The Baltimore bridge collapse – what happens next?
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 29 May 2024
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It's been two months since the collapse of the key bridge in Baltimore, and the deadline to unblock the port's shipping channel is imminent. The US government has given a loose promise to make it happen by the end of May - but there are doubts that deadline will be met, causing more disruption to the local and global economy. How will businesses on sea and land find a way through more uncertainty?
Izzy Greenfield speaks to small businesses who are feeling the impact; from fewer customers to disruption to supply chains.
Baltimore used to rank first among US ports for autos and light trucks, handling a record 850,000 vehicles last year. Importantly, the port is where vehicles are processed and labelled to be sold domestically. We hear how the industry is seeing an immediate impact. And we learn about the struggles that transportation workers continue to face.
(Image: Baltimore bridge after it collapsed in March 2024. Credit: Getty Images)
Presented and produced by Izzy Greenfield
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In the early hours of the morning, on the 26th of March in the northeast U.S. city of Baltimore, |
| 0:04.9 | a ship crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge, killing six construction workers. |
| 0:11.0 | It's thought that the ship lost power before veering off course and striking the bridge. |
| 0:16.0 | Once an iconic part of the city's landscape, the bridge was a major thoroughfare through Baltimore, |
| 0:21.0 | helping to keep people, businesses and communities connected. |
| 0:24.7 | And every year, the port brought in over $70 billion in revenue. |
| 0:29.8 | The ship, called the Dali, is on the move again, eight weeks after the crash. |
| 0:34.2 | And the deadline to clear the wreckage and get the channel fully reopened |
| 0:37.5 | is imminent. Here's the U.S. Transportation Secretary, Pete Buttigieg. |
| 0:41.7 | The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is leading that process of removing the wreckage |
| 0:46.2 | from the channel, they've set very ambitious targets. So far they've hit every one of their |
| 0:50.5 | targets. And I'm fully confident that by the end of May, they'll have the |
| 0:54.4 | vessel out of the way, the wreckage out of the way. There's hope that soon ships will move |
| 0:58.4 | through the channel as they did before. But for businesses in Baltimore, things are at a standstill. |
| 1:03.9 | I've gone back to working a second job. And man, it's hard, dude. I am like, I'm tired. |
| 1:10.8 | Things are still not good. |
| 1:14.0 | We are not making as a company any money off of it. |
| 1:16.8 | We are sacrificing our income. |
| 1:19.4 | And the impact isn't felt by only the local community. |
| 1:22.5 | The closure of one of the biggest harbors in North America and one of its key bridges |
| 1:26.6 | has big implications on the global |
| 1:29.1 | economy. On today's episode of Business Daily with me, Izzy Greenfield, we'll ask the businesses |
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