Is Your Bridge Red or Blue?

Sadly, this week a disabled and powerless 1000-foot-long, approximately two-million-pound container ship crashed into a post support for the 1.6-mile-long Francis Scott Key Bridge that spans the Patapsco River at the Port of Baltimore and carries Highway 695 around the city. The steel truss-style bridge collapsed into the waters of the harbor, taking with it 6 workers who were repairing potholes during the overnight hours. So far, the bodies of two workers have been found. Another worker escaped and is in the hospital with serious injuries. All the workers were Hispanic immigrants, which led some on the right toward immigrant-bashing, rather than empathy. What hole do these folks live in? Local police officers were noted as heroes as they stopped traffic entering the bridge as soon as they heard the May Day call from the Container ship just before it struck the span. No vehicles were crossing the bridge when it fell.

This bridge is a vital part of the Baltimore Highway System as vehicles carrying hazardous materials north and south of the city cannot use the routes through the Harbor Tunnel (895) or the Fort McHenry Tunnel along I95. The Key Bridge, which had a toll, carried an average of 30,000 vehicles daily, or 12.4 million vehicles in 2023. Now, the Army Corps of Engineers and others are working to remove the debris, steel trusses, and hazardous wastes that resulted, causing the closure of this access road east of the City. This incident has blocked all marine traffic at the Port of Baltimore. The Container ship now sits dead in the waters, having lost power and some of its containers. The ship called the Dali, has a crew from India and was heading to Sri Lanka. It is owned by a group out of Singapore and Hong Kong but was being leased by the Danish giant shipping firm Maersk. This certainly underscores the international nature of shipping and reinforces the fact that running these giant lines requires companies to manage many lines of commerce concurrently. Incidents such as this, the issues with ship attacks in the Middle East, and the drought in Panama all affect the flow of marine commerce and eventually interfere with the supply chain. For example, Baltimore is the major port of entry for foreign manufactured cars and trucks and exports coal from mines along the East Coast.

The bridge was built in 1977 according to standards in use at that time, but no longer employed after subsequent collapses of other similar bridges over the decades. The cost, 41 years ago, was around 60 million dollars comparable to over 300 million today. President Biden and Transportation Secretary Buttigieg announced the release of 60 million dollars from an emergency fund just to start the cleanup and promised to ask Congress for funds to rebuild this necessary connection in the federal highway system. Governor Wes Moore of Maryland and Mayor Brandon Scott of Baltimore spoke at a press conference with sympathy about the deaths of the workers and the need for a rapid rebuilding of the bridge. The port usually ships more than a million containers annually. Shipping directly employs thousands of workers and involves many more thousands in the harbor support networks, so the city will experience severe losses in jobs, port fees, and other revenues. The Washington Post talked to some Long Shoremen at the port in this video link about the local impact here.

These are the facts, plain and simple. This event was a tragedy for all involved, but it was an accident, not a nefarious plot.

But the right-wingers out there are not ones to ever let an accident be – it must either be due to terrorism, sabotage, or the implementation of those inclusion laws (Diversity, Equity inclusion, or DEI). (You know, or as one idiot said, DEI=DIE.) Alex Jones, who defamed the Sandy Hook parents, jumped on the bandwagon claiming he sees a conspiracy as did much of the right sided media. Some Republican Congress members such as Nancy Mace, SC, questioned why we would want to spend money on a blue state bridge and mis-characterized the infrastructure program saying that Maryland should just use its funds from the “Green New Deal” – a mis statement. Rep. Dan Meuser, R-PA, said it was outrageous to suggest that the Federal Government should pay for the reconstruction. (Usually, the feds pay up to 90% of such construction with the states picking up a balance.) The eventual costs are today estimated to be as much as two billion dollars over several years, more money than is currently in the fund. Other used race as a reason to not build the bridge attacking the Maryland Governor and the Baltimore Mayor, both Black men. Governor Moore addressed those comments recently, as quoted in The Hill:

Gov. Wes Moore (D) brushed off mentions of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) as a factor in the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, denouncing the conservative criticisms as irrelevant.

Numerous GOP figures said “DEI” was somehow responsible for the bridge collapse last week, which was caused by a container ship crashing into a support column, sending the bridge into the Patapsco River and killing six people. Moore refused to give the criticisms a response.

“My response is I have no time for foolishness,” he said in a CNN “State of the Union” interview with Dana Bash on Sunday. “I’m locked in on making sure that we can bring closure and comfort to these families and making sure that we’re going to keep our first responders safe or doing heroic work,” he said.

“On making sure that we’re going to open up this channel and be able to get boats and ships and get our economic engine going again, making sure that we’re taking care of our people to include our first responders and families and small businesses who have been impacted by this,” he continued. “And I’m making sure that we’re going to get the Key Bridge rebuilt. I have no time for foolishness, and so I’m not going to delve into it.”

The most widespread DEI remarks came from Utah state Rep. Phil Lyman (R) and Florida congressional candidate Anthony Sabatini (R).

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott sharply denounced the comments as racist and race-baiting, said that DEI was just a substitute for racial slurs, specifically after he was dubbed a “DEI mayor.”“[Black people] been the bogeyman for them since the first day they brought us to this country, and what they mean by ‘DEI’ in my opinion is ‘duly elected incumbent,’” Scott said earlier this week.“

The voices on the right are implying, not very discreetly, that Black leadership is deficient and these leaders would not be in their positions without some shortcuts have been taken. Sounds sorta like the arguments being made during the Reconstruction Era to me. Isn’t it time these guys gave up on this stuff?

Officials, as reported by the Post, today  announced temporary plans to create some type of channel for transportation:

“It was not clear exactly how the alternate channel was to be created, when it could be opened or what vessels would be classified as essential. No information was immediately available on whether weight and size limits would be imposed for use of the alternate route.

Also unclear was whether the channel could be used by any cargo ships docking at Baltimore, or whether it would be restricted to vessels involved in the effort to recover from the bridge collapse.”

 

Since the Eisenhower era, the United States has had a Coast to Coast, North to South Federally funded highway system. These highways facilitated the expansion of commerce, geopolitical movements, tourism, and growth. The highway system is vital for national defense, disasters, and other emergencies. For some, to suddenly suggest that a vital link in this system should be allowed to remain broken, is folly. And short-sighted. Remember Senator Cruz decrying aid for Hurricane Sandy in NY but then wanting it when another storm devastated cities in Texas? We are all in this together – one nation with red and blue highways and bridges connected with each other. Remember when the railroads all had different gauge tracks and could not easily connect together; once that issue was resolved our rail system worked better. Highways and bridges are much the same; they have to work together for the betterment of all.

 

I restarted this blog four years ago as the COVID pandemic impacted and shut down our nation. Week after week I reported on the numbers of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. I recounted the trials of health workers, patients, and families trying to deal with this tragedy. I reported on the lack of concern, and the failure of our leaders to accept the known facts and address the health issues promptly. “Let them use bleach or Ivermectin or Hydroxychloroquine.” They don’t need to stay home, isolate, or wear masks- all of which were untrue. In the end, a vaccine was available, yet many were encouraged to not take it. To date, there have been a total of 6,901,176 hospitalizations and 1,186,671 deaths in the US alone, according to CDC data here. The virus continues to mutate and be with us and people are still dying; vaccines will need to change. As recently as a year ago, 1000 people a day were dying from the virus. And now the incompetent person who was directly responsible for assuring us that only 20 cases would happen here, for blaming China, rather than encouraging science, and for killing thousands of fragile, elderly people wants you to vote for him, just say NO.

Til next week- Peace!