Ben Cardin: ‘We’re Going To Get That Bridge Put Up As Quickly As Possible’

4 months ago

On Wednesday, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) questioned infrastructure officials on the timeline to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, during a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you very much, I appreciate it.

00:02Thank you very much.

00:03Senator Cardin.

00:04Senator Ricketts, I want you to, I think Secretary Wittefeld is also taking steps to streamline

00:11the timeline on the replacement of the bridge to give you a chance to respond on that.

00:18Thank you, Senator.

00:19Yes, obviously working with Federal Highway literally daily on this issue to make sure

00:24that we're hitting all the environmental issues and then basically anything we can do on the

00:29design to get this done quicker.

00:30So we have put out the RFP, as was mentioned, roughly two months after the fall of the bridge.

00:35We've gotten the responses to those and we're reviewing those now.

00:39The next phase will be we will hire a general engineer's contractor, basically, in effect

00:44the engineers to oversee this.

00:47That will go out in the next few weeks and we'll have that decision late summer.

00:52And then we've also in process what we call the CMI, which is a construction management

00:56inspection portion of the future bridge.

00:59So we're doing that contract now.

01:01We're preparing that contract now and we'll have that in early fall.

01:04All this is the stage to get this done as quickly as possible given the significant

01:07impact it has on the local community and the Northeast Corridor.

01:13I saw the team at work and what they did to get the port opened well earlier than anyone

01:20anticipated.

01:21I have a great deal of confidence in Secretary Wittefeld and Governor Moore.

01:26We're going to get that bridge put up as quickly as possible because we recognize the significance

01:31not only to our state but to the entire country of that bridge being replaced quickly.

01:37So that is one of our principal focuses, to do it right, but to do it as quickly as possible.

01:42Let me just take my remaining minute or two.

01:46General Spellman, I just really want to acknowledge again the extraordinary work of your team.

01:53I would like to include in that the Coast Guard.

01:55They were just incredible.

01:57The way that you have talent and commitment, the way that you immediately responded, the

02:04way that you brought in the private sector where you needed the private sector for their

02:09expertise, it was a team effort.

02:12And I can't underscore enough that when we saw the situation on March 26, we thought

02:21that port would be closed for a long time.

02:25And within a matter of weeks, you had shipping channels effectively opened for a large percentage

02:32of the traffic.

02:33Admittedly, it was difficult to get the ships in and out.

02:36They had to be by schedule and you could go in one direction and they couldn't have two

02:40ships at the same time.

02:42But we were able to get business started much, much faster than we ever anticipated.

02:49And then within a matter of a little over two months, we had the full channel opened.

02:53And that was incredible with the tonnage and the steel and the concrete that was there.

02:59And once again, I want to underscore this.

03:02I was there at the scene looking at the divers that you already complimented.

03:07They could not see their hands in front of them.

03:11And there's jagged debris out there that could be fatal to a diver.

03:16And they're operating under those extremely dangerous conditions, under some very bad

03:22weather conditions in early April, I might tell you.

03:27And then every time you moved any of the debris, you had a survey because debris would shift

03:34and would affect the safety of the divers.

03:37And you did it with complete safety and speed.

03:41And that's a resource that I must tell you, yes, you have the talent, but you also have

03:46the commitment of those that serve at the Army Corps and our Coast Guard and the private

03:50sector to put together this team.

03:53So I just really wanted to say once again, thank you so much for your incredible service

03:58for your team.

03:59Thanks, sir.

04:00And I will certainly pass those words on to all those men and women wearing hard hats

04:04out there cutting up that steel and certainly the divers.

04:07Incredible talent that the Navy and their industry partners brought to this.

04:14I just have one quick follow-up question to General Spillman.

04:20Let's see, you said the Corps spent approximately $65 million for wreckage removal and emergency.

04:27This came from annual operations and maintenance funding for the Port of Baltimore.

Ben Cardin: ‘We’re Going To Get That Bridge Put Up As Quickly As Possible’

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