The Runback: Now What?
Less than a week after the Key Bridge Collapse, we still have a lot of questions about our state's future.
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News and Politics
The Ghouls in Our Midst: It took hours after the tragic collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore and the ghouls are already making sure to get their political points out there.
Will Wes Moore & Joe Biden Let You Choose the Car You Want? Will a US Auto Industry be Left When They Are Done?
Nothing says “The Lord Has Risen!” like this…
The Monday Thought
Six days ago, the Key Bridge still stood.
Now we know that bridge will not last forever. We now know what a “fracture critical bridge” is. We now know how vulnerable the Port of Baltimore was to closure by a threat that almost nobody knew existed.
We also know how much worse it could have been. The loss of any life is tragic, especially when we know that the six men who died were construction workers trying to make a better life for their families in America by working jobs that other Americans didn’t want. But the fact that the Dali hit the bridge at 1:40 am instead of, say, 8:40 am saved hundreds of lives.
When the original Sunshine Skyway Bridge was hit by a freighter and collapsed in 1980, it collapsed at 7:38 am. Six cars and a Greyhound bus plummeted into Tampa Bay, killing 35.
After the Sunshine Skyway Collapse, it took two-and-a-half years to start construction of a replacement span, though Florida had the benefit of a second original span that was still operational. The new bridge opened in 1987, nearly seven years to the day after the 1980 disaster.
It is expected that a Key Bridge replacement will not be ready for a decade or more.
This is where we have to ask ourselves: now what? And that itself, opens a ton of questions.
Will Governor Wes Moore and the Maryland Transportation Authority use the State of Emergency to bypass certain contracting proposals?
Will they use their Emergency Authority to bypass the arcane union rules and requirements that Maryland has allowed unions to collect over the years?
Will they use their Emergency Authority to bypass some of the multitude of environmental laws that would otherwise need to be followed?
How soon can they reopen the Port of Baltimore?
Will the Baltimore Cruise Terminal ever recover from being closed?
Does the Biden Administration intend to provide more Federal Funding for the reconstruction of the bridge?
Will the EPA allow the bypassing of some of the multitude of environmental laws that would otherwise need to be followed, especially considering the pre-existing nature of a bridge at the site?
How long will it take for the insurance company to repay the State and Federal Governments for their expenditures? How much reimbursement will either get?
How much is the American compromised by the closure of the port?
Are there national security concerns about the closure of the port?
Can the Port of Baltimore be moved beyond the Key Bridge site and closer to the Chesapeake Bay? Should it?
Less than a week from the collapse, we have more questions than answers. No doubt we will have more. But we will all be asking ourselves “now what” until there are some dedicated plans in place for trying to return the Port to normal and until a new span replaces the old.