President Joe Biden said Friday he plans to visit Baltimore next week with Maryland Gov. Wes Moore following the recent collapse of a major bridge that killed six people and shut down a vital shipping port.
Biden confirmed next week’s trip to reporters after landing on Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews after returning from New York. Biden did not say which date he will make the short visit to Baltimore. The president has pledged his administration’s full support as Baltimore recovers from the bridge disaster and said he expects the federal government to cover the full cost to rebuild the bridge.
The announcement came as crews continued to assess the immense wreckage in the Patapsco River and as specialized salvage equipment began to arrive.
Some 1,100 personnel from the Army Core of Engineers, along with highly specialized equipment, were deployed to remove the debris and reopen the nation’s largest vehicle handling port. The Chesapeake 1000, the largest floating crane on the Eastern Seaboard, arrived in Baltimore at 11 p.m. Thursday, U.S. Coast Guard spokesperson Carmen Caver told USA TODAY.
At least three cranes, including the Chesapeake, were on scene Friday but were not yet being used, Caver said. Surveys of the damage have been complicated by the river’s strong current and low visibility, U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Shannon Gilreath has told reporters.
The bodies of four construction workers who were on the Francis Scott Key Bridge when it collapsed are believed to still be inside vehicles in the wreckage. A crew of eight workers were on break at the time of impact. Two were rescued hours after the crash, and, on Wednesday, two bodies were recovered from inside a pickup truck submerged in the river.
Developments:
∎ Parts of the mid-Atlantic region were under wind advisories Friday as gusts as high as 50 mph were forecast, according to the National Weather Service. Through 8 p.m. winds in the high 30s were expected to lash the Baltimore area.
∎ The U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced it will host a virtual briefing on Monday to hear from industry leaders about the “implications of the port closure, strategies they are implementing to mitigate disruptions, and the path forward on a long-term solution,” according to the Maryland Chamber of Commerce.
Will the Baltimore port closure impact car prices?
Last year, the Port of Baltimore handled a record 847,158 cars and light trucks, more than any other U.S. port, according to Maryland Gov. Wes Moore’s office. With such an important shipping artery shut down until the wreckage is cleared – a process that some experts said could take well over a month – a big question emerged: Will those costs trickle down to car buyers?
The good news: Most experts said it is unlikely consumers will see a spike in the transaction prices for new vehicles in the near term. But in the longer term, it could get complicated.
“Several factors, including the length of the port’s closure and the capacity of alternate ports, are two key elements,” Karl Brauer, executive analyst at iSeeCars.com in Los Angeles, told the Detroit Free Press, part of the USA TODAY Network. “Additional variables include how much a given brand relies on Baltimore for both vehicle and supply chain shipments. For instance, it’s likely a brand like Subaru, which is prominent in Northeast markets, faces a bigger impact than Hyundai, which has manufacturing hubs in the Southeast and sells a larger percentage of vehicles in Western states like California.”
Bozzella said ways to mitigate supply chain disruptions were learned from the pandemic, when vehicle prices surged, which may quell any harsh impacts from the Baltimore port shutdown. Ivan Drury, director of insights at Edmunds.com, said that while vehicle prices could rise, he emphasized that they would not jump as high as they did during the pandemic.
Tyson Jominy, vice president of data and analytics at J.D. Power, said, given the uncertainty around the port’s closure, it’s too soon to declare an impact on pricing. However, he is skeptical that an automaker could hike prices much in today’s environment for two reasons: competition and the fact that there are 1.7 million new vehicles on dealership lots across all brands right now, giving automakers sufficient inventory, at least for the two months.
“It is one port, so there are competitive ports where products are sent instead, which would take time and expense, but it’s not as if the entire Eastern Seaboard is down,” Jominy said. “That’s the nature of logistics. The people who do this, crisis is their business.”
More:Baltimore bridge collapse closes automakers’ top port: How it may impact new car prices
– Jamie L. LaReau, Detroit Free Press
Investigator recounts cargo ship’s ‘black box’ audio
National Transportation Safety Board investigator Marcel Muise recounted audio discovered in the cargo ship’s “black box” at a news conference on Wednesday, providing the most detailed account of the moments leading up to the catastrophic wreck.
◾ Muise said several alarms were heard on the recording just before 1:25 a.m., followed about a minute later by steering commands and rudder orders.
◾ At 1:26:39 a.m., the pilot on duty made a radio call for assistance to tug boats in the area, and 45 seconds later, ordered the port anchor dropped.
◾ At 1:27:25 a.m., the pilot said on a radio call that Dali had lost power and was nearing the bridge. Around that same time, the officer on duty for the Maryland Transportation Authority told officers who were at both ends of the bridge for the road repairs to close traffic, which likely saved lives.
◾ At 1:29:33 a.m., as the powerless Dali was drifting at 8 mph, the VDR recorded “sounds consistent with the collision of the bridge,” Muise said. Six seconds later, the pilot reported to the Coast Guard that the bridge was down.
– Minnah Arshad
14 containers with hazardous material ‘impacted’ by crash
Of the 56 containers loaded on the vessel that contained hazardous materials, 14 were impacted by the crash, according to a statement from the Unified Command, which includes the U.S. Coast Guard and the Maryland Department of the Environment.
The statement said an industrial hygienist assessed the containers and found that those affected by the collision were soap products, perfume products, or not otherwise specified resin. First responders also observed a “sheen” around the ship, leading them to establish a 6,000-foot safety zone as well as over 4,000 feet of containment boom to stop the sheen from spreading further in the river.
U.S. Coast Guard officials have said there is no immediate environmental threat and that response teams are conducting visual inspections of water quality and collecting samples for testing.
“Pollution and debris removal operations are on-going,” a Unified Command statement published Thursday said. “At this time, no atmospheric hazards have been detected and the unified command continues to ensure safety.”
Federal government provides $60M in funding for Baltimore bridge rebuild
The federal government is giving Maryland $60 million in emergency funds to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge, Moore announced at a news conference Thursday. Moore said the state had submitted the funding request earlier Thursday for “initial mobilization, operations and debris recovery efforts.”
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration said in a news release that the request was approved within hours and the $60 million in “quick release” emergency relief funds will be immediately available for the Maryland Department of Transportation to rebuild the bridge.
The funds will be used as a down payment for initial costs, according to the Federal Highway Administration, and additional funding will be available as operations continue.
Federal Highway Administration Administrator Shailen Bhatt said the emergency funding would go toward managing traffic and supply chain disruptions, removing debris, and ultimately rebuilding the bridge.
While such funding can take days to approve, President Joe Biden had told reporters on Tuesday that he directed the federal government to “move heaven and earth” to quickly rebuild the bridge.
Experts have said the bridge could take years to rebuild and when it opened in 1977, it cost $60.3 million – which is equivalent to $316 million today.
Bridge collapse expected to have major economic impacts
The Port of Baltimore is a critical area for America’s economy and is ranked as the largest vehicle-handling port in the country. The bridge’s collapse on Tuesday immediately blocked shipping lanes and forced the indefinite closure of the port.
The economic impact of the bridge’s collapse was estimated to be $2 million in wages a day and 8,000 jobs, according to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Between $100 million and $200 million of cargo passes through the port every day. About 4,000 commercial trucks use the bridge daily, and detours are expected to increase delivery times and fuel costs, according to Oxford Economics.
But with the port’s closure, Buttigieg has warned that many longshore workers could be unemployed. Since the collapse, companies have rerouted shipments to other East Coast ports.
– Swapna Venugopal and Ramaswamy Paul Davidson
Contributing: Reuters
