The National Transportation Safety Board recommended that 68 bridges undergo vulnerability testing nearly one year after the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed in Baltimore.

NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said a vulnerability assessment could have prevented the deadly Key Bridge collapse. The bridges recommended for assessment include the country’s most iconic structures, such as the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, the Golden Gate Bridge in California, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Maryland, and the Mackinac Bridge in Michigan.

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“Today’s report does not suggest that the 68 bridges are certain to collapse,” the NTSB said in a press release Thursday. “The NTSB is recommending that these 30 bridge owners evaluate whether the bridges are above the [American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials] acceptable level of risk. The NTSB recommended that bridge owners develop and implement a comprehensive risk reduction plan, if the calculations indicate a bridge has a risk level above the AASHTO threshold.”

“Bridge owners need to take action now and not wait,” Homendy said.

Homendy added that if the Maryland Transportation Authority had conducted a vulnerability assessment, it “would have known the risk and could have taken action to safeguard the Key Bridge.” 

“We asked them for that data,” Homendy said. “They didn’t have it. We had to develop that data ourselves, with the help of our federal partners at the Federal Highway Administration.”

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials recommended that the Key Bridge undergo vulnerability testing twice, in 1991 and in 2009.

The Federal Highway Administration began requiring vulnerability assessments of new bridges in 1994, the NTSB said. The Key Bridge was built before that requirement.

Nearly one year ago, the Dali, a Singaporean-flagged shipping container, struck the Key Bridge early in the morning, causing it to collapse into the Patapsco River. Six construction workers who were working on the bridge died. 

​​BALTIMORE BRIDGE COLLAPSE WARNINGS ISSUED YEARS AGO

The port of Baltimore was closed for 11 weeks as the wreckage was cleared.

A preliminary report from the NTSB in May found that the Dali had two power blackouts while docked 10 hours before the collision that toppled part of a bridge span.

The final report will be released this fall.