President Biden to Travel to Site of Baltimore Bridge Collapse

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will visit the site of the Baltimore bridge that collapsed after it was rammed by a fully loaded cargo ship and is expected to reaffirm his commitment to rebuild the structure and reopen the Port of Baltimore as quickly as possible.

As readers of The Well News surely remember, the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, collapsed within seconds of being struck on March 26 by a cargo ship that lost power shortly after leaving the city’s port.

The captain of the cargo ship, called the Dali, were able to issue a mayday call before the impact, enabling police to stop traffic before the bridge plunged into the water at the juncture of the Patapsco River and outer Baltimore Harbor.

However, the warning did not come fast enough to save a road crew filling potholes on the bridge. Authorities believe six workers plunged to their deaths in the river, though only two bodies have so far been recovered. Two other members of the crew survived the collapse.

Biden is scheduled to depart the White House aboard Marine One shortly after noon on Friday, and will begin an aerial tour of the fractured and submerged bridge shortly after his arrival at Martin State Airport in Middle River, Maryland.

Joining the president on the tour will be Maryland Governor Wes Moore, Admiral Linda Fagan, commandant of the United States Coast Guard, and Lieutenant General Scott Spellmon, chief of engineers and commanding general of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. 

Following the tour, the president will participate in an operational briefing at the offices of the Maryland Transportation Authority on response and recovery efforts and meet with federal personnel, state and local officials and first responders.

Biden will deliver remarks shortly thereafter and then meet with the loved ones of the six individuals who lost their lives in the collapse.

Immediately after the accident, the president vowed to pay for the entire cost of rebuilding the bridge, and said its replacement would be completed “as soon as humanly possible.”

Since then, the administration has funded the harbor cleanup, made $60 million in emergency funding available to help rebuild the bridge, provided low-interest disaster loans to affected businesses and overseen efforts to monitor and manage any supply chain disruptions.

It was unclear Friday morning whether the president would announce any new funding initiatives or a more comprehensive funding package that would require Congressional approval.

During a briefing with reporters on Thursday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the president would effectively be in fact-finding mode during his visit to Baltimore, gathering information on how much more aid would be needed to rebuild the bridge, open the port and make the city whole again.

“The president is continuing to lead a whole-of-government approach in responding to the bridge collapse,” Jean-Pierre told the reporters. 

“As the president said within hours of the collapse, this administration will be with the people of Baltimore every step of the way,” she added.

Earlier this week, senior administration officials called major employers in the Baltimore area, including Home Depot and Amazon, to encourage them not to lay off workers in the wake of the bridge collapse.

Jean-Pierre confirmed those conversations had occurred, telling the White House press corps the administration is “doing everything it can … so that we can identify and address any potential disruptions.”

In addition to holding discussions with Baltimore-area employers, the president’s Supply Chain and Distribution Task Force has convened “multiple times” since the mishap, analyzing its impact on supply chains.

“So far, the impact has been manageable, which is important,” Jean-Pierresaid. “The task force has been working with railroads to set up new service lines, and with ports and ocean carriers to divert vessels.

“In addition, the SBA, the Small Business Administration, has made low interest disaster loan assistance available to eligible businesses and set up business recovery centers in the area to provide help on the ground,” she said.

On Thursday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced a tentative timeline for restoring access to the port, saying it expects to open a limited access channel to the facility by the end of the month.

The channel is currently expected to be about 280 feet wide and 35 feet deep which is large enough to support one-way traffic in and out of the port for large container ships and vessels that move vehicles and large agricultural equipment through the port.

The Corps went on to say that it plans to reopen the permanent 700-foot-wide by 50-foot-deep federal navigation channel by the end of May; that would restore port access to normal capacity.

“A fully opened federal channel remains our primary goal, and we will carry out this work with care and precision, with safety as our chief priority,” Lt. Gen. Spellmon said in a written statement.

Spellmon went on to caution, however, that the current timelines are “ambitious” and could change significantly if the Baltimore area is impacted by particularly bad weather or if the challenge of removing the wrecked bridge from the harbor runs into complications.

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