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Buttigieg: No timeline yet on Baltimore port reopening
The Hill ^ | 03/27/2024 | ALEX GANGITANO

Posted on 03/27/2024 12:33:55 PM PDT by ChicagoConservative27

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Wednesday that there’s currently no timeline for when the Port of Baltimore can reopen following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge a day prior.

“Too soon to venture an estimate,” he told reporters during the White House daily press briefing. “The vast majority of the port is inside of that bridge, which means most of it cannot operate.”

Buttigieg, who traveled to Baltimore on Tuesday hours after the collapse, said he is concerned about the local economic impact of the port closure and noted that 8,000 jobs are directly associated with port activities. And, he added, more than $100 million in cargo moves in and out of the port in a day.

“Reopening the port is a different matter from rebuilding the bridge. The port, that’s just a matter of clearing the channel,” he said. “Still no simple thing, but I would expect that can happen on a much quicker timeline than the full reconstruction of the bridge.”

(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; US: Maryland
KEYWORDS: baltimore; bootygigger; buttigieg; feckless; loser; opening; port
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To: Sacajaweau
Our Military can get it cleared in 3 days.

With or without explosives?

41 posted on 03/27/2024 1:21:28 PM PDT by Nachoman (Proudly oppressing people of color since 1957.)
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To: MortMan
To be fair - it will take days at least, perhaps a few weeks, to assess the situation and determine the safest and most effective way to clear the wreckage.

Dismantling and removing the remaining parts of the structure is just a little short an engineering task as the building the bridge originally. And they must make sure to clear any pieces from the floor of the waterway. And these are large very heavy pieces of steel. There must be salvage companies that specialize in this; bu they will also have to position the equipment to do so, and I imagine that has to travel by water from who-knows-where.

42 posted on 03/27/2024 1:25:04 PM PDT by Rummyfan (In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man.c)
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To: Clutch Martin
Charles
@charlesbonnerjr
·
Follow
No surprise maritime professionals wanted a tunnel, but the government cut corners and built a bridge, now we suffer the consequences - “just a matter of time”
The Key Bridge
Plans to complete the Baltimore beltway loop with an outer harbor crossing were in the works for years. A tunnel was to be built just inside Fort Carroll at the entrance to the harbor. They actually started the approach ramps for the tunnel, then some bright engineer calculated that they could save a ton of money and carry more traffic by building a bridge there instead of a tunnel. It was a terrible place to build a bridge - over a main shipping channel - at the harbor entrance where ships' engines were just warming up and would most likely experience difficulties, or where the ships were slowing down to meet tugs or just having completed one of two large turns before reaching the bridge.

Short-sightedness and cost-savings made this situation possible. Whom is the governor going to blame for that?!

43 posted on 03/27/2024 1:30:16 PM PDT by Rummyfan (In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man.c)
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To: ChicagoConservative27

The catastrophic damage to the bridge was foreseeable. Diligent maintenance of the bridge would have included bolstering the piers to account for the increase in ship size over the years.

The Maryland Transportation Authority is responsible for the mantenance of the bridge.

Governing board
The Maryland Secretary of Transportation serves as chairperson of the Authority’s governing board. Eight other board members are appointed to four year terms by the Governor, with confirmation by the Maryland Senate. Term expirations are staggered. Board members can be reappointed to additional terms, but a limit of three consecutive terms was established in 2007.

Daily operations of the Authority are overseen by the Executive Director who serves as the chief executive officer for the agency and is hired by the MDTA Board.

Members of the board are:

Paul Wiedefeld, Maryland Transportation Secretary, Chairman
Dontae Carroll
William H. Cox Jr.
William C. Ensor III
W. Lee Gaines, Jr.
Mario J. Gangemi, P.E.
John F. von Paris
Cynthia D. Penny-Ardinger
Jeffrey S. Rosen

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryland_Transportation_Authority


44 posted on 03/27/2024 1:31:03 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (THE ISSUE IS NEVER THE ISSUE. THE REVOLUTION IS THE ISSUE.)
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To: Governor Dinwiddie

Effing perverted idiot. These are the idiots the other idiots, elected by yet other idiots, have put in charge. The world is laughing at us.


45 posted on 03/27/2024 1:33:32 PM PDT by Rummyfan (In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man.c)
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To: ChicagoConservative27

Of course not, Ms. Secretary, you’re too busy glamping.
A competent person would have had the contract for clearing the channel done, a design team working a replacement, contractors lined up and salvage crews working 24/7 to get the area cleared. But NO.


46 posted on 03/27/2024 1:37:04 PM PDT by Shady (The Force of Liberty must prevail for the sake of our Children and Grandchildren...)
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To: cuban leaf

Yes, it is an interstate highway and strategically important.


47 posted on 03/27/2024 1:38:44 PM PDT by Shady (The Force of Liberty must prevail for the sake of our Children and Grandchildren...)
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To: Sacajaweau

There is no purpose in dragging the debris away - that will just make it worse, as pieces will randomly break off.

The whole thing is unstable. Commercial divers have to go down and find places to attach lifting cables, visibility likely zero. Very dangerous. Pieces have to be removed systematically. Depths in the channel range from 40-50 feet - other area are shallower.

There is no quick and dirty solution.

Building a temporary dock, aka port, is a totally difference kettle of fish.


48 posted on 03/27/2024 1:39:42 PM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: ChicagoConservative27

Chest-Feeding Transpoweenie is back to blather at us!


49 posted on 03/27/2024 1:40:12 PM PDT by Free Louie
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To: Rummyfan
[The world is laughing at us.]


50 posted on 03/27/2024 1:41:03 PM PDT by SaveFerris (Luke 17:28 ... as it was in the Days of Lot; They did Eat, They Drank, They Bought, They Sold ......)
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To: ChicagoConservative27
“Reopening the port is a different matter from rebuilding the bridge. The port, that’s just a matter of clearing the channel,” he said. “Still no simple thing, but I would expect that can happen on a much quicker timeline than the full reconstruction of the bridge.”

That's assuming no one discovers an endangered Chesapeake Bay pink spotted trans mussel in the channel.

51 posted on 03/27/2024 1:52:12 PM PDT by sphinx
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To: cornfedcowboy

Smaller pieces, like reducing them to 50 tons. Usually hard hat commercial divers are lowered into the water from a very large barge. The whole project will be set out for bid.

Divers attach cables lowered from the barge’s crane, which are then raised and placed on the barge, where they are cut up to make room for more. When the barge is full they go in to unload & get ready for the next day.

Dragging pieces will only make things worse, as parts will break off, and someone has to go back and find them in the murky frigid water. Compounding the cost, the danger to the divers, and to recovery.

Commercial salvage companies are set up for this sort of work; the bigger ones do salvage like this worldwide. The US military is not set up for this kind of work; it would destroy the Pentagon’s budget over many years.


52 posted on 03/27/2024 1:52:35 PM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: ChicagoConservative27

Rumor has it that the major insurance companies are raising all insurance rates for commercial shippers 25X until Mrs Pete Buttguy depart the Dept. of Transportation.


53 posted on 03/27/2024 1:58:31 PM PDT by RetiredTexasVet (We used to be a Republic, we are now a Fascist Klepto-Thugocracy.)
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To: Skywise
Get some barges and DREDGE the bridge pieces out of the way to create a path for the ships to dock!

He'll probably want a 1-year environmental-wacko study and then guarantees that all construction work goes to Democrat union members.

54 posted on 03/27/2024 2:06:02 PM PDT by libertylover (Our biggest problem, by far, is that almost all of big media is AGENDA-DRIVEN, not-truth driven.)
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To: ChicagoConservative27

Trump needs to visit Baltimore and state: This port should be cleared in one week, and the bridge built in 6 months.


55 posted on 03/27/2024 2:08:44 PM PDT by bort
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To: ChicagoConservative27

“Buttigieg, who traveled to Baltimore on Tuesday hours after the collapse,”

How long did it take him to visit East Palestine?


56 posted on 03/27/2024 2:43:18 PM PDT by jagusafr ( )
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To: cuban leaf

Yes but the governor asked for a state of emergency which results in the federal government getting involved.


57 posted on 03/27/2024 3:07:05 PM PDT by napscoordinator (DeSantis is a beast! Florida is the freest state in the country! )
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To: Rummyfan

If it takes 10 years, then they will need to do something about traffic which already was a problem before this. Rerouting is nice, but eventually the cars will join a highway already overloaded with cars.


58 posted on 03/27/2024 3:11:01 PM PDT by napscoordinator (DeSantis is a beast! Florida is the freest state in the country! )
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To: ChicagoConservative27

The Peter principle in action. When someone is shown to be incompetent in their present position, promote them.


59 posted on 03/27/2024 3:13:44 PM PDT by Machavelli (True God)
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To: ChicagoConservative27

There should have been a dozen tugs with grappling hooks dragging debris out of the harbor to the open ocean or to shore area this afternoon. The harbor should have been scheduled to open by tomorrow. Butt plug Pete is not doing his job. Maybe he and his husband adopted another child and Pete wants 12 weeks off for maternity leave.


60 posted on 03/27/2024 3:20:28 PM PDT by chopperk (s to )
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