President Biden plans to visit on Friday the site of the Baltimore Bridge, which collapsed after a massive cargo ship plowed into it last week, killing six people and severing a key shipping and transportation artery.
During his visit to the Francis Scott Key Bridge wreck, Mr. Biden will take an aerial tour, receive information about relief efforts and meet with the families of construction workers who fell into the Patapsco River along with the structure.
Mr. Biden will encounter a more than mile-long tangle of concrete and steel that has paralyzed traffic, devastated worker communities and disrupted operations at one of America’s largest ports, threatening chaos that could ripple through supply chains.
The president has already pledged federal assistance to help the city recover from the March 26 disaster, including a pledge to pay “as quickly as possible the entire cost of rebuilding” the bridge. It was unclear whether he would announce new measures during his visit, such as an emergency funding package that requires congressional approval. Some Republicans have already rejected his promise to cover the entire cost of the bridge.
Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said on Thursday that Mr. Biden would seek more information about what help was needed during his visit, citing the support the federal government has already provided.
“The president continues to take a whole-of-government approach to responding to the bridge collapse,” she said. “As the president said just hours after the collapse, this administration will be with the people of Baltimore every step of the way.”
This week, senior administration officials called major employers in the Baltimore area, including retail chains like Home Depot and retailers like Amazon, to encourage them to retain workers, Ms. Jean-Pierre said.
Since the collapse, the government has funded port cleanup, provided $60 million in emergency funds to rebuild the bridge, provided low-interest disaster loans to affected businesses and overseen efforts to monitor and address any supply chain disruptions.
The structure, which took five years to build, opened in 1977 and served as a major transportation link on the East Coast, carrying more than 30,000 vehicles daily on Interstate 695. It was named for Francis Scott Key, the Maryland-born author of “The Star- Spangled Banner.”
The bridge collapsed in the middle of the night when a 985-foot cargo ship plowed into it shortly after leaving the Port of Baltimore, a major economic engine that handles more cars and farm equipment than any other port in the country. The ship, the Dali, lost power before reaching the bridge but sent out a distress call, giving officials enough time to stop bridge traffic.
But there wasn’t enough time to get to the workers who were already on the bridge.
Six construction workers were missing after the collapse, and the bodies of two of them were recovered from the river on March 27. Rescue efforts have been suspended for the remaining workers, who are presumed dead. Authorities said the bodies were most likely encased in steel and concrete.
“They were hard workers, working in the middle of the night to repair potholes on a bridge that tens of thousands of travelers crossed every day,” Ms. Jean-Pierre said.
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2024-04-05 09:04:22
www.nytimes.com