The north side of the Dames Point Bridge as seen from the El Faro Memorial site on Dames Point Road. | Dan Scanlan, Jacksonville Today
Published on March 21, 2025 at 2:42 pm
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The Dames Point Bridge, like dozens of bridges around the country, should be inspected for safety in light of last year’s collapse of the Key Bridge in Baltimore, federal officials say.
A yearlong investigation of the Baltimore collapse indicated that the bridge was almost 30 times above the acceptable risk for critical bridges, according to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.
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The National Transportation Safety Board urged this week that 68 bridges around the country, including the Dames Point Bridge, be assessed along those guidelines.
The NTSB did not conclude that the Dames Point Bridge or the 67 others are certain to collapse. But, like Baltimore’s bridge, those bridges are regularly exposed to large container ships.
NTSB wants bridge owners to evaluate whether the bridges are above acceptable risk levels and implement a risk reduction plan if needed. The agency suggests the U.S. Coast Guard, Army Corps of Engineers and Federal Highway Administrtation provide vulnerability assessments based on recent vessel traffic, size and speeds.
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Bridge safety in Florida
Of the 68 bridges on the NTSB list, the only other one in Florida is the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in the Tampa Bay area.
The Skyway opened in 1987 after a freighter hit the earlier Tampa Bay bridge in 1980.
The Dames Point bridge, known as the Napoleon Bonaparte Broward Bridge, was built in 1989 and is owned by the Florida Department of Transportation.
FDOT‘s central office in Tallahassee is expected to make a statement responding to the NTSB report.
Baltimore’s Key Bridge collapsed March 26 last year after a large shipping vessel hit it. The accident killed six construction workers on the bridge
After the crash, Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan assured the community that the Dames Point Bridge was safe.
The bridge — the only one that cargo ships sail under — has large concrete structures called “dolphins” in place to protect the base from impacts with vessels.
Additionally, Deegan said, specialty sensors called Air Gap sensors are located on the bridge to provide real-time information about the distance between the water surface and the bottom of the bridge structure over the main channel.
