b'26American Journal ofTransportation ajot.comKey bridge collapse closes Port of Baltimore and raises questions about whats next?Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse triggers a multifac-eted response. But as the wreckage is untangled, there are still questions to be resolved.By Dan Ronan, AJOT The haunting video of the containerinitially destined for the Port of Baltimore ship, the Dali, has been seen millions ofwere rerouted to the Port of Virginia, 26% times on newscasts and social media. Inwent to New York/Jersey, 13% to Wilm-the predawn hours of March 26, the shipsington, Delaware, and Newark-Elizabeth, lights blink on and off, almost like itsNew Jersey, received 10%. Another 8% making a distress call. The lights reflectwent to other ports. off the glassy water, and a mounted sur- MajorEastCoastClassIrailroads veillancevideocameracaptureswhatCSXandNorfolkSouthernbegandes-happens next.ignated freight rail runs between several Something is wrong. The slow-mov- ports to move freight to and from Balti-ing, powerless cargo vessel is barely run- more, where, even as maritime operations ning on its emergency generators as theremainsuspended,truckscontinueto crew fights to retain control, and the cap- deliver and pick up cargo. tain urgently issues a Mayday call onCSX is taking proactive steps to help the emergency channels. mitigatefreightshipmentdisruptionsin Moments later, the 984 feet, weigh- (QUESTIONScontinued on page 30)ing 95,000 tons when empty, containing 4,700 containers on board drifted into a support pylon on the 47-year-old Francis Scott Key Bridge at the entrance to theWelcomePort of Baltimore on the Patapsco River. Thebridgedoesnthaveachance. Eight construction workers fall into the frigid waters. Two were rescued and sur- to Your Port ofvived, but six tragically died. the frigidB altimoreThe bridge collapses into water in a crumbled heap of twisted metal in seconds. A section of the bridge falls onto the deck of the container ship, crash-ing onto the TEUs and trapping the ship in place for weeks. TheU.S.andglobalsupplychain faced another significant challenge in less than one minute. A 50fooTD eePs hiPPingc hAnnelB lockeDThecriticaldeep-water,700-foot-wideby50-foot-deepshippingchannel willbeblockedforweeks,butwithin days, the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers scrambledtoopentwosmalleraccess lanesoneithersideofthecollapsed bridge to get ships in and out of the Port of Baltimore, and they insist the port will be fully operational by the end of May. A steady stream of government lead-ers, from President Biden to cabinet offi-cials to the Governor of Maryland Wes Moore, have toured the site and pledged to do whatever it takes to get the federal money to rebuild the bridge and provide financialassistancetothethousandsof workers and others who depend on the port for their economic livelihood. Im here to say your nation has your backandImeanit,Bidensaidfrom theshorelineoverlookingthecollapsed bridge in Dundalk, just outside Baltimore on April 5 after seeing the damage first-hand. Your nation has your back.Baltimoreisthenationsninthbusi-est port. When it comes to Ro/Ro (Roll-on, Roll-off) cargo, cars, light trucks, farm and construction equipment, it has led the coun-try for 13 consecutive years. In 2023 alone, it processed 847,158 cars and light trucks.Now, as family members grieve theClosestEastCoastPorttotheMidwestworkers who died and crews remove the debris from the bridge, officials are begin- On-DockIntermodalContainerTransferFacilityning to formulate a plan to get the hundreds of millions, and perhaps more a billion,DrivingAccessto2/3oftheU.S.PopulationWithin24Hoursthat will be needed to build a new bridge and devise a strategy to prevent this type ofWithinMinutestoInterstateHighwaysevent from ever happening again.As has been the case in countless other supply chain disruptions in the last several50-FootDeepBerthsyears, the freight industry figured out ways to move the cargo with minimal disruption.Marylandports.com 1.800.638.7519s uPPlyc hAinD iversions Governor Wes MooreMDOT Secretary Paul. J. Wiedefeld Executive Director Jonathan DanielsAccording to the supply chain intel-ligence firm Project44, 43% of containers'