BEAUMONT, Texas —
Southeast Texas bridges, like the Veterans Memorial and Rainbow Bridges, have safety measures in place that are able to help in cases of potential disaster.
Building a bridge takes strategic planning. 12News spoke with the Interim Chair of Civil Engineering at Lamar University about what the safety measures are on our bridges.
Dr. Nicholas Brake says that bridges and their support piers are structured to balance the weight of the bridges arches.
"Basically, this pier here and this pier here are supporting, for all intents and purposes, the entire bridge," Dr. Brake said. "The arch only works when you have these piers directly below it. Because they transfer the compressive forces directly to the pier. Directly to the earth. So without that the arch no longer works."
In the Baltimore bridge collapse, the secondary pier was unable to carry the force of the arch, and crumbled, along with the rest of the bridge deck. Dr. Brakes says he was stunned to see Baltimore's bridge collapse like it did.
"It was just surprising, it was traveling you know 8 or 9 knots at that channel. And of course soon as it hits that pier. Really that pier has no chance. Because there's no protection in front of it, and the ship can move full speed ahead," he said.
Javier Salinasa is a Port Arthur Construction worker who drives Veterans Memorial Bridge heading to Louisiana often.
"It can happen to me or it can to anybody. It hits me," he said. "It is kind of scary. Especially when whoever's traveling a lot. But you never know it's just the moment. You never know if it's gonna happen."
Dr. Brake says Southeast Texas bridges are built differently.
"Massive structure with a lot of steel and concrete that will serve as kind of a bumper pad if you will. A protection device,"
A special feature the Veterans Memorial Bridge and Rainbow Bridge have are dolphin barriers, according to Dr. Brake.
"Put all of the damage to the protective barrier. Or dolphin barrier rather than the pier itself. So, and I know they were recently repaired within the last 10 years. At some of these critical bridge sites in the local area," he said.
Dr. Brake tells 12News the dolphin barriers help absorb the force of the vessel, deflect it and hopefully stop the ship entirely, if a crash were to happen.