Garret Graves Demands Responsible Party Be Held Accountable After FSK Bridge Collapse

4 months ago

During a House Transportation Committee hearing last week, Rep. Garret Graves (R-LA) questioned witnesses about the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse and other impacts of other bridges around the country.

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Transcript

00:00Mr. Graves. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I first want to join others in wishing

00:09condolences to the families of those who were lost in the

00:13bridge collapse and also I just find it remarkable the incredible action of

00:19the law enforcement community came in and stopped traffic that could have been

00:22much worse than it was. Last week I had the opportunity to go out to the bridge

00:25and Admiral I'll tell you that Admiral Gilreath and

00:34Captain O'Donnell and even Lieutenant Carter who was behind you a little while

00:39ago, just absolutely remarkable. General, Colonel, your district commander down

00:45there, Colonel Pinchasen, I believe, she was awesome. I had met her

00:51down in New Orleans and she and her team did a great job. They're folks

00:54from DHS that were really, really good and just an incredibly thorough briefing

00:59and gave lots of comfort that the things were under control and I

01:02appreciate all the efforts that are underway down there.

01:06Administrator, I want to ask a question. I want to make sure I understand

01:09something. You said earlier that what's being done in this bridge is

01:13consistent with what's been done in other bridges in the past for

01:17disasters. Is that accurate? Thank you, Representative. I'm trying to think of

01:23what I said. I wrote down that you said it consisted with historic bridge

01:26disasters but there's not another bridge where you just, where FHWA came in and

01:30just designated that it's going to be part of the interstate system. No, we

01:35only learned that it was not part of the interstate system in light of this event.

01:39Okay, so that is an anomaly. Absolutely. Okay, I want to be

01:44clear on that and then secondly, so you've talked about the use of

01:49categorical exclusions and doing some type of expedited NEPA whether you do a

01:53CADEX or you do alternative arrangements. I want to be clear, fully supportive of

01:57it, but in the past, Minneapolis Bridge, the I-35 Bridge, I believe the bridge in

02:02Washington State and others, similar things have been done. Can you cite where

02:06there's been environmental damages or destruction from that approach as

02:10opposed to going through the regular NEPA? So just trying to think through

02:17your question, citing environmental damage by using the expedited approach.

02:21No, I can't cite environmental damage. And I can't either. And actually Colonel,

02:26excuse me, Major General Graham, sorry about that, demoted you. General, you

02:31recall after Hurricane Katrina, the levees were built using alternative

02:34arrangements. Do you remember any type of environmental damages or destruction

02:37that was caused from doing the alternative arrangements? Yeah, I don't

02:42think so either. I think it actually worked out really well. And so my

02:46message to you on this is that right now, the average road project takes somewhere

02:51around seven years and three or four months. As you know, the White House has

02:54just released new rules on NEPA in line with the fiscal, well, attempting to be in

02:59line with the Fiscal Responsibility Act, but failing on some things, but that

03:03would significantly shorten it. But my message is that this shouldn't be

03:08the exception. The environmental damages haven't resulted from using

03:12categorical exclusions or alternative arrangements. Look, I don't know what the

03:16traffic impacts are of this bridge. We have a bridge at home that is the source

03:20of the fourth worst traffic problem in America. The Mississippi River Bridge,

03:24I-10, I-10 going from California to Florida, fourth worst traffic in America.

03:29We have taken seven years to narrow a new bridge alignment down to 32

03:37alignments. Like, you can't make this stuff up. This is outrageous. We have

03:42urgency there as well. Look, I want to be crystal clear. I fully support, fully

03:46support federal funding up front. Let's get this thing built. Let's get it done

03:50as quickly as possible. I fully support categorical exclusion or alternative

03:54arrangements. I've been in touch with the governor of Maryland, and I appreciate

03:56him reaching out. But this is a major anomaly. We've got a toll. We've got a

04:03responsible party. This isn't a natural disaster, and I think that we need to

04:07make sure that we're holding the responsible party accountable. We had a

04:10similar incident in Louisiana in the mid-90s, the Brightfield. A Brightfield

04:14incident came and crashed into the River Walk in Louisiana. It was a Japanese

04:19built vessel. It was run by Chinese. It was, I think, run by Chinese and flagged

04:23in Liberia. Admiral, I want to ask you real quick. Can you think of any similar

04:28incidents with Jones Act vessels that have occurred like this? Not from

04:34deep-draft vessels. Certainly, there are a number of towing. Sure, some barges and

04:39much more minor incidents. Chairman, how many are you aware of anything? And so,

04:45look, one thing I just, I want to point out here, and for the record, she's taking

04:47her head, no. One thing I want to point out here, look, Jones Act vessels, U.S.

04:51built, U.S. crewed, U.S. flagged. We go through annual inspections, a night and

04:56day difference, and I think that's something else we need to take into

04:59consideration here. Lastly, Administrator, this bridge, it is not going to be built

05:03back exactly like it was, will it? It's gonna be wider. You're gonna have

05:06shoulders. You're gonna have a different pier configuration. You're gonna have

05:09different tidal influences. You're gonna have bumpers. You're gonna have dolphins

05:11and other things protecting the pier structures. Is that correct? Yes, sir. Okay.

05:16All right. I just want to make sure that we're noting that this is actually a

05:19different bridge that's being reconstructed with effectively waiving or

05:23providing alternative arrangements or categorical exclusions underneath both.

05:27Yield back.

Garret Graves Demands Responsible Party Be Held Accountable After FSK Bridge Collapse

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