SAVANNAH ― At low tide, the northern anchors of the Talmadge Bridge sit above the water line, as exposed along the banks of the Savannah River as a sunbathing alligator.
How the support pier’s positioning landed the iconic span among those listed as vulnerable to cargo vessel strikes in a recently released federal report is Savannah’s latest local mystery.
The National Transportation Safety Board released its assessment last week in conjunction with its investigation of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse. That span crumpled into the Patapsco River in March 2024 when a cargo container ship, similar to the dozens that pass under the Talmadge Bridge daily, struck a pier. Six construction workers conducting maintenance on the bridge died when the roadway fell into the water.
Credit: Adam Van Brimmer
Credit: Adam Van Brimmer
The NTSB report listed 68 port city bridges with unprotected pier infrastructure nationwide. Savannah’s span opened the same year, 1991, that the federal government mandated that safeguards, such as the man-made rock islands that ring the piers of Brunswick’s Lanier Bridge, be included in bridge designs.
Since the Talmadge Bridge’s northern supports technically sit in the water — the southern piers sit onshore, on the edge of Savannah’s historic downtown — the span was included in the report, an NTSB official confirmed this week.
“It doesn’t hurt to look at it — that’s the prudent thing to do — but I do not have any concerns,” said Griff Lynch, CEO of the Georgia Ports Authority, operator of two cargo terminals upriver from the Talmadge Bridge.
In response to the NTSB report, the bridge’s owner, the Georgia Department of Transportation, has agreed to conduct a collision risk assessment within the next two years. A GDOT spokesperson said the necessity for additional pier protections will be determined based on the results.
The Talmadge’s pier support sits well outside the shipping channel, which is 500 feet wide and 47 feet deep. The maximum depth outside the dredged lane is 24 feet. The majority of the oceangoing vessels that visit Savannah’s port draft more than 45 feet. That supports an assertion a Savannah harbor pilot made after the Key Bridge collapse that out-of-control cargo ships would run aground before hitting the Talmadge Bridge’s pier supports.
The review comes as the Talmadge Bridge is undergoing a maintenance project meant to minimize the risk of a different type of vessel strike — one where too-high ships would clip it while passing underneath. Crews are prepping to replace the cable-stayed bridge’s support cables with shorter ones in hopes of raising the roadway from 185 feet to as high as 205 feet. The work is to be completed in 2029.
Credit: Bloomberg
Credit: Bloomberg
The pier protection issue could become moot in the years ahead. The state transportation department has plans to replace the current bridge with a new crossing within the next decade. Officials are considering a new bridge standing 230 feet high or an under-the-river tunnel. A decision between the two options is expected later this year, and design and construction is expected to take between 9 and 11 years.
Georgia Ports Authority leaders are pushing for the new crossing as they anticipate frequent calls from much larger cargo ships in the future. The biggest vessels afloat today are too tall to pass under the Savannah bridge at high tide.
Asked Tuesday if the NTSB concerns will affect the bridge replacement effort, Lynch expressed doubts.
“Had they known where the bridge supports were located, they probably wouldn’t have included it” in the assessment, Lynch said.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify the projected completion dates of the Talmadge Bridge maintenance project.
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