> the replacement bridge was built with a series of "structural dolphins" and concrete barriers to protect against ship strikes.

Given how the Skyway collapse is burned into the local consciousness, I suspect some of the benefit comes from their visibility.

I truly don't know how the dolphins would fair against a massive ship strike but I can imagine them doing their job.

(ship passing): https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FPgQhy2X0AE8yw1.jpg

I would also add those barriers seem to depend on the ship staying intact during collision. Given the immense inertia involved on the bigger ships I could just as easily see a scenario where the barrier ends up ripping through the lower hull while the rest of the ship continues forward.

> easily see a scenario where the barrier ends up ripping through the lower hull while the rest of the ship continues forward

I don’t think that is likely? My intuition is that in order to stay seaworthy ships are constructed with more integrity than that.

I don’t have any hard evidence though, just that I have looked at many ship collision/allision aftermath photos and what you describe is not a failure mode I have seen so far.

See also: Titanic vs Ice

interestingly the bridge has such dolphins

but only on per-pillar per-direction and with quite a bit of distance between it and the pillar

one some pictures you can see that the ship barley missed one of them due to the angle it was going at