(15 May 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
POOL
Washington, DC – 15 May 2024
1. Wide cutaway House Transportation hearing
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. Brian Babin, (R) Texas:
"The last thing I want to do is to vote to spend another 1 or 2 billion on a new bridge. So, Administrator (Shailen) Bhatt. Talk to me on what you see as a path forward here on the payment for this thing."
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Shailen Bhatt, Administrator, Federal Highway Administration:
"In terms of the payment as I’ve stated, right now, there’s a preliminary estimate 1.7 to $1.9 billion. There’s a $350 million insurance payment that we’re working through, to see what level of that would be applicable. And any funds that are recovered through legal activity or insurance payouts will go back into the ER (Emergency Relief) funds. We just don’t have a path to getting there right now in terms of what is eligible."
4. Cutaway of hearing
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Jennifer Homendy, National Transportation Safety Board Chair:
"The federal government, states the bridge owners, they need to evaluate current structures and make sure if you have navigable waterway, that you are doing a risk analysis to ensure safety, to ensure there’s adequate pier protection."
6. Cutaway of hearing
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Rep. Hank Johnson, (D) Georgia:
"Administrator Bhatt, can you tell us how this bridge collapse impacts interstate commerce?"
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Shailen Bhatt, Administrator, Federal Highway Administration:
"What is so critically important for a transportation system is that you can drive from New York to Los Angeles across a system that is completely uniform, is set to standards. And what is happening, I think we’ve learned through the port of Baltimore is that that highway system is tied into ports. It’s the third busiest port in the country. So their jobs are being impacted. There is freight movements that are being affected. There are neighborhoods that are being impacted. And so, yeah, this is not just an issue for Maryland. It’s an issue for the Northeast Corridor and for our national economy."
9. Cutaway of hearing
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Jennifer Homendy, National Transportation Safety Board Chair:
"I think here is really determining for us what happened, with the electrical system on the accident voyage, what happened in those two blackouts? And which is why we have been working very closely with Hyundai, who manufactures the equipment, to try to replicate some of the electrical problems that we’re seeing at that day and continue looking and testing each of the components."
11. Cutaway of hearing
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Jennifer Homendy, National Transportation Safety Board Chair:
"I think the key here is you have a bridge that was opened in 1977, and over time, you know, it’s not the bridge that’s getting larger. It’s not the waterway that’s getting larger. It’s the vessels that are getting larger and not just, width, but height, with containers. And so, it’s important that states and other bridge owners are looking at from a risk assessment assessment standpoint, what is now going through, what is the vessel traffic, and how our is how is our infrastructure protected?"
13. Cutaway of hearing
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Shailen Bhatt, Administrator, Federal Highway Administration:
++EDIT ENDS ON SOUNDBITE++
STORYLINE:
Transportation officials say conducting analysis and evaluating current bridge structures across the country is crucial in enhancing protection against future bridge collapses like what happened in the port of Baltimore.
Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/
You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/429fb834ede94aa4baabd6989dfe965f
