[george76]

Baltimore, and other cities, should build multiple protective, large concrete islands to protect their bridges - like Tampa did after their first bridge was hit.

[JohnBovenmyer]

Could 'bollards' or islands have stopped this VERY large ship, moving at 8 knots. When BB Missouri grounded in 1950 it took scraping across 2500 feet of shoal to stop her. This ship massed nearly twice her size, although Missouri might have been moving faster at the time. I presume the needed size barriers are calculable, but they'd have to be quite large and thus quite expensive.

I'm not sure, other than government graft, why the estimates of rebridging the channel are so high. "Repairing" rather than "rebuilding" it should be the goal. Design of original bridge was fine, no need to redesign it. Large amount of the environmental impact statement regarding the prior bridge still holds. No rational need to repeat most of it. Seems like at most one support needs significant repairs. The two ends abutting the collapsed section may need some repair where that section pulled out of its connections. But otherwise the ends are fine. Fix those supports and lay new truss and roadway over the gap. Start prefabbing replacement bridge sections and move them into position as soon as the channel is cleared and the supports repaired.