So more than two months after a container ship struck
Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge,
causing its collapse and cutting off access to the city's
vital port,
the 700 foot wide Fort McHenry federal channel has reopened.
Joining us now, Maryland Governor Wes Moore is a member
of the Biden Harris
campaign's national Advisory Board. And we're really appreciate your being
on this morning talk 1st about the impact that,
that had on Baltimore's economy and the speed to which
the bridge finally has been reopened.
You know, I, I remember that first morning when we
now saw that a,
a ship that was the size of three football fields
was now trapped inside the Patapsco River
with, with six Marylanders who aren't accounted for
and with now 10s of thousands of tons of steel
that was sitting in the middle of the,
in the river mangled. And we knew that one of
the main vehicles for economic activity,
not just for Baltimore, not just for Maryland,
but for the entire region was now stuck to a
halt.
And, and I remember that first morning when people said
that this would take multiple months.
Our porch director said people were telling him that this
could take up to a year to clear the federal
channel with the amount of debris that's sitting in the
water. And this morning, I have to tell you,
I'm really proud of my state.
I'm really proud of the coordination that in Maryland we
do big things because we do them in partnership.
And now despite being told this would take multiple months,
we now have the full federal channel.
We're talking 700 feet by a 50 foot depth that
is now allowing ships and traffic and commerce to commence
in the city of Baltimore,
in the state of Maryland.
And, and also looking at how many people were impacted
that during this time,
because we're able to work in partnership with the Byte
administration,
partnership with our local leaders,
partnership with the private sector that that the 10s of
thousands of workers who are working at the port who
that very morning were afraid that they no longer had
a job. The the overall close to 1000 businesses,
small businesses that work with the Port of Baltimore.
We are now able to stand up programs that to
be able to support workers,
worker retention programs, businesses who said they would not lay
off workers.
This has been a case study on how to get
things done big,
how to get things done fast.
And the only way you're going to do that is
by working together.
So I'm incredibly proud that this morning,
despite such a tragedy that we saw a little over
two months ago,
that this morning we can say that that
Baltimore's back and, and it's because we decided to work
together in this moment.
Governor, good morning. It's good to see you.
I think a lot of people saw this news a
couple of days ago and said looked at their watches
and said,
wow, that was fast. A couple of months.
It made me think it was one year ago right
now actually that that bridge collapsed in Pennsylvania on
I-95 and that was back up and running in 12
days.
So for all the complaints,
and there are many of them,
and many of them are valid about the pace of
business
inside federal and state governments,
How did you get this done and what lessons can
be shared with others?
I think the big thing was that we work together.
You know, I remember my,
my phone rang at 2:02 in the morning that first
morning and letting me know that the that the Key
Bridge was now gone.
And so immediately we started mobilizing assets,
mobilizing the first responders who were on the bridge within
minutes,
making sure they could stop the flow of traffic.
And, and I have to give them a shout out
because they saved countless lives that morning,
mobilizing the members of the state police and the divers
who within an hour were in the water working to
save lives,
working with our, our Department of Transportation who are already
coming with rerouting patterns.
Because we knew the people were hours away from waking
up and figuring out that the place that they used
to be able to get to work,
that that was now gone.
The 10s of thousands of port workers who were about
to wake up and realize that they did not have
a place to go to work.
How to make sure that we're,
we're supporting the families. And so we let out,
you know, I laid out 4 directives that first morning.
One was that we had to support the families and
give them comfort and closure,
the six, the six families of the six Marylanders we
lost.
The second was that we had to support those who
been directly impacted by the crisis,
and that included the port workers and the first responders
and their families.
The third was that we had to do everything in
our power to reopen the federal channel as quickly as
possible.
And the 4th is that we have got to fully
rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
And we stayed focused. We did not let anything distract
us.
We stayed coordinated with both the Biden administration who've been
remarkable,
the private sector, who've been tremendous partners throughout our local
leaders.
And we know that now that we're coming to the
completion of this phase of getting the federal channel reopened.
I have the same focus.
I have this, this the same diligence on making sure
we can accomplish that 4th directive,
which is getting the Francis Scott Key Bridge rebuilt.
All right, Maryland Governor Wes Moore,
thank you so much for coming on with the update
this morning.
We appreciate it.