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This is Science Friday. I'm Irooflato.

Today on the podcast, one year after the Baltimore bridge collapse,

checking on what went wrong and preventing future disasters.

These newer and larger vessels have kind of outpaced the bridges in terms of the ability to

change and to be updated.

In the early morning of March 26, 2024, the container ship Dolly struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.

Within 30 seconds, the bridge collapsed into the river below. Six maintenance workers lost their lives.

Now almost exactly a year later, we wanted to look back on what led to this catastrophic event,

and more importantly, look to the future, how to improve the safety of our nation's bridges

and prevent another tragic crash. Joining me now to discuss are my guests, Dr. Abbey Agayere,

Professor of Civil Engineering at Drexley University based in Philadelphia,

and Dr. Thomas McKinney, Associate Professor of Engineering Practice, Naval Architecture,

and Marine Engineering at the University of Michigan based in Ann Arbor.

Welcome to Science Friday.

Thank you.

Thank you, I very happy to be here.

You're welcome.

All right, let's start looking back to exactly what led to this tremendous bridge collapsed.

Thomas, can you give me an overview of what went wrong aboard the Dolly that led it to striking the bridge?

Sure.

So the basics of the incidents go roughly like this.

...