board the Dali when it crashed, said Homendy, the NTSB chair.
The containers, holding 760 tons of hazardous materials, according to Homendy, mostly contained corrosives, flammables and “miscellaneous” materials, including lithium-ion batteries.
Some containers have been breached, Homendy said, adding that a sheen can be seen on the waterway."
this is no laughing matter but it got me thinking…
when they contaminated the water off of Japan, we got Godzilla
hopefully with the contamination of the waters near Maryland, we’ll get Giant Crab Beasts or something…
Giant Crab destroys D.C. …
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No ship could crash through the F.S. Key bridge bollards either. But the ship came through at an angle missing the bollards. That could happen with this bridge as well.
If you go to the 5:16 mark in this video, it has banter back and forth with police and what they are doing up until about 10 minutes. At around the 9:30 or 9:40 mark they say a possible 13 construction workers are in the water. What I don’t understand is why didn’t they radio them to get off the bridge?
