Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Wednesday at a White House news briefing that it’s too soon to say if regulations would be waived to rebuild the bridge and reopen the port. But he said President Joe Biden has said the federal government should “tear down any barriers, bureaucratic as well as financial” that could affect the timeline of any rebuild.
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Quick Read
- Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg emphasized the need for bipartisan support to overcome bureaucratic and financial barriers for the rebuilding of the Baltimore bridge and reopening of the port, highlighting infrastructure as a bipartisan issue.
- Buttigieg stated it’s too early to provide a timeline for the replacement of the bridge or the reopening of the Port of Baltimore, mentioning the original bridge took five years to build but suggesting the replacement might not take as long.
- Coast Guard Vice Adm. Peter Gautier assured that the hazardous materials and fuel aboard the damaged ship pose no threat to public safety, stating the ship is stable.
- Buttigieg outlined four areas of focus for the Biden administration: reopening the port, addressing supply chain issues, rebuilding the bridge, and dealing with surface transportation, with plans to meet with shipping and supply chain officials.
- Singaporean officials announced their own investigation into the bridge collapse, in addition to supporting the U.S. investigation, with the aim of learning lessons for the future rather than determining liability.
- Construction workers missing from the Baltimore bridge collapse were from Mexico or Central America and had settled in Maryland.
- Traffic on the bridge was halted seconds before the collapse, but the maintenance crew didn’t have time to escape.
- Governments of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras confirmed their citizens were among the missing.
- Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval, a 39-year-old Honduran, had been in the U.S. for 18 years and was a fundamental support for his family’s migration.
- Suazo Sandoval had been working with Brawner Builders during the collapse and was in the process of obtaining legal residency in the U.S.
- Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador highlighted the tragedy as an example of the risks migrants face and the contributions they make to the U.S. economy.
- Two Guatemalans and one Salvadoran, Miguel Luna, were also confirmed missing.
The Associated Press has the story:
Buttigieg urges bipartisan support for Baltimore bridge funding
Newslooks- (AP)
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Wednesday at a White House news briefing that it’s too soon to say if regulations would be waived to rebuild the bridge and reopen the port. But he said President Joe Biden has said the federal government should “tear down any barriers, bureaucratic as well as financial” that could affect the timeline of any rebuild.
Buttigieg also had a message for Republicans in Congress who might oppose having the federal government pay for the effort. Infrastructure should be a bipartisan issue, he said.
“Today this is happening in Baltimore, tomorrow it could be their districts,” he said. “We really need to stand together, red blue and purple, to get these things done.”
BUTTIGIEG OFFERS NO TIMELINE FOR BRIDGE REPLACEMENT, PORT REOPENING
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says it’s too soon to say how long it will take to reopen the Port of Baltimore or replace the destroyed bridge.
Buttigieg noted at a White House news briefing Wednesday that the bridge took five years to construct.
“That does not necessarily mean it will take five years to replace,” he said.
Coast Guard Vice Adm. Peter Gautier says hazardous materials aboard the damaged ship pose no threat to public safety.
Gautier said at the briefing that the ship is holding over 1.5 million gallons of fuel, and that more than 50 of the cargo containers on board contain hazardous material. But he says that the ship is stable and that authorities have determined there is no safety risk.
“There is no threat to the public,” he says.
BUTTIGIEG CITES 4 TRANSPORTATION FOCUSES
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says the Biden administration is focused on four areas related to transportation as the investigation continues in Baltimore.
Speaking at a White House news briefing Wednesday, Buttigieg said officials are focused on reopening the port, dealing with supply chain issues, rebuilding the bridge and addressing surface transportation.
Buttigieg said he will meet with shipping and supply chain officials Thursday.
“We are going to help to get it open as soon as possible,” he said.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre says President Joe Biden has instructed his team “to move heaven and earth” to aid in recovery and rebuilding.
SINGAPORE PLANS ITS OWN INVESTIGATION
Officials in Singapore say they will conduct their own investigation into the bridge collapse, in addition to supporting U.S. authorities.
The ship that struck the bridge, the Dali, was traveling under a Singaporean flag. The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore said Wednesday it was working with the ship’s management company, Synergy Marine Group, to get information to the U.S. Coast Guard for its investigation.
The agency also said Singapore’s Transport Safety Investigation Bureau will independently investigate, not to determine liability, but to identify lessons for the future.
Central American and Mexican families mourn the Baltimore bridge collapse missing workers
AZACUALPA, Honduras (AP) — The construction workers who went missing in the Baltimore bridge collapse all hailed from Mexico or Central America before they settled in the Maryland area.
Police managed to close bridge traffic seconds before a cargo ship slammed into one of the Francis Scott Key Bridge’s supports early Tuesday, causing the span to fall into the frigid Patapsco River. There wasn’t time for a maintenance crew filling potholes on the span to get to safety.
At least eight people fell into the water and two were rescued. The other six are missing and presumed dead, but the search continued Wednesday.
The governments of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras confirmed that their citizens were among the missing.
Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval, 39, was the youngest of eight siblings from Azacualpa, a rural mountainous area in northwestern Honduras along the border with Guatemala.
Eighteen years ago, he set out on his own for the U.S. looking for opportunities. He entered illegally and settled in Maryland, where he eventually started a business, one of his brothers, Martín Suazo Sandoval, said Wednesday while standing in the dirt street in front of the family’s small hotel in Honduras. He said his brother was entrepreneurial and hard-working.
Other siblings and relatives followed him north.
“He was the fundamental pillar, the bastion so that other members of the family could also travel there and later get visas and everything,” Martín Suazo Sandoval said. “He was really the driving force so that most of the family could travel.”
The pandemic forced Maynor to find other work, and he joined Brawner Builders, the company that was performing maintenance on the bridge when it collapsed.
Things had been going well for him until the collapse. He was moving through the steps to get legal residency and planned to return to Honduras this year to complete the process, his brother said.
Maynor’s employer broke the news of his disappearance to his family, leaving them devastated, especially his mother, who still lives in Azacualpa, Martín Suazo Sandoval said.
“These are difficult moments, and the only thing we can do is keep the faith,” he said, noting that his younger brother knew how to swim and could have ended up anywhere. If the worst outcome is confirmed, he said the family would work to return his body to Honduras.
In Mexico, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said three Mexicans were on the bridge when it fell, including one who was injured but rescued and two who were still missing. He said he wouldn’t share their names for the families’ privacy.
The tragedy illustrated the contributions that migrants make to the U.S. economy, López Obrador said.
“This demonstrates that migrants go out and do risky jobs at midnight. And for this reason, they do not deserve to be treated as they are by certain insensitive, irresponsible politicians in the United States,” he said.
Guatemala’s Foreign Affairs Ministry confirmed that two of its citizens were among the missing. And El Salvador’s foreign minister, Alexandra Hill Tinoco, posted Wednesday on X that one Salvadoran citizen, Miguel Luna, was among the missing workers.
Federal and state investigators have said the crash appears to have been an accident.
Currently:
— Investigation into Baltimore bridge collapse picks up speed as divers search for missing workers
— What’s it like to survive a bridge collapse? Past survivors tell
— Baltimore bridge collapse and port closure send companies scrambling to reroute cargo
— Named for ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ author, Key Bridge was part of Baltimore’s identity
— A list of major US bridge collapses caused by ships and barges
— Live Updates at APNews.com
— Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com
