President Biden vowed Tuesday to rebuild Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge after it collapsed into the water when a cargo ship rammed into it, echoing what some Maryland officials said earlier but adding that he expects the federal government to foot the bill.
“It’s my intention that the federal government will pay for the entire cost of reconstructing that bridge, and I expect the Congress to support my effort,” Biden said in remarks at the White House. “This is going to take some time, but the people of Baltimore can count on us though to stick with them at every step of the way until the port is reopen and the bridge is rebuilt.”
He said he spoke with Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) on Tuesday morning, as well as Maryland officials including its congressional delegation and two U.S. senators. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg traveled to the Baltimore site.
It will be a very big system, but it will be cheaper than building double the piers as you described.
And it is still common today to design bridges with single points of failure today. You just increase the factor of safety for it.
There are methods that doesn’t just involve double the piers, and also 5-10x the material is not likely cheaper at all
A pier collapsed which took down a three span bridge. It is really hard to have a bridge standing when you’ve taken out a pier.
Also, 5 to 10 times the material of the pier doesn’t sound right, since you can design the fender system to outright fail as a way to absorb energy.