{"id":47568,"date":"2024-05-29T10:11:29","date_gmt":"2024-05-29T14:11:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/case\/?post_type=news&#038;p=47568"},"modified":"2024-05-29T15:07:02","modified_gmt":"2024-05-29T19:07:02","slug":"johns-hopkins-engineers-studying-ship-collision-risk-for-major-u-s-bridges","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/engineering.jhu.edu\/case\/news\/johns-hopkins-engineers-studying-ship-collision-risk-for-major-u-s-bridges\/","title":{"rendered":"Johns Hopkins Engineers Studying Ship Collision Risk for Major U.S. Bridges"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Believing chances are high for ships to hit United States bridges, like the catastrophe in Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University engineers have begun what they consider to be an urgent assessment of the country\u2019s bridges, particularly the larger ones near major ports of entry.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need to know now, not five or 10 years from now, whether there is an outsize risk to bridges across the country so that critical investments\u2014which will take years\u2014can begin immediately if they are needed,\u201d said team leader Michael Shields, a Johns Hopkins engineer specializing in risk assessment. &#8220;The Key Bridge collapse was a wake-up call.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With a National Science Foundation Rapid Response Research grant and the help of an \u201carmy\u201d of students, the team will attempt to modernize risk prediction models, as the nature of shipping, particularly the prominence of massive cargo vessels, has increased considerably in the decades since most of these bridges were built.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cClearly the risk to the Key Bridge was very different in 2024 than it was in 1977 when the bridge opened,\u201d Shields said. \u201cBut we don\u2019t currently understand that risk.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The team hypothesizes that the risk of the Key Bridge collapse was underestimated and that the probability of another catastrophic collision in the United States is likely \u201cmuch higher\u201d than current design standards presume.<\/p>\n<p>The team will try to answer questions including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What is the probability that a ship the size of the <em>Dali<\/em> would stray from its path and collide with the Key Bridge?<\/li>\n<li>What are the chances for similar bridge collisions across the country ?<\/li>\n<li>Have we underestimated the probability of collision and ultimately the probability of failure of critical U.S. bridges?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The team will mine global shipping data, develop modern risk models, and then attempt to identify which critical U.S. bridges are vulnerable to a catastrophic ship collision. Using the shipping data, they will build models to determine the probability of a ship deviating from course and hitting a bridge in or around major ports.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPreliminary findings already challenge prevailing assumptions,\u201d said team member Rachel Sangree, a structural engineer and former bridge inspector. \u201cThe U.S. has seen 17 incidents of major bridge collapse between 1960 and 2011, averaging one every three years. Between the exponential growth of mega freight ships and the surge in global shipping traffic, many of our bridges simply weren\u2019t built to withstand the pressures of today\u2019s maritime landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The findings will help policymakers prioritize infrastructure improvement spending.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe team\u2019s findings will be crucial in reassessing and potentially redefining the safety standards for transportation infrastructure,\u201d said structural engineer Ben Schafer, the Willard and Lillian Hackerman Professor of Civil and Systems Engineering. \u201cGiven the estimated $1.7 billion to $1.9 billion cost to rebuild the Key Bridge and the potential billions needed to retrofit existing bridges, accurate risk assessment is vital to ensure the sustainability of society\u2019s critical infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The team has already begun its investigation and hopes to share some preliminary results with stakeholders by the end of the summer, with the full study taking approximately one year to complete.<\/p>\n<p><em>This story originally appeared in <a href=\"https:\/\/hub.jhu.edu\/2024\/05\/29\/bridge-ship-collision-risk-study\/\">The Hub<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","class_list":["post-47568","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","news_categories-research","news_categories-structures"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Johns Hopkins Engineers Studying Ship Collision Risk for Major U.S. Bridges - Department of Civil &amp; 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