Here's the dozens of bridges that could be at risk of collapse across the US
In a new report, the NTSB identified bridges with 'unknown levels' of collapse risk including famous landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge in California, and the Brooklyn Bridge in New York.
into the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore in March 2024, which occurred after the Dali containership collided with the structure.
Over the last year 68 bridges have been identified as being built before 1991 and without a 'current vulnerability assessment."
The report urged the bridge owners to calculate whether the probability of a bridge collapse from a vessel collision is above the acceptable risk threshold established by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.
'If so, we urge them to develop and implement a risk reduction plan that includes input from the interdisciplinary team, identifies short- and long-term strategies to reduce risk, and considers the safety of the vessels and structures in the waterways,' the report stated.
The recommendations have been issued to 30 owners of the different bridges across the country, the bureau announced on Thursday.
Seven bridges were located in California, mostly in the Bay Area – including the iconic Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Thirteen were named in New York state, including the Brooklyn Bridge, Williamsburg Bridge and the Manhattan bridge.
Bridges in need of inspection were also identified in Delaware (3), Florida (2), Georgia (1), Illinois (1), Maryland (3), Massachusetts (4), Michigan (1), New Hampshire (1), New Jersey (2), Ohio (6), Oregon (2), Pennsylvania (4), Rhode island (1), Texas (7), Washington (1) and Wisconsin (1).
A full list can be found in Appendix B of the NTSB report.
The bureau noted that the findings does not suggest that the 68 bridges are certain to collapse, only in need of assessment under AASHTO standards.
On Thursday, federal investigators said that the Maryland Transportation Authority failed to complete a recommended vulnerability assessment that would have shown the Francis Scott Key Bridge was at significant risk of collapse from a ship strike long before its demise.
The NTSB found that the Key Bridge was almost 30 times greater than the acceptable risk threshold for critical or essential bridges.
NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said Maryland officials have had decades to assess their bridges. She said they still haven't assessed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge even after last year's collapse.
'There's no excuse,' she said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
14 hours ago
- The Independent
Broken altimeter, ignored warnings: Hearings reveal what went wrong in DC crash that killed 67
Over three days of sometimes contentious hearings this week, the National Transportation Safety Board interrogated Federal Aviation Administration and Army officials about a list of things that went wrong and contributed to a Black Hawk helicopter and a passenger jet colliding over Washington, D.C., killing 67 people. The biggest revelations: The helicopter's altimeter gauge was broken, and controllers warned the FAA years earlier about the dangers that helicopters presented. At one point NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy scolded the FAA for not addressing safety concerns. 'Are you kidding me? Sixty-seven people are dead! How do you explain that? Our bureaucratic process?' she said. 'Fix it. Do better.' Victims of the January crash included a group of elite young figure skaters, their parents and coaches and four union steamfitters from the Washington area. Here is a look at the major takeaways from the hearings about the collision, which alarmed travelers before a string of other crashes and close calls this year added to their worries about flying: The helicopter's altimeter was wrong The helicopter was flying at 278 feet (85 meters) — well above the 200-foot (61-meter) ceiling on that route — when it collided with the airliner. But investigators said the pilots might not have realized that because the barometric altimeter they were relying on was reading 80 to 100 feet (24 to 30 meters) lower than the altitude registered by the flight data recorder. The NTSB subsequently found similar discrepancies in the altimeters of three other helicopters from the same unit. An expert with Sikorsky, which makes the Black Hawks, said the one that crashed was an older model that lacked the air data computers that make for more accurate altitude readings in newer versions. Army Chief Warrant Officer Kylene Lewis told the board that an 80- to 100-foot (24- to 30-meter) discrepancy between the different altimeters on a helicopter would not be alarming, because at lower altitudes she would be relying more on the radar altimeter than the barometric altimeter. Plus Army pilots strive to stay within 100 feet (30 meters) of target altitude on flights, so they could still do that even with their altimeters that far off. But Rick Dressler of medevac operator Metro Aviation told the NTSB that imprecision would not fly with his helicopters. When a helicopter route like the one the Black Hawk was flying that night includes an altitude limit, Dressler said, his pilots consider that a hard ceiling. FAA and Army defend actions, shift blame Both tried to deflect responsibility for the crash, but the testimony highlighted plenty of things that might have been done differently. The NTSB's final report will be done next year, but there likely will not be one single cause identified for the crash. 'I think it was a week of reckoning for the FAA and the U.S. Army in this accident,' aviation safety consultant and former crash investigator Jeff Guzzetti said. Army officials said the greater concern is that the FAA approved routes around Ronald Reagan International Airport with separation distances as small as 75 feet (23 meters) between helicopters and planes when planes are landing on a certain runway at Reagan. 'The fact that we have less than 500-foot separation is a concern for me,' said Scott Rosengren, chief engineer in the office that manages the Army's utility helicopters. Army Chief Warrant Officer David Van Vechten said he was surprised the air traffic controller let the helicopter proceed while the airliner was circling to land at Reagan's secondary runway, which is used when traffic for the main runway stacks up and accounts for about 5% of flights. Van Vechten said he was never allowed to fly under a landing plane as the Black Hawk did, but only a handful of the hundreds of times he flew that route involved planes landing on that runway. Other pilots in the unit told crash investigators it was routine to be directed to fly under landing planes, and they believed that was safe if they stuck to the approved route. Frank McIntosh, the head of the FAA's air traffic control organization, said he thinks controllers at Reagan 'were really dependent upon the use of visual separation' to keep traffic moving through the busy airspace. The NTSB said controllers repeatedly said they would just 'make it work.' They sometimes used 'squeeze plays' to land planes with minimal separation. On the night of the crash, a controller twice asked the helicopter pilots whether they had the jet in sight, and the pilots said they did and asked for visual separation approval so they could use their own eyes to maintain distance. Testimony at the hearing raised serious questions about how well the crew could spot the plane while wearing night vision goggles and whether the pilots were even looking in the right spot. The controller acknowledged in an interview that the plane's pilots were never warned when the helicopter was on a collision path, but controllers did not think telling the plane would have made a difference at that point. The plane was descending to land and tried to pull up at the last second after getting a warning in the cockpit, but it was too late. FAA was warned about the dangers of helicopter traffic in D.C. An FAA working group tried to get a warning added to helicopter charts back in 2022 urging pilots to use caution whenever the secondary runway was in use, but the agency refused. The working group said 'helicopter operations are occurring in a proximity that has triggered safety events. These events have been trending in the wrong direction and increasing year over year.' Separately, a different group at the airport discussed moving the helicopter route, but those discussions did not go anywhere. And a manager at a regional radar facility in the area urged the FAA in writing to reduce the number of planes taking off and landing at Reagan because of safety concerns. The NTSB has also said the FAA failed to recognize a troubling history of 85 near misses around Reagan in the three years before the collision, NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said 'every sign was there that there was a safety risk and the tower was telling you that.' But after the accident, the FAA transferred managers out of the airport instead of acknowledging that they had been warned. 'What you did is you transferred people out instead of taking ownership over the fact that everybody in FAA in the tower was saying there was a problem,' Homendy said. 'But you guys are pointing out, 'Welp, our bureaucratic process. Somebody should have brought it up at some other symposium.'' ___
The Independent
21 hours ago
- The Independent
Night vision goggles may have hindered helicopter pilots before DC jet collision that killed 67, experts say
Night vision goggles may have hindered the U.S. Army helicopter pilots in the moments before the deadly crash with a jet in Washington D.C., that claimed the lives of 67 people, experts have said. The technology, worn by the pilots, would have made it difficult to see the color of the lights on the passenger plane, which could have helped determine the direction in which it was traveling, as well as limiting peripheral vision. Friday saw the final day of public testimony to the National Transportation Safety Board over the fatal midair crash – which occurred almost exactly six months ago in February. Flight 5342 from Kansas was on the final approach to D.C.'s Ronald Reagan National Airport when it collided with the Black Hawk helicopter before exploding. There were 67 people aboard the two flights when they crashed, and none survived. At Friday's hearing, experts said that, in addition to the possible hindrance caused by the use of night vision goggles, pilots also may not have been able to distinguish the aircraft from lights on the ground while the two aircraft were on a collision course. The helicopter pilots may not have known where to look for a plane that was landing on a secondary runway that most planes didn't use, experts said. 'Knowing where to look. That's key,' said Stephen Casner, an expert in human factors who used to work at NASA. Though it is still too early to identify what exactly caused the crash, with a final report from the board expected next year, a number of factors that may have contributed to the tragedy have been unearthed over the past two days of testimony. Major issues to emerge included the fact that the Black Hawk helicopter had been above prescribed levels near the airport as well as the warnings to FAA officials for years about the hazards related to the heavy chopper traffic there. Mary Schiavo, a former U.S. Department of Transportation Inspector General, told The Associated Press that both the Army and the FAA appear to share significant blame for the deadly incident. The Black Hawks' altimeters could be off by as much as 100 feet and were still considered acceptable, she told the outlet. The crew was flying an outdated model that struggled to maintain altitude, while the helicopter pilots' flying was 'loose' and under 'loose' supervision. 'It's on the individuals, God rest their souls, but it's also on the military,' Schiavo said. 'I mean, they just seem to have no urgency of anything.' Questions were also raised during the hearings by the FAA's lack of alcohol testing for air traffic controllers after the crash. Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy urged the Federal Aviation Administration to 'do better" as she pointed to warnings the agency had ignored years earlier. The D.C. collision was the first in a string of crashes and near misses this year that have alarmed officials and the traveling public, despite statistics that still show flying remains the safest form of transportation.
The Guardian
2 days ago
- The Guardian
Night goggles may have hampered army pilots before DC plane crash, experts say
The pilots of a US army helicopter that collided with a passenger jet over Washington DC in January would have had difficulty spotting the plane while wearing night-vision goggles, experts told the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Friday. The army goggles would have made it hard to see the plane's colored lights, which might have helped the Black Hawk determine the plane's direction. The goggles also limited the pilots' peripheral vision as they flew near Ronald Reagan Washington national airport that evening. The challenges posed by night-vision goggles were discussed at the NTSB's third and final day of public testimony over the fatal midair crash, which left all 67 people onboard both aircraft dead. Experts said another challenge that evening was distinguishing the plane from lights on the ground while the two aircraft were on a collision course. Also, the helicopter pilots may not have known where to look for a plane that was landing on a secondary runway that most planes did not use. 'Knowing where to look. That's key,' said Stephen Casner, an expert in human factors who used to work at Nasa. Two previous days of testimony underscored a number of factors that probably contributed to the collision, leading the NTSB chair, Jennifer Homendy, to urge the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to 'do better' as she pointed to warnings the agency ignored years earlier. Some of the major issues that have emerged so far include the Black Hawk helicopter flying above prescribed levels near Ronald Reagan airport as well as the warnings to FAA officials for years about the hazards related to the heavy chopper traffic there. It is too early for the board to identify what exactly caused the crash. A final report from the board will not come until next year. But it became clear this week how small a margin of error there was for helicopters flying the route the Black Hawk took the night of the nation's deadliest plane crash since November 2001. The January collision was the first in a string of crashes and near misses this year that have alarmed officials and the traveling public, despite statistics that still show flying remains the safest form of transportation. The board focused on air traffic control and heard on Thursday that it was common for pilots to ask to use visual separation or relying on their eyesight just as the army Black Hawk's pilots, who were wearing night-vision goggles, agreed to do the night of the crash. FAA officials also said controllers relied heavily on pilots using visual separation as a way to manage the complex airspace with so many helicopters flying around Washington DC.
