MARCH 26, 2024…..Gov. Maura Healey is meeting Tuesday afternoon with various state agencies, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Massachusetts Maritime Academy to talk about bridge and port safety in the wake of the early-morning collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.
A cargo ship leaving Baltimore’s port reportedly lost power and collided with the foundation of the bridge, causing the immediate failure of the span that carries Interstate 695 over the harbor early Tuesday morning.
“And when I leave you, I will be returning to my office where I’m convening with the Coast Guard, MassDOT which is Department of Transportation, MassPort, as well as Mass. Maritime, which we’re really lucky to have Mass. Maritime here in Massachusetts, many of the men and women who operate those ships and do that work were trained at Mass. Maritime,” the governor said. “But I want to make sure that we’re having a conversation to make sure that all of our protocols are where they need to be and that we are doing everything that we can to ensure the safety of our ports and our bridges.”
Healey said the Tobin Bridge, the largest bridge in New England that soars over the Mystic River carrying Route 1 between Boston and Chelsea, was inspected “as recently as a couple of months ago.” Some larger ships pass beneath the Tobin, but not the same cargo ships that generally use the Conley Terminal in South Boston.
“It’s a regularly-occurring thing that our bridges are inspected. As I said, the Tobin was inspected a couple of months ago. If, on inspection, we identify any issues, we would work hard to take care of that and we’ll continue to do that,” Healey said. She added, “Certainly, we want to make sure that we have the very best protocols in place. Our inspections are up to date and, as I say, if we identify any issues we’re going to address them.”
The governor called the situation in Baltimore “absolutely devastating and heartbreaking” and told GBH that she was “actually supposed to be meeting with [Maryland] Governor [Wes] Moore this morning” but that Moore “had to fly back in the middle of the night to attend to this.”
“I’ve been in touch with him. I’ve offered our support as a state to Maryland and to Baltimore,” she said. “My thoughts are with all of the victims and survivors, all those affected by this tragedy. Huge kudos to the first responders, men and women who are in the water right now and in the air looking for survivors in what is becoming a recovery effort at this point.”
Later in the interview, “Boston Public Radio” co-host Jim Braude asked Healey whether she, like he and co-host Margery Eagan, is nervous anytime she has to drive over the Sagamore Bridge getting to or from Cape Cod.
“No, I mean, I’ll tell you, the Sagamore Bridge has been inspected and it has been labeled structurally deficient, which is why we want the bridges replaced. That said, structurally deficient doesn’t mean unsafe because what happens is when there is that designation there was work immediately done to ensure safe passage, but it doesn’t take away from the fact that we actually need to have these bridges replaced.”
MassDOT and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers rolled out a new memorandum of understanding last week. Under the agreement, the state will commit $700 million in funding toward replacement of the aging Cape Cod bridges, starting with the Sagamore, and the Corps will provide another $600 million, subject to congressional appropriation.
The Biden administration in December awarded a $372 million grant toward the Sagamore Bridge replacement, and a federal appropriations bill includes another $350 million. And an application for more than $1 billion in federal Bridge Investment Program money remains under consideration.
“Infrastructure, state of good repair, it’s really, really important,” Healey said Tuesday. “And we just haven’t done it for too long.”
After Tuesday afternoon’s meeting, Transportation Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt and Highway Administrator Jonathan Gulliver held a press conference to share information on the state’s bridges, ports and infrastructure.
Gulliver said Massachusetts has two bridges similar to the Francis Scott Key Bridge in that they are truss bridges over a maritime navigation channel: the Tobin and the Braga Bridge in Fall River.
“With the Braga and with the Tobin Bridge, there are precautions that are taken. There are certain guidelines and certain requirements that are imposed upon us as we build those projects, as we maintain and replace those bridges to ensure that they meet modern standards and that they remain safe, and safe for use by marine traffic as well,” Gulliver said. “So I can tell you that from a standpoint of, ‘Is there a lot of similarity between Massachusetts and Baltimore?’ There is not. We are not the same size port as they have in Baltimore, we don’t have the same size navigable waterways, nor the same size bridges.”
Gulliver said MassDOT is responsible for about 5,000 bridges in Massachusetts with roughly 12 percent of them listed as structurally deficient. He said MassDOT does bridge inspections every day and that each bridge is inspected at least every two years.
Editor’s Note: This story was updated Tuesday afternoon to include information and a quote from a 3 p.m. press conference held by Transportation Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt and Highway Administrator Jonathan Gulliver.
