By The Star Staff
Puerto Rico Ports Authority Executive Director Joel Pizá Batiz said Wednesday that at the moment, the bridge collapse at the port of Baltimore is not expected to impact the island’s supply lines.
“There shouldn’t be any worry or anxiety in the population,” the official said in response to questions from the press. “Much of our cargo comes through the Port of Jacksonville. Of the vehicles that arrive in Puerto Rico, most of them come by rail. Yes, there are certain states in the nation that have their distribution chain a little threatened, mostly in the western zone, but for Puerto Rico there should be no alarm or anxiety about shortages of food or vehicles.”
“Maybe some importer, a particular product …” Pizá Batiz added. “The distribution chain is very wide, it’s billions of dollars, but there should be no anxiety in the population about that accident. Yesterday, the president of the United States mentioned that the federal government is going to be fully immersed in opening this navigation channel as quickly as possible. The [U.S. Army] Corps of Engineers is collaborating, the Coast Guard is collaborating, specifically to be able to open that navigation channel so that maritime traffic can be quickly restored. Talking about inflation costs to a chain of a more than $1.3 trillion economy right now I think is going to be very speculative. I think that channel should be open in a week, two weeks maximum, but there should be no anxiety in the population about that.”
In the early hours of Tuesday morning, a Dali cargo ship struck a column on the Francis Scott Key Bridge, collapsing several spans of the bridge structure and prompting the closure of the Port of Baltimore. The marine terminal is the deepest in Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay and handles the largest volume of U.S. commercial car and light truck transportation, as well as the largest amounts of imported gypsum and sugar.