Maryland’s Wes Moore thanks Joe Biden for initial bridge rebuild funds
Following the deadly Baltimore bridge collapse, Maryland Governor Wes Moore announces federal funding to help the rebuild.
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.
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…
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