THERE is little fault to be found in the Baltimore habour bridge that collapsed when rammed by a 9,941-TEU containership, but such bridges would not be built today, according to an expert cited by the Scientific American.

Back then in the early 1970s, the biggest containerships were no more than 1,000 TEU. Today, the average size of an ocean going box ship is 10,000 TEU with the biggest weighing in at 24,000 TEU.

"The pylon was completely obliterated," said Benjamin Schafer, a Johns Hopkins University professor of civil and systems engineering.

"Any bridge supported at two points like that and having one support just totally removed is going to be in the water as the next step," he said.

Ask whether same could happened to a newer bridge, he said: "Bridges at that span their pier-to-pier length have changed since the middle of the 20th century.

"If built today, it would be in a different form - probably a cable-stayed bridge, if you look at what we've been building in the past 20-plus years," said Prof Schafer, explaining there would be cables running from high towers to the road, in contrast with the boxy metal construction of a truss bridge.