Mary D. Kane, president and CEO of the Maryland Chamber of Commerce, said 35,000 people use the Francis Scott Key Bridge daily and the Port of Baltimore generates more than 15,000 direct jobs, with nearly 140,000 jobs linked to the port’s activities.
“The economic impact that’s going to be felt by Baltimore and the state of Maryland is incomprehensible,” Kane said in a phone call Tuesday. “It doesn’t just affect Maryland. This affects the entire east coast up to the Mississippi.”
Baltimore bridge: Economy could lose $15M daily from 'incomprehensible' collapse
The collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge above the Patapsco River is likely to have a dramatic impact on port operations and on regional shipping.thedailyrecord.com
Leon, the Virginia Tech professor, said lessons can be learned and improvements can be made following this disaster. For example, bridge cameras and sensors can be used to track when a cargo ship heads off course and communicate with traffic lights and gates at bridge entrances.
“I think that our mission now is to learn from this failure and learn at all levels,” Leon said.
What we know about the Baltimore bridge collapse
The Dali was headed from Baltimore to Colombo, Sri Lanka, and flying under a Singapore flag, according to data from Marine Traffic.apnews.com
I think much needs to be done to protecting the bridge pylons. Other bridges have concrete / rock barriers that surround them to protect from just such catastrophic damage. The Army Corps of Engineers would be ideal to survery this area and plan for such pylon protective measures. There are clearly channel buoys there, but this accident did not occur because they missed the channel.