The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reports that the Mackinac Bridge is among nearly 70 bridges that need to be assessed for risk of collapse if hit by a ship.
In a March 18 news release titled "Safeguarding Bridges from Vessel Strikes: Need for Vulnerability Assessment and Risk Reduction Strategies," the NTSB says 68 bridges, including the Mackinac Bridge, across the U.S. should be assessed to see if they are at risk of collapse if hit by a ship, transportation safety officials found, while urging the bridges’ owners to undertake immediate vulnerability assessments.
The four urgent safety recommendations are part of the National Transportation Safety Board’s ongoing investigation into the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore last year.
In the early hours of March 26, 2024, the container ship Dali lost power after leaving the Port of Baltimore and struck a pillar of the Key Bridge, causing it to collapse, killing six construction workers who fell into the Patapsco River.
The Dali suffered a pair of catastrophic electrical failures minutes before the crash, according to a preliminary report released by the NTSB last May.
The full report can be found here.
