These NJ Bridges At Risk Of Collapse If Hit By Ship, New Study Shows

NEW JERSEY — The Bayonne Bridge is one of 20 in the United States at high risk of collapse if it's struck by a ship, according to a new study released Monday by Johns Hopkins University.

The study, sparked by the 2024 Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore, ranks the vulnerability of the nation’s bridges to a similar catastrophe.

Researchers with Johns Hopkins note that while ship strikes are extremely rare, some of the nation’s busiest bridges will likely be hit by ships within our lifetime, causing catastrophic damage or collapse.

According to the preliminary results, the Bayonne Bridge is at risk of a ship collision every 43 years. The Delaware Memorial Bridge was also on the list, with a collision expected once every 129 years.

The Johns Hopkins report came on the heels of a National Transportation Safety Board report last week that documented dozens of other bridges across that country that are also at risk of collapse should a vessel collide with them.

As a result, the NTSB is recommending that 68 bridges, including two others in New Jersey, should undergo a vulnerability assessment to determine the risk of collapse.

The most vulnerable U.S. bridge is the Huey P. Long Bridge outside New Orleans, which the report said is likely to be hit by a ship once every 17 years. The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge is vulnerable to a ship collision every 22 years, the report said.

“With this investigation, we wanted to know if what happened to the Key Bridge was a rare occurrence. Was it an aberration? We found it’s really not,” Michael Shields, a Johns Hopkins engineer specializing in risk assessment and lead investigator of the National Science Foundation–supported study, said in a news release. “In fact, it’s something we should expect to happen every few years.”

After the Key Bridge collapse, which killed six construction workers and resulted in about $1.9 billion in damage, Shields and his team believed the chances for another such incident were higher than previously thought.

"Believing chances were high for another such incident, and that risk to the Key Bridge amid modern shipping traffic had been underestimated, Johns Hopkins engineers immediately launched a risk assessment for U.S. bridges," according to a summary of the study.

The results revealed stark vulnerabilities for many bridges, researchers said. Several bridges could expect a major ship collision — one strong enough to cause catastrophic damage or collapse — at least once every 20 to 50 years. Many others are likely to sustain a ship strike within 100 years.

According to the preliminary results of the Johns Hopkins study, the most vulnerable bridges are:

1. Huey P. Long Bridge, Louisiana: Collision expected once every 17 years
2. San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge: Collision expected once every 22 years
3. Crescent City Connection, New Orleans: Collision expected once every 34 years
4. Beltway 8 Bridge, Texas: Collision expected once every 35 years
5. Hale Boggs Memorial Bridge, Louisiana: Collision expected once every 37 years
6. Bayonne Bridge, N.Y./N.J.: Collision expected once every 43 years
7. Fred Hartman Bridge, Texas: Collision expected once every 47 years
8. Martin Luther King Bridge, Texas: Collision expected once every 64 years
9. Sunshine Bridge, Louisiana: Collision expected once every 71 years
10. Rainbow Bridge, Texas: Collision expected once every 71 years
11. Veterans Memorial Bridge, Louisiana: Collision expected once every 74 years
12. Chesapeake Bay Bridge, Maryland: Collision expected once every 86 years
13. Talmadge Memorial Bridge, Georgia: Collision expected once every 88 years
14. Veterans Memorial Bridge, Texas: Collision expected once every 94 years
15. Delaware Memorial Bridge, Del./N.J.: Collision expected once every 129 years
16. Dames Point Bridge, Florida: Collision expected once every 152 years
17. Horace Wilkinson Bridge, Louisiana: Collision expected once every 198 years
18. Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, New York: Collision expected once every 362 years
19. Golden Gate Bridge, California: Collision expected once every 481 years

Related article: 'Risk Of Collapse' Evaluation Ordered For 2 NJ Bridges