Port of Baltimore will be fully operational by end of May, governor says

The port of Baltimore will be reopened by the end of May, less than three months after the Francis Scott Key bridge collapse, Maryland's governor declared on Sunday.

The bridge collapsed on 27 March, killing six construction workers who were repairing roads and shutting down all sea lane access to the Port of Baltimore, one of the largest freight seaports on the East Coast. The federal government has already authorised $60m in relief funding for the disaster response effort, with hundreds of millions more expected to be needed before the project is completed.

The governor appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation and said that President Joe Biden’s goal of completing work to reopen both the federal and state shipping channels by the end of May was possible to achieve with “24/7” effort from first responders, recovery diving teams, and teams tasked with removing the wreckage.

“It’s realistic,” Mr Moore said of goal to have the Port of Baltimore fully reopened by the end of May. “We are going to do everything in our power to make sure we’re bringing closure and comfort to these families, to be able to reopen this channel, to be able to support our workers and support families who have been impacted by it, and also begin the process of the rebuild of the bridge.”

“It is an aggressive timeline, but we are going to work around the clock to make sure that we hit this timeline,” said the governor, who noted that salvage teams have already removed “hundreds of tons” of steel and concrete from the Patapsco River.

The US Army Corps of Engineers “tentatively expect[s] to open a limited access channel for… some vessels that move automobiles and farm equipment by the end of April”, the White House said this week. It added that workers should