Notice the circular "marine bollards" protecting the bridge piers and columns against ships. This feature was included because the bridge was reconstructed after a ship collision in the late 1970s.
How do you defend against a 100,000 ton ship drifting without control? The largest battleship in history, the Yamato, was around 70K tons for comparison. I’ve heard people mention reinforcing the bridge foundations, but I suspect there’s a limit to what can be done at a sane cost against such occurences.
“How do you defend against a 100,000 ton ship drifting without control?”
I watch goofy shows like “Engineering Disasters”. I’m no expert, but on one of the episodes a bridge had been hit, and they put barriers around the supports.
Look at what was done after the Sunshine Skyway was hit in Florida.
Maryland could have done similar.
More here...
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/engineering/hydraulics/policymemo/t514019a.cfm
Maryland chose not to do anything.
It’d be easier and as effective, l’d think, to use mud dredged from the channel to build up shoals around the piers so that large vessels like that would ground before hitting it.
Notice the circular "marine bollards" protecting the bridge piers and columns against ships. This feature was included because the bridge was reconstructed after a ship collision in the late 1970s.