Johns Hopkins bridge expert Rachel Sangree talks about how long, continuous spans in the Francis Scott Key Bridge design played a role in its collapse.
Early on Tuesday, March 26, the Baltimore bridge collapsed into the Patapsco River after one of its supports was struck by a container ship, causing the structure to break apart.
The four-lane, 1.6-mile steel bridge, which opened in 1977, was named for the writer of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” It spanned the Patapsco at the entrance to Baltimore’s harbor, home to the Port of Baltimore, a major hub for East Coast shipping operations.
Sangree is an associate teaching professor in the civil and systems engineering department at Johns Hopkins University’s Whiting School of Engineering and also program chair in civil engineering for the Whiting School’s Engineering for Professionals. Sangree has expertise in structural engineering and historic structures, and she previously worked as a design engineer in the bridge group at Whitman, Requardt, and Associates, a Baltimore-based engineering, architectural, and environmental planning firm.
Here, Sangree explains what happened and what could be ahead:
Source: Johns Hopkins University