Maritime Attorney Predicts Significant Baltimore Bridge Failure May Divert Shipments to Brunswick, Jacksonville

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Jacksonville-based maritime lawyer said the disaster in Baltimore could cause shipments to come to ports like Brunswick and Jacksonville.

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The Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse will have a ripple effect as ports along the Eastern Seaboard have to accept shipments from Baltimore, one of the nation’s busiest ports.

Rod Sullivan, a veteran maritime lawyer, said Port Newark in New Jersey and the Norfolk Port in Virginia will likely get a lot of the shipments but they could become overloaded and some shipments will have to come to local ports.

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“There’s not a question about the fact that there are 2 major imports-exports that will be affected by the bridge being down. Number one is [automobile] and number two is coal. Now there are only so many places to deposit new automobiles from Europe on the east coast of the United States,” Sullivan said.

JaxPort told News4JAX that it hadn’t heard of any shipments being directed there, which is roughly 600 miles from the port of Baltimore.

Sullivan said business in the Port of Baltimore could be stopped or slowed for months. That may be a boon for Jacksonville-based CSX as a lot of freight now has to be moved by train.

“Because all those cars that were formerly going to Baltimore now are going to other ports and in order to get cars from the mid-Atlantic region. Most are going to have to be railed up there,” Sullivan said.

The Georgia Port Authority told News4JAX that the Brunswick port is more equipped to handle any cars rerouted from Baltimore than the larger Port of Savannah.