action news reporter John Paul he's live for us now at the Betsy Ross Bridge here closer to home right and John you're learning more about the safety of our local Bridges tonight that's right Rick sh that's what we've been looking into like at the Betsy Ross Bridge just behind me you know this is very similar to that bridge in Baltimore it was built around the same time within just a few years and it's almost the same total length as well but this bridge has one big difference and it's not what'
s on the bridge it's what's in the water 8 and a half million Vehicles drive across the Betsy Ross Bridge over the Delaware River every year and after the catastrophic collapse of the Francis Scott keybridge in Baltimore this morning a similar structure we wanted to know what safety measures are in place here all of our bridges have Protection Systems in place to prevent ships from striking John Hansen is the CEO of the Delaware Riverport Authority he's closely following this collapse but he say
s the key difference sits in the Delaware River near the bridge support peers when you talk about the Betsy Ross Bridge we have concrete uh dolphins that are protective against ships that will prevent a ship from striking the pier that's what we have at the Betos Bridge you can see those circular structures from drone 6 and when you look at video from Baltimore you don't see them near the support Piers something a structural engineering professor at Drexel noticed right away why were there no pr
otection system around the pier Dr a aayi analyzes structural collapses he was surprised that this type of bridge known as a continuous trust Bridge completely failed when something is continuous it is supposed to be able to at least hang on what I saw was that once the the peer that was supporting that uh uh you know span gave way the bridges went down there was no hesitation that is something of course the NTSB will be looking into and Rick the Port Authority says all of the bridges along the
Delaware River they have the uh protections around those support peers we're live tonight John Paul Channel 6 Action News Rick all right John good to know thank you for that report
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