MILWAUKEE — The first thought that popped into Dr. Andrew Sen's mind when he saw the video of the bridge collapse in Baltimore was “shock.”
"To see such a large piece of infrastructure collapse in less than ten seconds…I mean that was scary in a sense,” Dr. Sen explained.
The collapsed Key Bridge is called a truss. Which is something the Marquette University Assistant Professor teaches his Marquette engineering students about.
"We design structures for extreme loads. So, we expect the unexpected in some sense,” he explained.
However, the bridge could not handle the impact from the over 900-foot cargo ship.
"There are very few bridges in the world where they can withstand a direct hit from an ocean ferrying cargo ship. That's just an incredible amount of load,” Dr. Sen explained.
Dr. Sen says a more relatable hazard that we have in Southeast Wisconsin is here in Milwaukee.
“Maybe truck collisions with lower bridges, so we see that a lot say in the downtown area in Milwaukee. We have lots of rail bridges that are pretty low,” Dr. Sen said.
There is over 14,000 bridges in Wisconsin and the state says over 1,700 of them need repairs.
Meanwhile, regular maintenance was completed last summer on the Hoan Bridge.
Dr. Sen said maintenance is common. "Whenever we have infrastructure in service for decades, you need to do something to make sure that it's still usable for the next several decades. So, it's a constant battle of building infrastructure but also maintaining the existing infrastructure."
With 188 bridges in the city of Milwaukee, drivers will most likely encounter one during their daily commute. However, Dr. Sen doesn't want drivers to live in fear.
"This is not going to happen every day. This shouldn't be a kind of constant concern for people using bridges,” Dr. Sen explained.
All of Wisconsin's bridges are inspected at least once every two years. You can find inspection dates and reports for each right here.
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