Trapped ship begins moving out of Baltimore after bridge collapse By Reuters
Daniel Trotta
(Reuters) – The Port of Baltimore opened a temporary channel on Monday to free some of the tugboats and barges trapped by last week’s bridge collapse, but officials said stubborn conditions were still frustrating widespread recovery of commercial vessels.
Baltimore’s shipping channel has been strained since a fully loaded container ship lost power and collided with a support beam on the Francis Scott Key Bridge last Tuesday, killing six road workers and causing the highway bridge to plunge into the Patapsco River. Blocked.
Recovery teams led by the U.S. Coast Guard and the state of Maryland aim to quickly reopen the port, the largest in the U.S. for “roll-on, roll-off” vehicle imports and exports of agricultural and construction equipment.
But first they must rescue the cargo ship Dali, which has been trapped under the rubble of a steel bridge with 4,000 containers and 21 crew members on board following an accident.
To illustrate the work ahead, officials said recovery workers would need 10 hours to cut and remove 200 tons of debris. This is called a “relatively small lift.”
“We’re talking about something that’s almost the size of the Statue of Liberty,” Gov. Wes Moore said at a news conference. “Let me be clear: the scale of this project is enormous. And even the smallest (task) is enormous.”
U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Shannon Gilreath said the work below the surface was much more complex than originally imagined. Because the twisted steel is obscured by murky water darkened by chunks of debris.
“These girders are inherently intertwined and intertwined, so it’s very difficult to figure out where we need to cut them so we can get them to a more manageable size for lifting them out of the water,” Gilreath said at the same press conference.
Officials declined to estimate how long it would take to clean up the port.
Limited vessel traffic resumed for the first time on Monday after recovery teams opened a controlled channel in 11 feet (3.35 meters) of water on the north side of the wreckage.
The first vessel to pass through the strait was a tugboat pushing a barge supplying jet fuel to the Pentagon, the Coast Guard said on Facebook (NASDAQ:), which posted video of the barge sliding under a cut-out section of the bridge where it still stands. . .
Moore said a second temporary channel, 4.6 to 4.9 meters deep, would be opened on the southbound side.
Once the debris is cleared, a third channel 20 to 25 feet (6.1 to 7.6 meters) deep will allow nearly all tugboats and barges to enter and exit the port, Gilreath said.
White House press secretary Carine Jean-Pierre said U.S. President Joe Biden will get a first-hand look at the recovery when he visits Baltimore on Friday.
The Biden administration helped secure barges and cranes, along with an initial influx of funding, and was working with Congress to get the federal government to pay for the bridge’s reconstruction.
