Numerous people here have said that ‘bumper’ barriers surrounding the piers could have avoided this. I don’t know if they protect against every eventuality, but bridges like this shouldn’t be built without something like that.
There are a number of good approaches that would help, in theory.
Some ports require tugboats with pilots who know the harbor and its currents to pull the vessel in... but American tugboats aren’t strong enough, and in fact even European tugs, which are ten times stronger than ours, would have trouble keeping control of a massive modern containership.
Similarly, many ports put concrete dolphins around these kinds of ports - the bumper/barriers to which you refer. And again, this does help in most cases.
But would it help against a modern post-panamax containership?
The problem we face here is that today’s containerships are enormous. The one that hit the bridge last night was only a quarter the size of the biggest standard on the market today, and even bigger ones are on their way.
I believe that both concrete barriers and tugboats would be a great improvement... but they still couldn’t be counted on to prevent an accident like this, because modern ships are just too big. By comparison, the tugboat next to a containership looks like a little ladybug next to a buffalo.
I just don’t believe you can protect against this kind of accident adequately enough for a billion dollar bridge. It can be better, but it can’t be near certain. The risk will still be there as long as there’s a bridge that containerships sail under.
The piers had those types of barriers. But when it comes to stopping something with the mass and momentum of a container ship, good luck.
After 9-11, I understand that there were recommendations for bumper barriers to protect the bridge but the installation of them.was deemed too expensive. There are other Atlantic Coast cities like Norfolk, New York, and Jacksonville, that have bridges over harbor entrances. How secure are those bridges from accidents or sabotage?