Here's what surprised a structural engineering professor about the Baltimore bridge collapse

Action news reporter John Paul, he's live for us now at the Betsy Ross Bridge,

here

closer to home, and John, you're learning more about the safety of our local

bridge

s tonight. That's right, Rick, that's

what

we've been investigating in the The Betsy Ross Bridge, right behind me, you know, it's very similar to that

bridge

in Baltimore, it was built around the same time in just a few years and it's also almost the same total length, but this bridge has a big difference and it is not

what

t

here

is. the bridge is what's in the water 8 and a half million vehicles cross the Betsy Ross Bridge over the Delaware River each year and after the catastrophic

collapse

of the Francis Scott Bridge in Baltimore this morning a similar structure we wanted to know what the safety measures are Here all our bridges have protection systems to prevent ships from colliding.

John Hansen is the executive director of the Delaware River Port Authority. He's following this

collapse

closely, but says the key difference is in the Delaware River, near the bridge's support pairs when it is Speaking of the Betsy Ross Bridge, we have concrete dolphins that protect against boats and will prevent a boat from hit the spring. That's what we have on the Betos Bridge. You can see those circular structures from drone 6 and when you watch the Baltimore video. you don't see them near the support piers something a

structural

engineering

professor

at Drexel noticed right away why there was no protection system around the pier Dr. aayi discusses

structural

collapses.

He was

surprised

that this type of bridge known as a continuous trust bridge completely failed when something is continuous, it is assumed that it can at least hold. What I saw was that once the guy who was supporting that span gave way, the bridges fell, there was no question, that's something that, of course, the NTSB will be investigating and Rick, the Port Authority says that all the bridges along along the Delaware River have the protections around those support pairs. We're live tonight John Paul Channel 6 Action News Rick, okay John, good to know, thanks for that. report