Here's what surprised a Drexel University professor about the Baltimore bridge collapse

[jhmcd]

The reason...money. The bridge was neglected for years due to a lack of funding and attention from the USDOT who actually owned the bridge. The bridge was actually supposed to have been replaced in the early 2000s when it was realized it was in critically bad shape, nor could it handle the traffic that headed over the bridge every year, but they opted to only rebuild the bridge with no upgrades including pier protection. In fact, that work just finished about 5-10 years ago. It's just another victim of decades of infrastructure neglect in this country.

[Al-Storm]

This warning was brought up for years after the Sunshine bridge disaster.

[flexman]

So I was in the Navy for 11 years and what strikes me the most from this tragedy is the absence of tugboats guiding this massive ship out to sea. Where are they? Where's the Pilot? Tugboats are there for this exact scenario. This is a fail at the very miniscule foundation of navigation, and maybe even engineering. RiP.

[crustysurfer]

ok.. did anyone notice the little flashes on the other pier to the right? the top frramework and at the point it parts out and the bottom where the road kinks, , if you look carefully there's puffs of smoke too. this was no accident

[Nobody]

I see what you're doing dude. You're trying to get us to forget about the boeing whistleblower murder

[LuckyTown]

What protection system on the Key Bridge ? Hello !

[MoosesValley]

I was amazed when the entire bridge collapsed ... and also noticed the lack of protection around the supports. Food for thought for when rebuilding ...

[starshine]

I’m glad they are asking this question because that was the first thing I noticed when watching this video….because every bridge I’ve been around has some type of barrier in place and something is very wrong that this bridge did not.

[christopherbentley]

Those were precisely some of my first thoughts on watching the incident unfold - that surely there should be some form of structural redundancy whereby the collapse of one span doesn't transfer to the others.

[lsellclumanetsolarenergyll]

The major thing is 1977 the bridge was built and the Tampa Bay Bridge collapse in 1980 made clear what was important so why the heck was that not applied nation wide ??? Government is here to blame 2 disasters of which the 2nd could have been avoided

[edc]

Over 100, 000 tons moving at 8 knots. Really? Where is Michio or Neil when you need an intelligent assessment.

[russell]

Follow the money... 1/2 to 1 million per bridge pier was saved by surrounding them with concrete islands to stop something with the massive weight of a ship. The standoff on the bridge protection was about 6 feet on this pier. Other piers have NO standoff or protection at all. The protection on adjacent power pylons is about 1000% better, perhaps even enough to have been effective. Seen this before, same problem, no pier protection. fyi the bridge in Philly noted, had protection, guess what, the next one, a rail road bridge, did not have anything to fend off more than a medium sized barge.

[Dcthrg]

You got to be kidding me about those little round cement circle are going to stop a 90, 000 ton ship.

[UncleGingersChronicles]

Why was the ship so close to the pylon? It was deliberate. Seems they would be extra cautious, especially in the dark.

[zeke]

Those little concrete barriers won’t stop a freighter coming in at an angle. False sense of security.

[kevinokief]

I can not imagine what the guys working on thr bridge endured

[EVILLEBOY]

Tired of all these “experts”… do they not realize how LARGE this ship is. That many tons moving at 9 knots, that close…nothings stopping it. Worse than hitting the bridge with missiles.

[TheArtistaSoundGuy]

Before anyone gets their panties in a knot please consider what the largest size ships that were coming and going from the port back when the bridge was designed over 50 years ago.

[GilbertChuah-qcei]

This shows exactly how much the US Govment really cares for it's citizens

[WILLIAMWALES]

Baltimore, 18th busiest port in America. The bridge didn’t seem to have strong enough, stout support piers and no additional supports, an accident waiting to happen. Is this type of bridge design could affect other ports within the United States