Could be vulnerable to the kind of accident that brought down Baltimore's Key Bridge
By Christopher Shea, Rhode Island Current
The bridge connecting Newport and Jamestown is one of 68 bridges across the country flagged for evaluation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in a report released Thursday as part of its ongoing investigation of the March 2024 collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge (image to thee left).
“We have been sounding the alarm on this since the tragedy occurred,” NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said at a press briefing Thursday. “We need action — public safety depends on it.”
Five other New England bridges were named in the report. Four are in Massachusetts, including the Bourne and Sagamore bridges over the Cape Cod Canal and the southbound upper and northbound lower spans of the Tobin Bridge connecting Boston to Chelsea. The Memorial Bridge linking Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and Kittery, Maine, is also on the list.
“The 30 owners of 68 bridges over navigable waterways frequented by ocean-going vessels are likely unaware of their bridges’ risk of catastrophic collapse from a vessel collision and the potential need to implement countermeasures to reduce the bridges’ vulnerability,” the NTSB’s report states.
Baltimore’s bridge collapsed on March 26, 2024 after a cargo ship lost power and slammed into one of its support columns, killing six roadworkers. The NTSB’s report states the Key Bridge did not have an up-to-date vulnerability assessment at the time of its collapse and that it was nearly over 30 times the acceptable risk threshold for bridges.
Had Maryland’s transportation officials done an assessment, the NTSB said corrective action could have been taken sooner and fewer lives would have been lost.
Bridges on the NTSB’s list are not necessarily at risk of collapse, but were flagged for review because they were built before the establishment of safety guidelines in 1991, according to a media release from the NTSB.
Rhode Island’s suspension bridge, named after the late U.S. Sen. Claiborne Pell of Newport, first opened in 1969 and is managed by the Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority (RITBA).
RITBA Director Lori Caron Silveira said she received the NTSB’s recommendation at the same time federal officials made it public Thursday afternoon.
“Following the incident at the Francis Scott Key Bridge, we convened meetings, conducted outreach, and did extensive research into a similar scenario in Rhode Island waters,” Silveira said in a statement. “We are immediately working to respond to the NTSB’s request for relevant information.”
That request includes having bridge owners develop and implement a comprehensive risk reduction plan. If a bridge is found to be at risk of collapse, the NTSB must be informed.
RITBA is now in the beginning stages of a multi-phase rehabilitation of the Pell Bridge, which includes deck reconstruction, dehumidification of the cables and anchorages, and repairs to the tower elevator of the bridge, Silveira told WPRO’s Matt Allen Thursday.
The bridge’s rehab is being covered by a $82.5 million from the federal Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) grant program. Construction on the bridge deck is expected to begin within a year, RITBA Director of Engineering Eric Seabury told WPRO.
Silveria said she does not anticipate any funding issues amid ongoing uncertainty from the Trump administration on prior federal obligations.
“We’re not worried, the INFRA grant is already obligated and it’s moving,” she told WPRO. “This is a very old bridge and it’s urgent that we get the cables and anchorages dehumidified to keep this bridge viable — people need this bridge.”
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