Johns Hopkins Experts Hold News Briefing on Francis Scott Key Bridge Collapse

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Many people have a natural concern when crossing a large-span bridge. Given what happened yesterday with the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, Benjamin Schafer, who is the Willard and Lillian Hackerman Professor of Civil and Systems Engineering at Johns Hopkins, reassures the public…

Schafer, who is a structural engineer, known for his research in structural stability and the mechanics and design of thin-walled structures was on hand for a virtual news briefing this morning alongside other experts at Johns Hopkins including:

Tinglong Dai, the Bernard T. Ferrari Professor at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, in the area of Operations Management and Business Analytics.

Rachel Sangree, an associate teaching professor in the Department of Civil and Systems Engineering, serving as the department鈥檚 director of undergraduate studies and the program chair for Engineering for Professionals Civil Engineering.

Susu Xu, an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and Systems Engineering, who focuses on research rooted in mobile sensing, machine learning, urban computing, smart infrastructure systems, and rapid disaster response.聽

Professor Schafer talked about the time frame of cleaning up and reopening the shipping channel…

Schafer adds that it will take several years not just to rebuild the bridge but to recreate the whole transportation network.聽

He says the price tag to repair the system will likely be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, as is often the case with such projects these days.