Ian Firth, a structural engineer and bridge designer, told the Standard’s Tech & Science Daily podcast: “We’re looking at a very, very large vessel, the type of which did not exist back in 1970 you know, much, much larger than was envisaged back then, a navigation channel which is only 350 or so metres wide, which is not very wide for ships of that scale, and so yeah, potentially, you could say it's a disaster waiting to happen sadly.”
According to Ian, the bridge was built in the early 1970s, at a time before structures designed to protect against collisions were considered a standard part of the build.
“We design structures in the water, in this country we call them dolphins, something which is sacrificial, something which, if the ship hits it, it doesn't hit the bridge.” Ian said
“It gets deflected by this object or slowed down sufficiently that if it does hit the bridge, the energy has gone out of it, and it's not going to do so much damage.
“It doesn't have that kind of protection. There is some, there is one little round object each side of the bridge I've seen from the photographs, but it's not adequate. It's obviously insufficient to do the job.”


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