The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is deploying more than 1,100 personnel to Baltimore, Md., following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge into the Patapsco River early Tuesday morning, the service said in a statement.
The corps’ Baltimore District has activated its Emergency Operations Center, “clearing the way for more than 1,100 engineering, construction, contracting and operations specialists to provide support to local, state and federal agencies” in clearing the fallen bridge, the Army said in the release.
The Francis Scott Key Bridge, a major bridge in Baltimore, collapsed just seconds after being struck by the Dali, a cargo ship managed by Synergy Marine Group and owned by Grace Ocean Private Ltd, a Singaporean company.
Considering a large portion of my federal taxes (which I actually pay, loser that I am) goes to the military budget regardless of my opinion on the matter, it’s nice to see some small portion of that spent towards a peaceful and necessary task that benefits a great number of innocent people. It won’t benefit me personally, except in the most tangential way if some cross-country package happens to be driven over the replacement bridge. But that’s what government is for, and I don’t mind paying into that pool.
While I’m not against the feds working on this, I would much rather see the company that owned the ship and/or its insurance companies foot the bill for the whole mess. “Personal Responsibility”, that was supposed to be a virtue of some sort I’ve heard. That and “anti-socialism”. Let’s see BigShip corporate types walk the walk here, preferably right off the plank.
The insurance suits are going to take years if not decades, but Baltimore needs a bridge built and port open as soon as possible.
Indeed, the damage done by trying to sort out who might pay is far greater than to get things up and running asap.
We have to do some work so we can put together a bill for them to foot.
Order of operations is important here.
Would you like your bridge built now, by a team that answers to the people who will be using it? Or eventually, begrudgingly, by someone hired to make the least expensive minimum compensation? Hired by the company that couldn’t even maintain their own shit properly?
The bridge can be rebuilt “whenever” as far as I’m concerned. That’s irrelevant. All that I’m saying here is that I want the private parties responsible to foot the bill ultimately. That doesn’t mean work can’t start tomorrow, or next week, or next year, whatever. I’m pretty tired of the BigCorp “socialism for me, not for thee” attitude and don’t want them to get away with it once again.
Then why did you make a remark about the feds working on it? It heavily suggests that you rather want the legal bits sorted out first. Which is going to be “fun”. E.g. there’s a difference between owner and operator.
I would much rather see the company that owned the ship and/or its insurance companies foot the bill for the whole mess.
Maritime law is interesting and often seems illogical. You’re assuming way too much if you think it’s a clear case that the “owners” are legally responsible.
“Personal Responsibility”,
As I said, maritime law is weird.
What an excellent use of a niche federal group
It’s nice to see our government just…do something right. And quick, too!
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Just gonna skim Wikipedia real quick.
In a typical year, the Corps of Engineers responds to more than 30 Presidential disaster declarations, plus numerous state and local emergencies. Emergency responses usually involve cooperation with other military elements and Federal agencies in support of State and local efforts.
More than 67 percent of the goods consumed by Americans and more than half of the nation’s oil imports are processed through deepwater ports maintained by the Corps of Engineers, which maintains more than 12,000 miles (19,000 km) of commercially navigable channels across the U.S.
USACE maintains direct control of 609 dams, maintains or operates 257 navigation locks, and operates 75 hydroelectric facilities generating 24% of the nation’s hydropower and three percent of its total electricity.
Four billion gallons of water per day are drawn from the Corps of Engineers’ 136 multi-use flood control projects comprising 9,800,000 acre-feet (12.1 km3) of water storage, making it one of the United States’ largest water supply agencies.
Today, the Corps of Engineers maintains more than 12,000 miles (19,000 km) of inland waterways.
USACE also maintains 300 commercial harbors, through which pass 2,000,000,000 short tons (1.8×109 metric tons) of cargo a year, and more than 600 smaller harbors.
The Corps of Engineers is the nation’s largest provider of outdoor recreation, operating more than 2,500 recreation areas at 463 projects
It goes on, but suffice to say if they put out a press release every time they did something you’d lose your mind.
Colorado, 2013, they emergency reconstructed 20 or 30 miles of mountain roads and reshaped river beds in the month of October after a huge flood in September isolated towns and wreaked havoc all over.
I was about to reply with a list of recent projects from their website, when I realized their list of recent projects on their website was last updated in 2010.
Sigh
