According to US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, the tragic collapse of the highway bridge in Baltimore will also have economic consequences. Because of the importance of the port behind it, we are already preparing for supply chain problems, “which we know will come,” Buttigieg admitted at a press conference on site on Tuesday afternoon (local time). These would not only affect the region around Baltimore, “but the entire American economy.”
Following the incident, the responsible port authority suspended shipping traffic until further notice. According to Buttigieg, most of the port is behind the collapsed bridge. According to US President Joe Biden, it is one of the most important maritime contact points in the US – especially for the import and export of cars and small trucks. According to this study, approximately 850,000 vehicles are shipped through the Port of Baltimore each year. About 15,000 jobs depend on it.
The bridge is also a major artery on the east coast of the US. According to Biden, they were crossing about 30,000 vehicles a day before the accident.
Container ship rammed bridge
On Tuesday night, a container ship rammed the four-lane, more than 2.5 kilometer long Francis Scott Key Bridge in the US state of Maryland, causing it to collapse. After two people were initially rescued, the search for six missing people continued on Tuesday from the air and on the water.
“Cathedral of American Infrastructure”
Buttigieg expressed his condolences to the relatives on Tuesday and praised the work of the rescue teams. He described the bridge as the “cathedral of American infrastructure.” The reconstruction will take a long time. “It won’t be fast, it won’t be cheap, but we will rebuild together.”
Asked whether Americans should be concerned about the stability of the nation’s bridges, Buttigieg said, “I don’t know of any bridge that can withstand the direct impact of a ship of this size.” However, the right conclusions must be drawn from the accident in order to learn from it.
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
