Dive Brief:
- With the crumbled wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge behind him, President Joe Biden on Friday re-upped his commitment for the federal government to fund the span's replacement, saying he would "move heaven and earth" to rebuild it quickly.
- During a windswept afternoon on the banks of the Patapsco River, the president said the top priority remains opening the channel for port traffic and emphasized the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' goal to clear a path for commercial vessels by the end of May.
- Biden said the new bridge would be built “with union labor and American steel,” as he stood on the grounds of the Maryland Transportation Authority Police headquarters, about a half mile east of the span.
Dive Insight:
Biden’s remarks came after an aerial tour of the wreckage and an operational briefing on the bridge’s current status.
He said the six construction workers who died in the bridge were on break at the time, and said one, Carlos Hernández, had just left a message for his girlfriend that they had poured concrete and were waiting for it to dry. Biden used that metaphor for his own promises of replacing the span.
“My vow is that we will not rest, as Carlos said, until the cement has dried on the entirety of a new bridge,” Biden said, spurring applause from the crowd of officials gathered behind him. Those onlookers included Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and Sens. Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland.
The bridge’s collapse has halted ship traffic to and from the Port of Baltimore indefinitely, but crews have cleared two pathways for smaller vessels to navigate through, with plans for a third. The channels are primarily for boats involved in the cleanup effort, AP News reported.
On Thursday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released an updated timeline to clear a 280-foot wide, 35-foot deep channel by the end of April. It said the channel would allow for one-way traffic in and out of the port, including for barge containers and some roll on/roll off vessels that carry automobiles and farm equipment.
USACE then said it would aim to reopen the permanent, 700-foot wide, 50-foot deep channel by the end of May, which Biden reiterated in his speech. Doing so would restore port access to normal capacity, according to the agency.
Collapse background
The Key Bridge collapsed on Tuesday, March 26 at around 1:30 a.m. when the nearly 1,000-foot long cargo ship Dali collided with one of its piers.
Although a mayday from the ship’s crew prompted police to halt the flow of traffic on the bridge that night, eight construction workers performing road maintenance work for Hunt Valley, Maryland-based contractor Brawner Builders fell into the Patapsco River. Two were saved, but six died in the collapse.
The men who died have been identified as:
- Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26.
- Alejandro “Alex” Hernández Fuentes, 35.
- Carlos Hernández, 24.
- Jose Mynor Lopez, 30s.
- Miguel Luna, 49.
- Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval, 38.
Crews recovered the bodies of Cabrera and Fuentes from a red pickup truck submerged under 25 feet of water. The other bodies have yet to be recovered; doing so may require further removal of debris.
Following his remarks Friday, Biden was scheduled to meet with the loved ones of the six construction workers who died.
Joe Bousquin and Julie Strupp contributed to this report.
