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Two days after a cargo ship smashed into Baltimore's Francis Scott Key bridge, collapsing the structure into the water and killing six construction workers, the disaster's economic toll is coming into focus.
With remnants of the bridge still stymying water traffic at the Port of Baltimore, one of the city's primary economic engines is completely shut down, depriving some 15,000 people who work directly at the port or in an adjacent industry of their livelihoods.
Those workers earn a combined $2 million a day, according to Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, who said Thursday that Maryland officials had already requested emergency relief funds from the federal government. Officials requested $60 million to assist with "debris removal, demolition, traffic operations restoration, and emergency construction," according to a letter sent by the Maryland Department of Transportation to the federal government.
The port remains open for truck processing but there is no mention of when the waterway will be cleared, according to the US Department of Transportation.
On Wednesday, a bill was introduced, sponsored by state Senator Bill Ferguson and Delegate Luke Clippinger, that aims to fund replacement income for 15,000 workers affected by the collapse. The ramifications for workers were put into sharp relief by Scott Cowan, president of the International Longshoremen's Association local in Baltimore. "I have 2,400 ILA members who are soon going to be without jobs," Cowan explained to Bloomberg on Thursday. "Getting them on the payroll, and keeping their families fed, putting food on the table is my first and foremost thought on my mind."
The economic impact extends beyond local concerns. In 2023, 12.5 million vehicles crossed the Key bridge, an average of 34,000 a day, according to the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics.As freighters are diverted to ports in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the bottleneck will snarl traffic on both land and sea. Diverted trucks from the bridge will produce 18 percent more traffic in the nearby Fort McHenry and Harbor Tunnels, BTS maintains.
Local diversions will eventually become regional bottlenecks. "Trucking-wise, local businesses will be affected. They're going to have to reroute the trucks. So it's going to be, unfortunately, a ripple effect in the supply chain, and it's [going to cause] diversions, delays, and yet another reason to have backup plans," Lisa Anderson, a supply chain expert and founder of LMA consulting group, tells Inc.
Baltimore's port is the 9th largest in the country, but first in the number of automobiles and trucks processed annually. Last year, 850,000 autos landed at the port, according to Governor Wes Moore's office. Surrounding ports will be able to absorb the diverted traffic, in a process that Anderson imagines will take about a month to figure out. Still, she stresses that the local impact will reverberate throughout greater Baltimore and Maryland for a longer period of time. "For that particular area, it's certainly going to be a major delay and the effect on local businesses [and] on the port is going to be significant."
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The Key Bridge Collapse Means $2 Million a Day in Lost Worker Wages
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30.03.2024
Welcome to Founder Focus
Latino-Owned Businesses Are Booming, but Access to Funding Remains a Challenge
Smaller Businesses Looking to Human Workers, Not AI, to Boost Productivity
This Black Founder Is Bringing Top VC Investors With Him as He Tackles the Broken Consumer Debt Market
What a New York City Business Is Doing About Viral Violence
Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman Dies at 90
Two days after a cargo ship smashed into Baltimore's Francis Scott Key bridge, collapsing the structure into the water and killing six construction workers, the disaster's economic toll is coming into focus.
With remnants of the bridge still stymying water traffic at the Port of Baltimore, one of the city's primary economic engines is completely shut down, depriving some 15,000 people who work directly at the port or in an adjacent industry of their livelihoods.
Those workers........
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