MD officials, port workers say speed saved business at ‘wounded’ Port of Baltimore

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The speed with which federal and state responders cleared and reopened the Port of Baltimore‘s main shipping channel has prevented companies from diverting their cargo elsewhere and positioned some work to resume previous levels by mid-July, port leaders said Wednesday.

Officials fully reopened the Patapsco River’s 50-feet-deep by 700-feet-wide federal shipping channel Monday evening, 11 weeks after the massive Dali cargo ship lost power and collided with a support pillar for the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing the structure to collapse.

The disaster killed six men who were working roadway construction on the bridge.

Port leaders, including Scott Cowan, president of the local International Longshoremen’s Association chapter, and Mark Schmidt, vice president for Ports America and general manager for its Port of Baltimore location, joined Gov. Wes Moore, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and other officials Wednesday to commemorate the channel’s reopening.

Baltimore’s Key Bridge destroyed: Everything you need to know

“It’s a tough industry, it’s very competitive. We were a wounded port, and believe me, as soon as that bridge fell down, other ports were looking to take our cargo,” Cowan said from a podium at the port’s Dundalk Terminal. “If this channel wouldn’t have got open in the speed it did, we would’ve took a very big loss of cargo to other ports.”

Some shipping companies rerouted their cargo to other ports after the bridge collapsed and left just one shipping terminal open.

The companies, though, are expected to resume their routes through Baltimore, which processes more cars and roll-on-roll-off farm equipment than any other U.S. port.

A more permanent shift would have been “devastating” to ILA members, Cowan said, and the loss of businesses certainly would have hurt the broader Port of Baltimore economy.

State and federal officials have said they expected activity to eventually resume pre-collapse levels, and representatives for stevedores and longshoremen indicated Wednesday that the port is headed in that direction.

“Over the next month, we are expecting 97 vessel calls, with operations at pre-closure levels by mid-July,” said Schmidt, of Ports America.

The port leaders also hailed state officials and private companies and organizations for the relief funding they funneled to the port to buoy businesses losing revenue and keep employees in their jobs.

The state government alone has approved more than $37 million in aid for hundreds of businesses and thousands of workers at the port, according to the governor’s office.

Business advocates have previously called for shipping accommodations and aid programs to continue, considering that they and some economists expect uncertainty beyond the reopening of the Patapsco River channel for employers who’ve relied on the port for shipping, logistics services and other business operations.

As of Wednesday, multiple state aid programs remained open, including supplemental income for employees and grants and no-interest loans for businesses.

State officials have yet to announce plans for shutting down the programs.

It remains to be seen exactly how long it will take for companies to resume normal shipping routes, for warehouses to accumulate shipments and, generally, for all port operations to near their pre-collapse levels, Maryland economists have said.

A coalition of business advocacy organizations, led by the Maryland Chamber of Commerce, has called for continued financial assistance for businesses that have lost revenue and suffered higher operating costs following the bridge collapse.

Businesses reliant on the port have had to reroute their imports to other East Coast ports, delaying shipments and increasing costs, according to a report from the coalition.

Their workforce has dealt with longer commute times and congested roads, hindering their productivity and lowering morale amid a previously persistent threat of layoffs and continued financial strain.

The Key Bridge is likely years from being rebuilt, so companies will have to continue to adjust to new transportation routes and ways of operating, including the potential for cargo traffic to reroute to other ports, the report states.

Maryland transportation officials have prioritized speed and experience as they seek bids from private companies to design and build the new Key Bridge, and the design-build team is expected to complete its work and have all bridge lanes open to vehicle traffic by Oct. 15, 2028.

Biden administration officials, including Buttigieg and Tom Perez, a senior advisor to the president and a former gubernatorial candidate who ran against Moore in 2022, reiterated the president’s commitment to having the federal government cover the full cost of rebuilding the bridge.

Biden, though, will first need approval from Congress, which has been elusive over the last few months.

Members of the Biden and Moore administrations, and Maryland’s congressional delegation, are expected to continue lobbying for bipartisan support in Congress for approval of full federal funding.

“Now that we can see that the Dali’s gone, now that we can see that the wreckage is cleared, we know that progress is possible,” Moore said Wednesday. “But I will not be satisfied until I can look over on the Patapsco and see the Key Bridge standing tall again.”