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Tag: key
Pope Francis calls predecessor Benedict a key transitional figure
Pope Francis has described his predecessor Benedict XVI as a transitional pope, saying he was the only possible candidate to follow the upheavals under former pope John Paul II.
Germany’s Joseph Ratzinger, who became pope Benedict, was the only candidate who could be pontiff at the time when a new pope was elected in 2005, said Francis, the current head of the Catholic Church in an extract from a book due to be published in Spanish on Wednesday.
“After the revolution of John Paul II, who was a dynamic, very active pontiff, who took the initiative, who travelled… We needed a pope who could maintain a healthy balance, a transitional pope,” said Francis, referring to the election of Ratzinger who became Benedict XVI.
In the papal election at that time, some cardinals sought to block Ratzinger’s election, Francis said in the book of by the Vatican correspondent of Spanish newspaper ABC.
At the time, the cardinals also brought his name into play but, “if they had chosen someone like me, someone who creates a lot of chaos, I wouldn’t have been able to achieve anything. At that time, it would have been impossible,” said Francis, in the book called “El Sucesor,” or The Successor.
Germany’s pope emeritus Benedict XVI, born as Joseph Ratzinger in Bavaria in 1927, was pope from 2005 until his unexpected resignation in 2013. He died in 2022.
He was succeeded by Francis, born Jorge Bergoglio, in 2013.
Workers begin to cut and remove Key Bridge debris
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Work begins to reopen Port of Baltimore after Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse
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Largest crane on Eastern Seaboard arrives at Key Bridge collapse site
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A look at impact protection for bridges after Key Bridge collapse
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Massive crane barge arrives in Baltimore for Key Bridge collapse cleanup
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Majority of U.S. bridges lack impact protection. After the Key Bridge collapse, will anything change?
In the wake of the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which plunged into the Patapsco River in Maryland after the cargo ship Dali slammed into one of its support columns, CBS News has learned a majority of bridges in the U.S. lack any form of impact protection.
Accidents like the one that destroyed the 47-year-old Baltimore bridge aren’t new. A similar collision in 1980 at the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay killed 35 people. After that incident, codes changed and all bridges built after 1991 were required to have increased protection.
Structures called fenders and dolphins — which absorb impact, similar to the bumper on a car — are some of the methods used to keep bridges safe.
Jackie Green / AP
But the Key Bridge was built in the 1970s, so meeting the current code would require retrofits and upgrades, retired bridge engineer Andy Herrmann said.
“They would either harden the piers so they could take an impact or put a fender, a system of substantial configuration, to deflect that vessel back into the navigable channel,” Herrmann told CBS News. “Or they might do what they did at Sunshine Skyway: Put an island in front of it.”
There are 4,207 bridges in the U.S. that allow ships to pass under them, according to the National Bridge Inventory. Of those, only 36% are described as having functional pier protection — and that included the Key Bridge.
The inventory does not provide specifics about the bridges’ protection or whether they could withstand an impact like Tuesday’s crash in Baltimore, in which a 984-foot, 116,000-ton cargo ship struck a bridge support column. The NTSB said the Dali had been slowing down from about 7 knots (roughly 8 mph) shortly before the impact.
“I was shocked when I saw how that bridge was impacted by the vessel,” said Jim Salmon of the Delaware River and Bay Authority.
Jonathan Newton for The Washington Post via Getty Images
Salmon said Delaware is working to avoid a similar tragedy, spending $95 million installing up-to-date protections on the Delaware Memorial Bridge, a dual-span suspension bridge over the Delaware River that connects Delaware and New Jersey and provides a key link between sections of Interstate 95. An application for the upgrades characterized the existing system as “outdated and inadequate to protect the bridge from collisions with the larger and modern vessels.”
Salmon said the improvements, which include new dolphin cells, “protect our tower structures” should a ship lose steering in an incident similar to the Key Bridge allision.
“It’s what I would call our insurance policy,” Salmon said. “You don’t want to spend $95 million, and have it sitting in the water. You say it’s a lot of money, but like an insurance policy, if something goes wrong, you want to have your insurance there, and that’s our insurance.”
Once the project is completed, the bridge will be protected from ships even larger and faster than Dali — hauling up to 156,000 tons and moving at 7 knots.
Structural engineer Matthew Roblez said he was surprised there wasn’t a fender system to protect the Key Bridge. He believes if one had been installed around or in front of the piers, Tuesday’s crash would have been less catastrophic.
Roblez believes there probably wasn’t much that could have been done to completely prevent the Key Bridge collision, but protective systems could have “dissipated the kinetic energy.”
Part of the NTSB investigation into the collision and collapse will examine the structure of the Key Bridge.
NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy cited data from the Federal Highway Administration which shows of about 615,000 bridges in the United States, 17,468 are “fracture critical.” That means if one piece of the bridge support fails, the whole bridge comes down.
So, the question remains: Four decades after the Tampa bridge collapse, will this latest disaster prompt the federal government to require updated protections for older bridges?
Navy supplying 4 cranes for Key Bridge clean up effort, Maryland governor says
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Timeline to reopen Port of Baltimore unclear as collapsed Key Bridge cleanup begins
BALTIMORE — A massive salvaging effort is underway to reopen the Port of Baltimore after the deadly collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
The Navy has mobilized a 1,000-ton lift capacity derrick barge, a 400-ton lift-capacity revolving crane barge and a 160-ton revolving crane to help lift debris from the water, a huge undertaking in the works.
Officials say the section of the bridge trapping the cargo ship dolly weighs between 3,000 and 4,000 tons, so before the Army Corps of Engineers can start moving anything off the water, they’re going to have to cut the debris into smaller pieces.
When will the Port of Baltimore reopen?
All vessel traffic in and out of the port was suspended in the wake of the collapse, but it has remained open for trucks. It isn’t clear yet how long it will take to clear the 700-foot span of the channel of thousands of tons of debris.
The Baltimore district of the corps activated its Emergency Operations Center, which clears the way for more than 1,100 engineering, construction, contracting and operations specialists to provide support to local, state and federal agencies.
/ Getty Images
CBS News correspondent Kris Van Cleave reports everything needs to be cleared from the bottom of the channel — 50 feet below the surface — because there is only 12 to 18 inches of clearance between the bottom of the channel and the hull of a cargo ship loaded down with containers.
“There is a lot of speculation as to when the channel will be reopened,” the Port said in a statement Friday. “The fact of the matter is we do not know. Please understand that we are working minute-by-minute with our federal, state and local partners to make that happen as quickly as possible.
The port is the ninth-busiest in the United States, according to Census data, and handled more than $80 billion in import and exports last year, the most in 20 years. It is also home to Royal Caribbean, Carnival and Norwegian cruise lines.
Directly, the port supports 15,300 jobs, while another 140,000 in the area are related to port activities. The jobs provide a combined $3.3 billion in personal income, according to a CBS News report.
“The most urgent priority is to open the Port of Baltimore because it is essential to the livelihood of people here in Baltimore, in Maryland, and the economies across our country and around the world,” U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen said in a news conference Wednesday.
Maryland lawmakers are drafting emergency legislation for income replacement to assist thousands of Port of Baltimore workers impacted by the disruption.
Four remain missing, presumed dead
Eight people, part of a construction crew filling potholes, were on the bridge at the time of the collapse. Two were rescued, two bodies have been recovered, and four remain missing.
So far, four of the victims have been identified:
- Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval, 35, originally from Honduras
- Miguel Luna, originally from El Salvador
- Dorlian Castillo Cabrera, 26, originally from Guatemala
- Jose Mynor Lopez, 35, originally from Guatemala
The bodies of Cabrera and Fuente were recovered from a submerged pickup truck. The search for bodies was paused Wednesday because divers can no longer operate around the mangled bridge debris that has encased submerged vehicles, officials said.
Federal support incoming
Maryland is receiving an initial $60 million in emergency funding from the federal government as the state works to clear the debris. The state sent a letter of request for relief to pay for mobilization, operations and debris recovery.
President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that he intends to push the federal government to pay for the entire reconstruction of the bridge, and pledged to work with Maryland leaders to provide as much support as possible.
“It is my intention that the federal government will pay for the entire cost of reconstructing that bridge, and I expect the Congress to support my effort,” Biden said earlier, adding that he plans to visit Baltimore as soon as he can.
The $60 million estimate made by the state of Maryland for initial expenses is, at most, just 10% of the estimated cost for response to the disaster, CBS News learned following a Maryland Congressional delegation meeting.
The Maryland delegation talked about likely costs exceeding $1 billion and a “need for an emergency supplemental” aid package from Congress.