VIDEO: White House briefing on Baltimore bridge response

Vice Admiral Peter W. Gautier, U.S. Coast Guard Deputy Commandant for Operations spoke at White House briefing

”It’s 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,” President Biden pledged yeserday as he delivered remarks on the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. Today House Press Secretary Karine Jeanne-Pierre was joined by Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Vice Admiral Peter W. Gautier, U.S. Coast Guard Deputy Commandant for Operations, for a press briefing on thr efforts to reopen the Port of Baltimore and rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

Here’s some of what Admiral Gautier said:

“In terms of continuing to stabilize the vessel, mitigating any pollution threat, and removing the vessel from the area, the vessel is stable, but it still has over 1.5 million gallons of fuel oil and lube oil onboard. And it does have 4,700 cargo containers on board; 56 of those contain hazardous materials and 2 are missing overboard. The ones that are in the water do not contain hazardous — hazardous materials. And then, thir- — around 13 or so on the bow of the ship were damaged as the bridge collapsed and it impacted the front of that ship.

“So, the Coast Guard has moved aggressively to board the vessel, and we have teams on board. The responsible party, the ship operator, has mobilized, activated their marine salvage plan, in addition to their marine pollution response plan — both things that are required by the United States Coast Guard. That salvor is Resolve Marine Incorporated, and they have begun mobilizing resources to take the next steps appropriate to refloat the vessel and remove it from that area.

“The real critical thing here is that, as you know, a portion of the bridge remains on the bow of that ship, and we will be coordinating very closely with the Army Corps of Engineers and their contractors to first effect the removal of that debris before the vessel can then be removed. The vessel bow is sitting on the bottom because of the weight of the — of that bridge debris on there.

“And there are underwater surveys that are happening by remotely operated vehicle; divers will be in the water today to complete that underwater survey. There is no indication that there’s any flooding or any damage underneath the waterline to that vessel. And that effort will continue. We’ll keep you informed of that.

“And then, lastly, in terms of the — the casualty investigation, as the Secretary has said, this is led by the National Transportation Safety Board. I have had a couple of conversations with Chair Homendy on this account, and basically what we’ve done is we’ve activated a memorandum of understanding between the Coast Guard and NTSB.

“And because the multimodal and complex nature of this investigation, we will be providing Coast Guard investigators for what we call a marine board of investigation, which is our highest level of investigation in the Coast Guard that will fold in and coordinate with the NTSB investigation as that moves forward.”

• You can read the transcript of the entire briefing HERE