What will happen to the Rio-Antirrio bridge in the event of a collision with a ship?

Panagiotis Karidis, a civil engineer specializing in earthquake-resistant construction, explained to the television station why the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed like a house of cards after colliding with the cargo ship Dali.

In particular, the professor first compared the bridge in Baltimore with the Rio-Antirrio bridge: “In Rio Antirrio, since the fault of the Gulf of Corinth runs through the middle of the strait, the bridge has four supports, between which the fault passes. Therefore, it was calculated that the bridge should withstand, without collapsing, the relative movement of one of the intermediate supports relative to the other by several meters. Then “If, due to the movement of tectonic plates in a fault, one support moves several meters relative to the other, the bridge will not collapse.”

He then added, “That obviously didn't happen in this case because it's just not designed seismically. Maryland is not in a seismic zone in the United States. So the bridge wasn't designed to withstand any natural disasters, and it collapsed like a house of cards.” If it had been designed and built with seismic factors in mind, this would almost never happen, no matter what material it was made of – concrete or metal.”

Panagiotis Karidis, speaking about seismicity, noted that we are talking not only about the tremors of an earthquake, but also about its scale. It's not just the Richter scores, but also the intensity of the earthquake, the acceleration for an earthquake return period of 2000 years, which means it can withstand without collapsing. “This is the key to all our earthquake-resistant structures and buildings – to withstand any earthquake without collapsing,” he emphasized.

“If a simulated earthquake were carried out on this bridge (in Baltimore), it would not withstand vibration, shock, strong impact, or deformation of the supports. But such a design is noticeably more expensive, and Americans are famous for their pragmatism,” – concluded Karidis.

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