Baltimore bridge collapses after ship rams into overpass
The disaster at the Francis Scott Key Bridge is likely to cause huge disruption at one of the country's busiest ports.
(Bloomberg) — A major commuter bridge in Baltimore collapsed after being rammed by a container ship, causing vehicles to plunge into the water and threatening chaos at one of the most important ports on the U.S. East Coast.
The Maryland Transportation Authority issued an alert on social media asking drivers not to use Interstate 695. Kevin Cartwright of the Baltimore City Fire Department described it as “a mass casualty, multi-agency incident” in an audio interview with CNN, adding as many as 20 people could be in the water.
The disaster at the Francis Scott Key Bridge happened early Tuesday, March 26, 2024. It is likely to cause huge disruption — both for shipping at one of the busiest ports on the U.S. East Coast and on the roads — now that a key link has been severed on the major highway encircling Baltimore.
The vessel is the Dali, which sails under the flag of Singapore. The 32,000-ton ship was built in 2015. A London-based spokesman for Synergy Marine, its manager, said the Dali had around 4,900 containers on board at the time. Company executives were traveling to the site to assess the situation. It is on charter to Copenhagen-based container shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S.
The White House is monitoring the incident, said a White House official, who added there is no sign yet of any nefarious intent.
The bridge allows commercial ships to enter the Port of Baltimore, one of the top ports in the U.S. in terms of volume and value of cargo.
At least 21 ships are in waters to the west of the collapsed bridge. About half of them are tugs. There are also at least three bulk carriers, one vehicles carrier and a small tanker.
An extended shutdown is going to bring chaos for travelers just ahead of the Easter holiday weekend on the already clogged corridor between New York and Washington, DC.
The Baltimore port handled 847,158 autos and light trucks in 2023, the most of any U.S. port for the 13th straight year, according to a state of Maryland website. The port also handled large volumes of imported sugar, gypsum and coffee, as well as exported coal.
The Dali was carrying containers from East Asia to the U.S. East Coast via the Panama Canal. It can haul the equivalent of about 9,700 steel boxes, about half the size of the industry’s largest ships.
It arrived at the Seagirt Marine Terminal in Baltimore on March 24 after delivering to the Port of New York /New Jersey, and had offloaded a small amount of containers before attempting its return journey to Asia early Tuesday morning.
Aside from the gridlock for regional traffic that the shutdown will cause, several prominent companies have distribution warehouses or other facilities in an industrial park on the north end of the bridge. They include Amazon.com Inc., FedEx Corp., Under Aromour Inc., the Home Depot Inc., BMW Group and Volkswagen Group of America, according to Google.
The Key Bridge also serves as an alternative route for hazardous cargo like some flammable liquids and oversized vehicles that are prohibited from going through the more direct route through the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel.
An extended shutdown is going to cause major congestion for travelers and businesses alike — possibly for months. According to time and mileage estimates on Google, a northbound drive from Interstate 95 around the western arc of 1-695 to avoid the Key Bridge takes about an hour, versus the 32 minutes it took going eastward across the bridge.
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