Three months after the collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Bridge killed six people, shut down a major port and disrupted vehicular traffic along the East Coast, local, state and federal officials are taking sweeping steps to maximize their chances of getting out of trouble. imaginary situation.
“We’re working with the architecture firms and designers and working with the people of our state to think about what we want from this nearly two-mile-long bridge,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore told CNBC.
The process reached a major milestone last week when crews successfully reopened the main shipping channel to the Port of Baltimore, the largest vehicle port in the United States. The process alone was initially expected to take up to a year.
“This didn’t take 11 months. We did it in 11 weeks because we worked together,” Moore said.
But now, in many ways, comes the hard part. Officials hope to use the disaster as an opportunity to rethink all of the region’s infrastructure.
“This will be an important opportunity for our state to look at all of our infrastructure, our roads, our bridges, our tunnels. You know, our critical infrastructure is critical to our economic growth and development,” Moore said.
Rethinking how to rebuild bridges
An aerial view of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsing over the Patapsco River in Baltimore, Maryland, on June 11, 2024, as rescuers continue to clear the bridge debris.
Kevin Dickey | Getty Images
Some of these plans are already underway. Last month, the Maryland Transportation Authority released its first request for proposals Rebuilding bridges. The plan will use what officials call a “progressive design-build approach,” in which design and construction firms are hired simultaneously and work together throughout the process. This efficiency could allow a new bridge to be built in just four years—an astonishing pace for a project expected to cost more than $2 billion. The Maryland Transportation Authority is expected to select the companies this summer.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told CNBC that the new bridge will be much better than the old bridge that opened in 1977.
“We know things we didn’t know in the 1970s, like how to build a bridge,” Buttigieg said. “No one wants to go through this tragic disaster that happened. But it does bring opportunity, I would say, Responsibility to make things right in the future.”
Transportation planners also began a series of community meetings to solicit public input. in a virtual meeting On June 11, questions included whether the new bridge would be a toll bridge like the old one (that’s the plan) and whether the new bridge would be wider than the old four-lane structure (no).
As the process continues, officials have promised to conduct “contact tours” to solicit public input.
Meanwhile, Baltimore City wants to expedite funding for the planned reconstruction of the Hanover Street Bridge over the Patapsco River, which has become an important alternative route for travelers who previously used the base bridge.
The epitome of national infrastructure
Buttigieg said the situation in Baltimore is a much accelerated version of the process underway in states and cities across the country. .
“We fund programs in every state, city, airport authority or transportation agency you can think of,” he said.
While Buttigieg acknowledged that some of the need is the result of significant funding ($550 billion over five years for transportation and infrastructure), it also reflects that need.
“To me, it shows how much work this country still has to do,” he said. “As we experienced the stress of COVID-19 at the beginning of this century, we as a country have a keen awareness of how critical our infrastructure is. We’ve seen what can happen if our supply chains come under stress.”
New battlefield for economic development
Companies seeking to leverage momentum and incentives to rebuild damaged domestic supply chains are looking for states and localities with the right infrastructure, said John Boyd, Jr., a site selection consultant with Boyd & Co. This may help explain why infrastructure has become a hot topic in the field of economic development in the United States.
“When we think about what differentiates one market from another, site readiness is a key factor, and it’s often a key factor that can push the size of a project out of proportion if it has certified certifications. Very suitable for business.
A CNBC analysis of economic development marketing materials from all 50 states shows that infrastructure is the most mentioned attribute in states’ marketing efforts to attract businesses. As a result, infrastructure is the highest-weighted category in CNBC’s annual state competitiveness rankings (America’s Best States for Business).
Experts say the emphasis on infrastructure is likely to continue for some time.
“It’s not easy to build electricity, water, natural gas or wastewater infrastructure. These things take time and money,” said Seth Martindale, president of the Site Selection Association, which provided some of the data for the CNBC study. . “I think it’s going to take us over five, 10 years to really get to the point where we feel good about it.”
Buttigieg noted that the bipartisan infrastructure bill is more than halfway through its five-year lifespan and there are still substantial needs.
“I think it’s too early to start thinking and talking about what the next five-year plan should look like,” Buttigieg said of the future of U.S. infrastructure.
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