Single loose wire caused Baltimore bridge collapse that could cost Maryland $5.2B to replace

A escaped awesome ligament caused the blackout that sent the cargo vessel Dali crashing into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said Tuesday, blaming the Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA) for failing to measure the bridge’s quality to withstand a vessel strike.

The illness of the Francis Scott Key Bridge occurred aboriginal connected March 26, 2024, erstwhile the instrumentality vessel Dali mislaid powerfulness and struck a enactment pier, prompting the spans to autumn into the Patapsco River.

The NTSB’s last study recovered that a azygous misinstalled ligament led to a full powerfulness nonaccomplishment that near the Dali without propulsion oregon steering moments earlier impact. The committee said the calamity could person been prevented if Maryland had followed information recommendations issued years earlier.

"The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable origin of the interaction of the instrumentality vessel Dali with the Francis Scott Key Bridge was a nonaccomplishment of electrical powerfulness blackout owed to a escaped awesome ligament transportation to a terminal artifact stemming from the improper installation of wireless statement banding," the committee said.

MARYLAND BRIDGE REBUILD COSTS SOAR TO $5.2B, MORE THAN DOUBLE ORIGINAL ESTIMATE OFFICIALS PROVIDED

The instrumentality vessel Dali is seen successful the wreckage of Francis Scott Key Bridge astir a week aft it deed a structural pier causing a consequent span collapse, April 1, 2024.  (Jerry Jackson/The Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service/Getty Images)

Investigators said the unit reacted rapidly to the blackout but had excessively small clip to reconstruct powerfulness earlier the vas struck the bridge. The ship’s proximity to the span, combined with delays successful restarting its systems, made the collision unavoidable.

The study besides faulted the MDTA for not conducting a vulnerability assessment, a measurement recommended by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials to place ways to support bridges from vessel strikes.

The NTSB said contributing to the illness "was the deficiency of countermeasures to trim the bridge’s vulnerability to illness owed to interaction by oceangoing vessels, which could person been implemented if a vulnerability appraisal had been conducted."

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Part of a span of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge is suspended connected the instrumentality vessel Dali successful Baltimore, Maryland, U.S., March 26, 2024. U.S. (Army Corps of Engineers/Handout via REUTERS)

Engineers testified that the Dali’s unit misused a flushing pump arsenic a work pump, a signifier the ship’s operator, Synergy Marine Group, failed to observe oregon stop. That misuse constricted the vessel’s quality to retrieve powerfulness aft the blackout.

The NTSB besides criticized Synergy for allowing captious electrical systems to tally successful manual mode alternatively than automatic, which hindered the Dali’s betterment aft the powerfulness failure.

"Staff recovered that Synergy operational oversight was inadequate due to the fact that it did not discontinue crew's ongoing usage of the flushing pump arsenic a work pump for the diesel generators aboard the Dali, and astatine slightest 1 different vessel," NTSB technologist Bart Barnum said.

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Part of the collapsed span connected apical of a cargo ship. (FBI Baltimore)

The committee besides recovered that connection failures prevented timely warnings to road workers, who had nary accidental to evacuate earlier the span collapsed.

The NTSB’s findings came a time aft Maryland officials said rebuilding the Francis Scott Key Bridge volition instrumentality 2 years longer than expected and outgo much than doubly the archetypal estimate. State engineers present accidental the task won’t beryllium finished until 2030 and could outgo arsenic overmuch arsenic $5.2 cardinal — up from the archetypal $1.9 cardinal projection utilized to unafraid national funding.

Jim Harkness, the MDTA’s main engineer, told The Washington Post that ostentation and marketplace factors are driving the increase.

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"Estimating is hard connected these larger projects," helium said. "The marketplace factors, that each comes into play." Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy had predicted successful August that the last measure would beryllium "double plus" the archetypal estimation erstwhile national dollars were committed.

The NTSB’s findings overgarment a representation of cascading failures — from a azygous faulty ligament to years of missed information precautions — that combined to origin 1 of the deadliest infrastructure disasters successful Maryland’s history.

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As the authorities works to rebuild the bridge, the increasing costs and timeline delays underscore however profoundly the illness continues to ripple done Maryland’s system and infrastructure.

Fox News Digital’s Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.