Months to fix port channel, years for new bridge
Rebuilding the Francis Scott Key Bridge over the Patapsco River will probably take years and cost hundreds of millions of dollars, experts said Wednesday. But the shipping channel from the Port of Baltimore, a major economic engine for the city, could be cleared in months.
Federal officials also reiterated their pledges to support the effort.
“We still don’t fully know the condition of the portions of the bridge that are still standing or of infrastructure that is below the surface of the water,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said at the White House. “So rebuilding will not be quick or easy or cheap, but we will get it done.”
Buttigieg declined to provide a timeline either for clearing the shipping channel or rebuilding the bridge.
He also noted there is a difference of opinion on whether a bridge can be built to take a blow from a 100,000-ton freighter like the one that felled the Key Bridge.
The comments came as agencies worked to recover the bodies of six construction workers who died after the bridge collapsed and investigators for the first time boarded the ship that struck the well-traveled span.
The container ship Dali, apparently suffering a power failure, directly struck one of the piers of the 47-year-old bridge at 1:28 a.m. Tuesday. Quick action by officers with the Maryland Transportation Authority police in the minute immediately before the collision stopped traffic from entering the bridge and saved numerous lives, officials said. But there was no time to warn a construction crew working on the middle of the 1.6-mile span.
Two workers were rescued, but six were presumed dead. On Wednesday, officials said two bodies were recovered from the water.
Hours after Tuesday’s incident, President Joe Biden pledged the federal government would foot the bill to reopen the port and rebuild the bridge, which state officials said carried more than 30,000 vehicles a day. On Wednesday, Rep. David Trone, D-Md., a member of the House Appropriations Committee, said lawmakers were exploring the use of “quick release” emergency relief funds to aid in the effort.
Coast Guard Vice Adm. Peter Gautier, who spoke at the White House alongside Buttigieg, said the Coast Guard’s “highest priority now is restoring the waterway for shipping.” Part of that work, he said, includes stabilizing the Dali and removing it from the Patapsco. He said the Army Corps of Engineers was moving aggressively to conduct underwater surveys and mitigate any pollution threat, noting the ship contained more than 1.5 million gallons of oil and 4,700 cargo containers, 56 of which contained hazardous materials.
Another possible complication, Gautier said, is that the bow of the Dali “is sitting on the bottom [of the river] because of the weight of the bridge debris on there.” Gautier said there was no sign of flooding or damage to the ship below the waterline.
Benjamin W. Schafer, professor of civil and systems engineering at Johns Hopkins University, said it could take months to remove debris and reopen the channel. “There is, certainly that technology for moving the steel out as quickly as possible.”
Andy Winkler, director of the housing and infrastructure project at the Bipartisan Policy Center, said state and federal emergency declarations could help speed the rebuilding process by allowing officials to waive rules and regulations around competitive bidding and competition rules that can sometimes slow large infrastructure projects.
An effort to rebuild a collapsed section of Interstate 95 in Philadelphia in 2023 was originally expected to take months. Instead, it took 12 days in part because officials were able to speed up the bureaucracy, including fast-tracking the permitting process after Gov. Josh Shapiro signed a disaster declaration within 24 hours after the collapse.
Winkler said Maryland Gov. Wes Moore has taken a similar action, which could help speed the process of building a replacement bridge.