Baltimore bridge collapse: Temporary channels open amid ‘economic catastrophe’

A temporary channel has been established to help move Port of Baltimore traffic. The channel is located on the northeast side of the main channel in the vicinity of the bridge for commercially essential vessels.

“This marks an important first step along the road to reopening the port of Baltimore,” Captain David O’Connell, federal on-scene coordinator, said in a news release on Monday morning. “By opening this alternate route, we will support the flow of marine traffic into Baltimore.”

The action is part of a phased approach to opening the port, officials said. The temporary channel has government-lighted navigation aids and has a controlling depth of 11 feet, providing a 264-foot clearance and a vertical clearance of 95 feet, the statement said.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Royal Caribbean said the company is rerouting some of its cruises. Passengers will be getting compensation and temporary shuttle transportation, the company added. The cruise ships will now be docking in Norfolk, Virginia, a port that other companies are turning to in the midst of the tragedy.

Upcoming cruises taking place on 4 April and 12 April will sail from Norfolk. Guests booked on those trips will also receive compensation in order to make any necessary adjustments to their travel plans. Upon returning from the 12 April cruise, the line called “Vision of the Seas” will head off to The Bahamas for scheduled maintenance.

“Our guests and travel partners are being directly notified of these updates”, the companies said.

According to the American Road & Transportation Builders Association, the state is 39th in the country for structurally deficient bridges. The state has identified needed repairs on 1,595 bridges, according to the state’s database. That number has gone down some when compared to the 1,646 that needed work in 2019.

West Virginia is first in the country for structurally deficient bridges, while Arizona was last.

At least two bills have been submitted by Maryland state lawmakers to help those impacted by the Baltimore Key Bridge collapse. The Port Act, or SB 1188, was submitted by Senate President Bill Ferguson on Friday. The goal of the legislation is to assist those impacted by the closure. It’s now in committee and is expected to be heard during a meeting this week.

SB 1187 was also introduced Friday and gives the governor emergency legislation to expedite the rebuilding of the bridge. It also gives the governor additional state-of-emergency powers to access additional tools to tackle the crisis.

Despite continuing to post attacks against Joe Biden on social media over the weekend, Donald Trump has remained largely silent on the Baltimore bridge collapse.

Since Tuesday night when a cargo ship slammed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge, killing six people, all immigrants, the former president has only posted one clip of Sean Hannity criticising President Joe Biden for making only a brief remark and “making it all about himself by mentioning his personal connection”.

Mr Trump, who is usually known for his consistent and repeated posts on social media on any topic in the national news, is being criticised for remaining largely silent.

Republican strategist Scott Reed said this silence from Mr Trump is “a little weird,” journalist Mike Sington shared on Twitter.

“It was a national tragedy, it’s going to cost $2 billion, it’s going to screw up a lot of people’s lives and impact goods travelling around the world,” Mr Reed said, according to Mr Sington’s post on X.

“At a minimum, express sympathy toward the poor six men that died that were doing their jobs on the midnight shift, keeping commerce flowing.

US president Joe Biden said on Friday he will go to Baltimore next week.

Tom Perez, senior adviser and assistant to Biden, said on Sunday that plans for the visit were still being worked out. He called the salvage operation a “Herculean undertaking”.

“The Port of Baltimore will be back,” Mr Perez told MSNBC. “The president has said this. We’re going to move heaven and earth to make sure we rebuild the bridge, we clear out the debris as soon as possible, so that we can minimize these disruptions.”

A Baltimore baker who drove over the Francis Scott Key Bridge seconds before its collapse, says he had been blissfully unaware of the catastrophe until receiving a call from a panicked co-worker.

Larry Desantis told the Baltimore Banner that despite being in the immediate vicinity he had not heard the container ship collide with the bridge because he had been playing his car radio loudly.

Mr Desantis, head baker at Herman’s Bakery in Dundalk, had been travelling on his regular commute in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

According to the Banner, he had made it off the bridge around 1:27am. About a minute later, at around 1.29am the bridge collapsed.