NEW ORLEANS — The incident in Baltimore is getting such a big reaction from people across Southeast Louisiana because there are so many bridges in this area. Many of us travel across them daily. According to a structural engineer, there are factors engineers have to adhere to when designing a bridge.
When engineers are looking to design a bridge, they have to follow certain criteria and look at the climate. Dr. Norma Jean Mattei says it's crucial these are followed to prevent tragedy.
The video shocked not just the country but the globe. A massive vessel collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. The 1.6-mile-long, four-lane bridge crumbled after impact, and cars traveling across it fell into the water below.
Dr. Mattei said, "A bridge designer that is designing a bridge that has bridge piers close to a navigable waterway is going to look for how can I protect my bridge piers."
A professor of civil and environmental Engineering at the University of New Orleans, Dr. Mattei says the Baltimore bridge was built in the late 1970s before a new guideline called "vessel collision design for highway bridges" came into effect in 1991. Those guidelines were again updated in 2009, Dr. Mattei said.
"The current specification, you have to look at the risk of impact and then how can that bridge pier or bridge part withstand that potential force."
She says like a fender on our cars, bridges have them too, she said, "One of the techniques that we use to protect docks and bridge piers, is fenders... It's meant to displace and absorb that energy."
Climate control must also considered in bridge design she said, "There's joints in between pieces... we can guesstimate pretty good... how longer the bridge is going to get so you can design your joints appropriately."
Dr. Mattei reassured drivers that accidents like the one in Baltimore are rare and that they should not fear something similar happening here.
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