Federal leaders testify on efforts to clear and replace collapsed Baltimore bridge

WASHINGTON (TND) — Leaders of the agencies overseeing the federal government’s response to the catastrophic collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore earlier this year testified to lawmakers about the ongoing efforts to clear the wreckage from the crash site and the monumental task facing engineers and crews to get the port reopened and plan construction for a replacement bridge.

It has been over two months since the cargo ship Dali crashed into a support structure of the Key Bridge, bringing it crumbling down into the Patapsco River and killing six construction workers who were unable to escape the bridge before its collapse.

Investigators are still at the site on a daily basis trying to figure out what happened and emergency crews are taking on an operation of unprecedented scale to get the Dali out of the harbor and clear the wreckage to reopen it to marine traffic.

Wednesday’s hearing comes a day after the National Transportation Safety Board released its most detailed account yet of what caused the bridge to collapse in spectacular fashion. According to federal investigators, the Dali experienced electrical blackouts about 10 hours before leaving the port and again shortly before it slammed into the bridge, bringing it crumbling down and leading to the deaths of six people.

“Two were related to routine maintenance in port. Two were unexpected tripping of circuit breakers on the accident voyage,” NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy testified at the hearing.

The report found Dali was just three ships’ lengths from the bridge when it experienced two catastrophic electrical failures, which causing pumps required for the ship’s propeller and rudder to stop working. An emergency generator turned on but wasn’t configured to power the ship, according to the NTSB report.

The outage at the port happened after a crew member accidentally closed an exhaust damper while doing maintenance on the ship, which caused one of its engines to stall, according to investigators. A backup generator came on and ran for a short period until it also stalled out, leading to another blackout on the ship. At that point, the crew changed the ship’s electrical configuration.

“Switching breakers is not unusual but may have affected operations the very next day on the accident voyage,” Homendy told lawmakers.

A final determination on exactly what happened to cause the blackout that led to the ship hitting the bridge has not been made yet. The NTSB will release a significantly more detailed report but that is likely to take at least a year to be finalized. NTSB investigators are still on the ship investigating the March crash, a timeframe that officials said is unprecedented.

Leaders of each of the federal agencies appearing before the committee also said the country needs to take more steps to address the dangers large ships pose to essential infrastructure, much of which was built before cargo ships became as large and sophisticated as they are today.

Homendy encouraged states and other governmental bodies that oversee infrastructure to conduct risk assessments to avoid another disaster from happening.

“This could happen in any of your districts,” she said to the committee.

Crews are still working to clear the wreckage from the bridge collapse seven weeks ago and have already moved 6,000 tons of steel and concrete from the Patapsco River that has mostly shut down the port in Baltimore. Officials are hoping to fully reopen the port by the end of the month.

“I have never seen anything at this scale," Federal Highway Administration administrator Shailen Bhatt said. “It is a monumental task to clean up this site and rebuild.”

Another matter for the federal government to solve is how to get the bridge’s reconstruction on track and how it is going to be financed. The bridge, which was originally built in the 1970s, is expected to cost nearly $2 billion to reconstruct. Administration officials have said federal backstopping of the bridge rebuilding will help speed up its construction and help Maryland move forward with reopening the port as quickly as possible.

“The benefit of the 100% share brings is it just removes an element of uncertainty,” Bhatt said.

In the hours after the collapse, President Joe Biden pledged that the federal government would cover the full costs of rebuilding the bridge. Biden has already submitted that request to Congress, but that decision will ultimately be up to lawmakers, who gave a mixed response to the idea during the hearing with concerns about the costs to taxpayers who will never travel on the rebuilt bridge and whether the government would be able to recoup the costs through tolls collected on a new bridge, insurance payouts and other litigation that is likely to take years to finalize.

“The relief fund is $3.7 billion behind. We're $35 trillion this month in debt at the federal level, and I wonder if you think it's fair that the American taxpayer should not only pay to reconstruct the bridge, but then pay tolls after which to use the infrastructure they just paid for in their taxes,” said Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa.

Several lawmakers pushed to have Congress write the legislation funding the reconstruction in a way that allows the federal government to recoup some of the costs that will be incurred.

“We'll put up the full cost of reconstruction. However, that legislation should be written in such a way that that the federal government will be reimbursed for any money received in the liability issues,” said Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif.

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