More than a day after a cargo ship collided with Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, divers discovered the dead bodies of two of the six missing workers. The bodies of two males were discovered in a red pickup vehicle buried in the frigid waters of the Patapsco River. On Tuesday, rescuers retrieved two workers from the river alive, with one being taken to the hospital.
Six workers on the bridge are feared dead. The bodies of two males found on Wednesday were identified as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, of Baltimore, originally from Mexico, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, of neighboring Dundalk, originally from Guatemala.
The workers were from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, according to a news briefing.
A construction crew was patching potholes on the bridge when the crash occurred
Due to hazardous conditions, authorities halted efforts to recover bodies from the 50-foot-deep (15-meter) seas surrounding the twisted ruins.
A construction crew was patching potholes on the bridge when the crash occurred, and eight people plunged 185 feet (56 meters) into the river, where the water temperature was 47 degrees Fahrenheit (8 degrees Celsius). Two workmen were rescued: one was uninjured and the other was injured.
Authorities saved lives by prohibiting vehicles from using the bridge after the ship issued a Mayday call.
The ship also dropped its anchors to slow down and buy time to cross the bridge.
The Key Bridge was inaugurated in 1977
Bridges like the one in Baltimore are classified as “fracture critical” by the federal government, which means that if one section of the bridge collapses, the entire structure collapses. The Federal Highway Administration reports that there are around 16,800 such spans in the United States.
The head of the National Transportation Safety Board stated that the bridge lacked the structural engineering redundancy found in newer spans, making it more vulnerable to catastrophic collapse.
The Key Bridge was opened in 1977, three years before a similar vessel catastrophe on the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Tampa Bay, Florida, which killed 35 people and pushed bridge designers to improve foundation pier protection.
Who will pay to restore the bridge?
President Joe Biden promised to visit Baltimore shortly and suggested the federal government should pay to restore the bridge.
On Thursday, the Transportation Department approved $60 million in “quick release” emergency assistance money to help clear debris and begin the reconstruction process. To replace the bridge, Congress must authorize funds. Congress provided $250 million in response to the 2007 Minnesota bridge collapse.
According to IMPLAN, the initial estimate for replacing the bridge is $600 million.
How much will it cost?
According to Roll Call, federal authorities have told Maryland lawmakers that the total cost of repairing the bridge could exceed $2 billion.
Analysts said insurers might face billions of dollars in claims, with one estimating a cost of much to $4 billion, making the disaster a record shipping insurance loss.
Rebuilding could be a lengthy task, depending on how much of the remaining structure can be salvaged. The original bridge took five years to construct, from 1972 to 1977.
According to IMPLAN, Maryland would lose $28 million in business if the port were to remain closed for even one month.