Will Baltimore recover from the bridge collapse?

[Anonymous]

It will take years to rebuild the bridge. In the meantime the port traffic will move to other ports and the jobs will move elsewhere.
What are the options for these jobs and maybe even the port traffic to come back to a rebuilt port?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It will take years to rebuild the bridge. In the meantime the port traffic will move to other ports and the jobs will move elsewhere.
What are the options for these jobs and maybe even the port traffic to come back to a rebuilt port?

What? The port will be up and running as soon as the debris is moved out of the way from the collapse. 2 weeks I'd guess. Major import/export have already been quoted saying they don't anticipate major short or long term disruptions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It will take years to rebuild the bridge. In the meantime the port traffic will move to other ports and the jobs will move elsewhere.
What are the options for these jobs and maybe even the port traffic to come back to a rebuilt port?

It will take a while for the baltimore beltway to be a functioning beltway again, that's for sure, and traffic will suck. The bridge is needed for that! It's not needed for the port. If anything, it got in the way of the port, as we all found out.

[Anonymous]

Tampa did. The Keys did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It will take years to rebuild the bridge. In the meantime the port traffic will move to other ports and the jobs will move elsewhere.
What are the options for these jobs and maybe even the port traffic to come back to a rebuilt port?

Nope, they will never recover....

[Anonymous]

I know we’re ragging on OP a bit for being melodramatic, but I assume their point is that Baltimore isn’t viewed as a thriving city necessarily. I hope the federal funding and insurance can provide significant benefits to help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know we’re ragging on OP a bit for being melodramatic, but I assume their point is that Baltimore isn’t viewed as a thriving city necessarily. I hope the federal funding and insurance can provide significant benefits to help.

+1 In 2007 a bridge in Minnesota shockingly fell into the Mississippi River, and not because a 984-foot ship from Singapore had a power failure and bumped into that bridge WHICH HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH WHO VIEWS IT AS A THRIVING CITY NECESSARILY, but because the lack of attention to infrastructure in America let it molder. This disaster killed 13 people and injured 140 more. TWO DAYS LATER the U.S. House of Representatives voted unanimously to provide $250M of federal funds to replace the bridge and the Senate then confirmed it using only a voice vote. Curious to see what happens later this week in 2024, considering the House of Representatives a) has zero interest in governing; b) has even less interest in solving America’s problems; c) is on vacation for at least ten more days; d) has trouble gathering a quorum without concern about Hunter Biden; and e) has a majority who worships a cult leader who WHILE PRESIDENT of Baltimore and the rest of America called the city of Baltimore a “rodent infested mess.”

I do however share your hope for federal funding and significant benefits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It will take years to rebuild the bridge. In the meantime the port traffic will move to other ports and the jobs will move elsewhere.
What are the options for these jobs and maybe even the port traffic to come back to a rebuilt port?

What? The port will be up and running as soon as the debris is moved out of the way from the collapse. 2 weeks I'd guess. Major import/export have already been quoted saying they don't anticipate major short or long term disruptions.

The court will keep operating. There is going to be a big backlog of items that are going to be stuck in port for a while and then the traffic to get everything out will be bad

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know we’re ragging on OP a bit for being melodramatic, but I assume their point is that Baltimore isn’t viewed as a thriving city necessarily. I hope the federal funding and insurance can provide significant benefits to help.

+1 In 2007 a bridge in Minnesota shockingly fell into the Mississippi River, and not because a 984-foot ship from Singapore had a power failure and bumped into that bridge WHICH HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH WHO VIEWS IT AS A THRIVING CITY NECESSARILY, but because the lack of attention to infrastructure in America let it molder. This disaster killed 13 people and injured 140 more. TWO DAYS LATER the U.S. House of Representatives voted unanimously to provide $250M of federal funds to replace the bridge and the Senate then confirmed it using only a voice vote. Curious to see what happens later this week in 2024, considering the House of Representatives a) has zero interest in governing; b) has even less interest in solving America’s problems; c) is on vacation for at least ten more days; d) has trouble gathering a quorum without concern about Hunter Biden; and e) has a majority who worships a cult leader who WHILE PRESIDENT of Baltimore and the rest of America called the city of Baltimore a “rodent infested mess.”

I do however share your hope for federal funding and significant benefits.

Agreed. We have neglected infrastructure and we will be paying for it with incidents like this. The Key Bridge was built at a time where cargo ships were nowhere as big. I hope engineers take that into consideration when building another. Supports may have to be stronger and they should do something to limit the scope of the damage if a bridge is hit like that again. Many sections shouldn't fall one after another. We must seek and create improvements, like the new fireproofing spray we now put on buildings to help prevent their pancake collapse from overwhelming heat -- a lesson learned from 9/11.

[Anonymous]

The port will reopen but operate at a competitive disadvantage until a new bridge is built. I anticipate very little growth and lost business opportunities to the likes of Norfolk and Savannah.

[Anonymous]

Let’s hope rebuilding the bridge goes better than building the Purple Line.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let’s hope rebuilding the bridge goes better than building the Purple Line.

It will. The purple line is mostly about helping people. The bridge is more about helping commerce. The bridge might even get rebuilt before the Purple line opens.

[Anonymous]

Hopefully they are able to re-use the foundation which would speed up construction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know we’re ragging on OP a bit for being melodramatic, but I assume their point is that Baltimore isn’t viewed as a thriving city necessarily. I hope the federal funding and insurance can provide significant benefits to help.

+1 In 2007 a bridge in Minnesota shockingly fell into the Mississippi River, and not because a 984-foot ship from Singapore had a power failure and bumped into that bridge WHICH HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH WHO VIEWS IT AS A THRIVING CITY NECESSARILY, but because the lack of attention to infrastructure in America let it molder. This disaster killed 13 people and injured 140 more. TWO DAYS LATER the U.S. House of Representatives voted unanimously to provide $250M of federal funds to replace the bridge and the Senate then confirmed it using only a voice vote. Curious to see what happens later this week in 2024, considering the House of Representatives a) has zero interest in governing; b) has even less interest in solving America’s problems; c) is on vacation for at least ten more days; d) has trouble gathering a quorum without concern about Hunter Biden; and e) has a majority who worships a cult leader who WHILE PRESIDENT of Baltimore and the rest of America called the city of Baltimore a “rodent infested mess.”

I do however share your hope for federal funding and significant benefits.

*standing slow golf clap*

You, my friend, have a GIFT for laying it all out for everyone to see it just as it is!

BRAVO!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It will take years to rebuild the bridge. In the meantime the port traffic will move to other ports and the jobs will move elsewhere.
What are the options for these jobs and maybe even the port traffic to come back to a rebuilt port?

What? The port will be up and running as soon as the debris is moved out of the way from the collapse. 2 weeks I'd guess. Major import/export have already been quoted saying they don't anticipate major short or long term disruptions.

+1, the bridge collapse sucks for other reasons but will have minimal longterm impact on the port at Dundalk.

Also, I have a friend who works in infrastructure in Maryland and they told me that while they will definitely rebuild the bridge (Biden has already promised federal funds for it and I think it's unlikely Congress will block that), it's really not even going to be that big of an issue in terms of traffic because there is so much redundancy for traffic flow (two tunnels plus the rest of the beltway bypass). Yes, there are individual people who will be heavily inconvenienced, and it does create issues for hazmat transport because the tunnels cannot accommodate hazmat. But these are solvable problems.

Apparently vehicular traffic across the Key bridge is also still way down since Covid and has not recovered as it has elsewhere around Baltimore. So WFH is already providing a benefit that will help Baltimore recover.

Anyway, Baltimore's well being as a city thankfully does not hinge on this bridge. Now, if you want to talk about corrupt local politicians and endemic poverty, crime, and substance abuse issues... well that's another issue. I *wish* we could solve those by building a bridge!