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It was a day that residents in the Washington, D.C.-Baltimore metropolitan areas won’t soon forget: March 26, 2024, when the Baltimore Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed, killing six and leaving many more forever impacted.
Since then, George Mason University professors Elise Miller-Hooks, Alireza Ermagun, and Shanjiang Zhu have received two National Science Foundation RAPID grants to study the cause and impact of the collapse, and potential preventative methods for the future.
Miller-Hooks and Ermagun are working together on their project, “Understanding Freight Flow Adaptations and Supply Chain Logistics Impacts of the Francis Scott Key Bridge Collapse.”
“The incident took out an important link in the roadway and maritime freight and cargo shipping networks. It also took out roadways that serve local traffic, so it affects are so much more than the blocked maritime passageway,” explained Miller-Hooks, a professor in the Sid and Reva Dewberry Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering in the College of Engineering and Computing.
The Port of Baltimore is one of two main ports in the region, along with the Port of Virginia, which are critical for transportation, businesses, and network optimization.
“We're trying to understand how the disruption percolates through the links and connections of the intermodal system,” said Miller-Hooks, who is the principal investigator on the project.
“For example, are goods that were destined for the port sitting on a side rail? And how is that backing up other operations in rail and trucking modes in geographically near and far locations?” she explained.
The disruption has enormous impact on local businesses and beyond—even globally, she said. The team is looking at maritime data to determine how far the disruption spread, as it could potentially affect shipments out of China, Europe, and other ports.
Miller-Hooks and Ermagun are collaborating with the Transportation Research Board’s Urban Freight Transportation Committee, where Ermagun serves as a secretary and member.
Ermagun’s interest in urban freight transportation has deepened through his active involvement with the Urban Freight Transportation Committee, where he has successfully led National Cooperative Highway Research Program problem statements, contributing insights and solutions to enhance urban logistics.
“Robyn Bancroft, a long-time member of the committee, helped us connect with the right people within the Baltimore Industrial Group,” said Ermagun, an assistant professor of Geography and Geoinformation Science in the College of Science. “We are gaining valuable insights into how trucking companies and truck drivers have been impacted by the Key Bridge collapse.”
“We’ve heard their stories and gathered important information. By advocating for them, we’re bringing to light insights that wouldn’t be readily available to the public,” he said.
Zhu’s RAPID project, “Multifaceted Data Collection on the Aftermath of the March 26, 2024, Francis Scott Key Bridge Collapse in the DC-Maryland-Virginia Area,” is a collaboration with researchers from the University of Maryland and Morgan State University.
Zhu studied a similar incident, the 2007 I-35W Mississippi River bridge collapse. For this project, Zhu expanded on his previous research, which focused primarily on passenger cars and commuting behavior.
“I spent a few years collecting various data and then developing some models that would help us to better understand the impact of events such as this one,” said Zhu, an associate professor in the Sid and Reva Dewberry Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering.
“The major difference is the traffic here actually is lighter. This location is unique because it serves the harbor as a major logistic hub along the East Coast. So, we’re focusing on the impact on commuters as well as the truck companies who may rely on the port,” said Zhu.
The team, including transportation engineering PhD student Adriana Valentina Farias, are looking at maritime data, which shows how different vessels are rerouted, some as far as different ports in New York or South Carolina, and they want correlate that data with the change of tracking traffic.
“A lot of my work is data management,” Farias said. “We use the website, Marine Traffic, which shows all the vessel traffic in all the ports of the world. It allows you to download data on all the vessels that came in and out of a port for 30 days.”
A main objective of the RAPID grants is to archive data that is at risk of perishing if not collected in time. The data collected from these projects will support future research on traffic, travel behavior, logistics, and supply chain from different perspectives.
“I think our research will be helpful in understanding how the port authority was able to manage the collapse and everything that came with it. It's not something that happens very often, so this could serve as a case study for other port authorities to become more resilient and have lessons learned,” said Farias.