[There are several comments about knowing people who jumped from the bridge. Some of which survived.]
Dutch J Greensweight: Dolphins Project
Notable Examples
Sunshine Skyway Bridge: After a fatal 1980 collision, the replacement bridge in Tampa Bay was built with 36 large concrete dolphins specifically designed to protect its piers from ship impacts.
Delaware Memorial Bridge: This bridge is undergoing a project to install new, larger dolphins to enhance protection against modern, larger vessels.
Francis Scott Key Bridge: This bridge also had dolphins, but experts have noted they were smaller and designed for older, smaller cargo ships and were insufficient to stop the much larger vessel that caused the 2024 collapse.
That is the question Delawareans have been asking since watching the horrific images of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsing after a cargo ship rammed it last month.
There are no guarantees, but efforts have been under way for 10 years to protect the Delaware Memorial Bridge from vessels even larger than the Dali, which hit the Key Bridge March 26, and the state has been running bridge loss scenarios for years, Delaware Live reported April 5.
Drivers on and near the Delaware Memorial Bridge connecting Delaware and New Jersey can take some comfort from the huge cranes that are part of a $95 million project to update the system that protects against ships crashing into one of the spans.
The structure carries traffic from Interstate 295/U.S. Highway 40 across the Delaware River.
R.E. Pierson Construction Co. of Pilesgrove Township, N.J., was awarded the construction contract to build the new bridge's Ship Collision Protection System in January 2023.
Work began on the span late last July and is on target to be completed by September 2025.
The Delaware River and Bay Authority (DRBA) is installing eight stone- and sand-filled "dolphin" cylinders, each of which measures 80 ft. in diameter. Two will be on each side of the bridge's piers to act as protective barriers.
"This is a $95 million insurance policy," said DRBA Public Information Officer James Salmon. "You never think you'll have to use it. You hope it goes untouched, but you will be glad you have it if you need it."
Four dolphin cells will be installed at the piers supporting both eastern and western towers of the bridge and be located a minimum of 443 ft. from the edge of the Delaware River's 800-ft.- wide channel, according to DRBA, a bi-state governmental agency that owns and operates the bridge, five airports and two ferry systems that connect New Jersey and Delaware.
Dolphins Designed to Stop Neo-Panamax Vessels
The Delaware Memorial Bridge project has been in the state's River and Bay Authority's Capital Improvement Program for 10 years, so planners are much further along than other states responding to what happened in Baltimore.
Still, Salmon said, "It's not necessary to accelerate our timeline," noting that two of the eight piles have already been completed. "We have an ambitious construction schedule and we're moving as fast and efficiently as we can."
The protection system is designed for a Neo-Panamax vessel, which is slightly larger than the container ship that hit the Key Bridge.
The dolphins are made of 540 tons of steel, 15,000 cu. yds. of sand, 140 cu. yds. of large stones and 4,000 cu. yds. of massive boulders at the top, with about 15 ft. of their structure visible above the water line.
They are designed to absorb the impact of the ship, preventing it from hitting one of the support towers, or steering it away.
"Our cells are designed to be sacrificial, but will stop a ship from hitting the bridge," Salmon added.
The bridge spans were built in the 1950s and 1960s, and while they have been updated throughout the years to accommodate increasing vehicle traffic, the existing protection system had not been updated, even though the ships passing under the bridge today are much larger and faster than those of 60 years ago, Salmon said.
Ships crashing into the Delaware Memorial Bridge, which connects Pennsville, N.J., and New Castle, Del., are uncommon but not unprecedented. For instance, in July 1969, the tanker Regent Liverpool struck the bridge, requiring extensive repairs that would have cost around $7 million in today's dollars.
Delaware Routinely Practices Its Response to Disasters
Meanwhile, the Delaware Emergency Management Agency (DEMA) conducts annual "Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessments" using different scenarios that test how disasters would impact the region and the state's options for responding.
At least one in 2022 focused on how the state would handle a collapse of a bridge like the Delaware Memorial Bridge or the large bridges spanning the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal, noted DEMA Director A.J. Schall, who also serves as Gov. John Carney's Homeland Security advisor.
In January 2017, DRBA had the Center for Homeland Defense and Security conduct a tabletop exercise involving a ship hitting the Delaware Memorial Bridge.
The next year, the bridge had to shut down for more than six hours after a leak of ethylene oxide from the neighboring Croda plant on the Sunday evening after Thanksgiving, an ultra-busy traffic day.
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