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Port of Baltimore back open for business after Key Bridge collapse as officials celebrate milestone
BALTIMORE – Maryland Gov. Wes Moore joined U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and other leaders Wednesday to celebrate the full reopening of the Port of Baltimore nearly three months after the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
Now that the main federal channel in the Patapsco River is back to its full dimensions, shipping traffic can return in full force to and from the port.
The focus now turns to rebuilding the bridge.
“The Port of Baltimore is reopened for business,” Moore said.
The full-width Ft. McHenry Channel reopened on Monday at 50 feet deep and 700 feet wide, which allows a two-way passageway for all vessels to and from one of the nation’s largest port facilities.
More than 50,000 tons of bridge wreckage were removed from the river and taken to Sparrows Point in the southeastern part of Baltimore County.
Salvage crews spent the final days before the federal channel reopened sweeping the wreckage site with sonar, LIDAR and magnetometer to identify and investigate any high spots to ensure no residual hazard to navigation.
Port leadership said it would take time before full shipping traffic returns, however, they noted certain types, such as roll-on/roll-off cargo, were getting back to the levels they were at before the collapse.
“This moment was earned”
Unions representing port workers thanked the partnerships that helped keep those impacted by the port closure employed and paid.
“The governor made a commitment to me and to the men and women of the International Longshoremen Association that he was going to take care of us,” Scott Cowan, president of ILA Local 333, said. “Sir, your word is good.”
Moore noted partnerships were critical to getting to this point, not only to clear the Key Bridge wreckage but also to care for the families of the six construction workers killed in the bridge collapse and help thousands of port workers who could have missed out on pay.
“The Ft. McHenry Channel is fully cleared, and the Port of Baltimore is reopened for business,” Moore said. “While this moment is historic, it was not given. This moment was earned and we are here this afternoon to recognize the people who brought us to this moment.”
Buttigieg said the federal response was made possible “largely through the work of the White House Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force, as well as the lessons we learned in recent years, especially from COVID.”
“We’ve got to get moving”
The Maryland Transportation Administration is taking bids until June 24 to get a new Key Bridge built.
MDOT Secretary Paul Wiedefeld said hundreds of companies across the world have shown interest in the bridge rebuild, which is expected to cost from $1.7 to $1.9 billion.
The White House has pledged to fully fund it, while the Maryland congressional delegation is working to get the Baltimore BRIDGE Relief Act, which would allow for full federal funding of the rebuild, passed, or to at least secure funding through an amendment in another bill.
“We’ve got to get moving,” Moore said. “We know that we have to get this on time, on budget and with speed. That’s the importance of getting the Baltimore BRIDGE Act passed.”
Moore is also confident pending legal battles and insurance claims will help with the costs of a new bridge.
The goal is to have a new bridge built by fall 2028.
“We’re going to keep working with President Biden,” Moore said. “We’re going to keep working with members of Congress from both sides of the aisle and we are going to make that vision a reality. That is the push. That’s the promise. And we don’t break our promises. We’re going to get it done.”
At least 11 employees were taken to hospitals and residents were urged to shelter in place on Tuesday after an explosion at a Louisville, Kentucky, business.
The Louisville Metro Emergency Services reported on social media a “hazardous materials incident” at 1901 Payne St., in Louisville. The address belongs to a facility operated by Givaudan Sense Colour, a manufacturer of food colorings for soft drinks and other products, according to officials and online records.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said emergency teams responded to the blast around 3 p.m. News outlets reported that neighbors heard what sounded like an explosion coming from the business. Overhead news video footage showed an industrial building with a large hole in its roof.
WLKY-TV
“The cause at this point of the explosion is unknown,” Greenberg said in a news conference. No one died in the explosion, he added.
Greenberg said officials spoke to employees inside the plant. “They have initially conveyed that everything was normal activity when the explosion occurred,” he said.
The Louisville Fire Department said in a post on the social platform X that multiple agencies were responding to a “large-scale incident.”
The Louisville Metro Emergency Services first urged people within a mile of the business to shelter in place, but that order was lifted in the afternoon. An evacuation order for the two surrounding blocks around the site of the explosion was still in place Tuesday afternoon.
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A rare square 37-carat emerald owned by the Aga Khan fetched nearly $9 million at auction in Geneva on Tuesday, making it the world’s most expensive green stone.
Sold by Christie’s, the Cartier diamond and emerald brooch, which can also be worn as a pendant, dethrones a piece of jewelry made by the fashion house Bulgari, which Richard Burton gave as a wedding gift to fellow actor Elizabeth Taylor, as the most precious emerald.
In 1960, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan commissioned Cartier to set the emerald in a brooch with 20 marquise-cut diamonds for British socialite Nina Dyer, to whom he was briefly married.
Dyer then auctioned off the emerald to raise money for animals in 1969.
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images
By chance that was Christie’s very first such sale in Switzerland on the shores of Lake Geneva, with the emerald finding its way back to the 110th edition this year.
It was bought by jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels before passing a few years later into the hands of Harry Winston, nicknamed the “King of Diamonds.”
“Emeralds are hot right now, and this one ticks all the boxes,” said Christie’s EMEA Head of Jewellery Max Fawcett. “…We might see an emerald of this quality come up for sale once every five or six years.”
Also set with diamonds, the previous record-holder fetched $6.5 million at an auction of part of Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor’s renowned jewelry collection in New York.
