Coronado Bridge is built differently than Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — After the devastating collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, questions are swirling around the safety and design of other over-the-water bridges.

University of San Diego Physics Professor Rae Robertson-Anderson said the devastating incident happened because of an accident, not a design flaw or bridge failure.

“All the work that’s put into building bridges is to withstand that force downward, it’s necessarily to withstand massive forces coming from the left or the right,” Robertson-Anderson said. “That ship was about 200,000 tons and was coming at 9 mph, that’s basically the force that hit the bridge was one million pounds, no bridge that was built could really withstand that.”

While a bridge likely couldn’t withstand the force of about one million pounds hitting it from the side, Robertson-Anderson said if the same incident happened to San Diego’s iconic Coronado Bridge, it would likely have a different result.

“The Coronado bridge is a Gerber bridge,” she said.

Robertson-Anderson explained that each pillar has its own section and allows the pillars to be more “independent,” which could prevent the entire bridge from collapsing if just one section was hit.

The clearance of the Coronado Bridge is about 50 feet higher than the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

“The Coronado Bridge has a vertical clearance of 175 to 195 feet in the main shipping channel, with a total height of over 200 feet,” according to the Port of San Diego. “The bridge is also marked with a radar marker (Racon) at the center span to help boaters and ships navigate in poor visibility.” 

“Caltrans prioritizes the safety of all Californians by ensuring our bridges meet rigorous and strict seismic and safety standards. California’s bridges are safe for travel, and Caltrans has installed fender systems on all major bridges, further protecting bridge piers from the unlikely and rare event of being struck by marine traffic. All state-owned bridges are regularly inspected to ensure strict structural safety and have been seismically retrofitted to the highest national standards,” Caltrans said in a statement. “Caltrans will review the incident in Maryland and address any findings that will help increase bridge safety in the future.”