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.
When they were moving the USS New Jersey [BB-62] last week, I noticed that a couple of the moored container ships were
bigger than the battleship.
Class and type Iowa-class battleship [USS New Jersey BB-62]
Displacement
49,657 long tons (50,454 t) standard (1943)
58,132 long tons (59,065 t) full load (1943)[4]
60,000 long tons (61,000 t) full load (1968)[5]
Length 887 ft 7 in (270.54 m)
Beam 108 ft 1.375 in (32.95333 m)
Class and type Neopanamax container ship [MV Dali]
Tonnage
95,128 GT
52,150 NT
116,851 DWT
Length 984 ft 0 in (299.92 m)
Beam 158 ft 2 in (48.2 m)
Supposedly there had been talk years ago of building a ring-road or business by-pass for I95, but nothing ever came of it. So the highway that people will have to use now is already overcrowded and not in great shape.
I think it makes a lot of sense not to rebuild the bridge, but they’ve got to get working on creating an alternative.
I don’t live in Baltimore and haven’t been there for years, btw, so whatever comments I make are just from having read about the situation and I may be completely off base.