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A section of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge is seen in the Baltimore port on April 1, 2024. (Kaitlin Newman/The Baltimore Banner via AP)
First vessel uses alternate channel to bypass wreckage at Baltimore bridge collapse site
Listen to this articleA tugboat pushing a fuel barge was the first vessel to use an alternate channel to bypass the wreckage of Baltimore’s collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge, which had blocked traffic along the vital port’s main shipping channel.
The barge supplying jet fuel to the Department of Defense left late Monday and was destined for Delaware’s Dover Air Force Base, though officials have said the temporary channel is open primarily to vessels that are helping with the cleanup effort. Some barges and tugs that have been stuck in the Port of Baltimore since the collapse are also scheduled to pass through the channel.
Officials said they’re working on a second channel on the southwest side of the main channel that will allow for deeper draft vessels, but they didn’t say when that might open.
On Tuesday, Gov. Wes Moore visited one of two centers that the Small Business Administration opened in the area to help companies get loans to assist them with losses caused by the disruption of the bridge collapse.
U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, a Democrat who accompanied Moore in meetings with potential loan applicants, said he spoke with truck drivers who relied on the port to supply their cargo. They are among those feeling the immediate economic effects of the collapse, he said, but the ripple effects will be widespread — especially for small businesses, which he called “the growth engine of our nation.”
In Annapolis, a hearing is scheduled Tuesday afternoon for a bill authorizing use of the state’s rainy day fund to help port employees who are out of work because of the bridge collapse and aren’t covered under unemployment insurance while the port is closed or partially closed. The bill also would let the governor use state reserves to help some small businesses avoid laying people off and to encourage companies that relocate to other ports to return to Baltimore when it reopens.
Lawmakers are working to pass the bill quickly in the last week of their legislative session, which ends Monday.
Crews are undertaking the complicated work of removing steel and concrete at the site of the bridge’s deadly collapse into the Patapsco River after a container ship lost power and crashed into a supporting column. On Sunday, dive teams surveyed parts of the bridge and checked the ship, and workers in lifts used torches to cut above-water parts of the twisted steel superstructure.
Authorities believe six workers plunged to their deaths in the collapse, including two whose bodies were recovered last week. Two other workers survived.
Moore said at a Monday afternoon news conference that his top priority is recovering the four bodies, followed by reopening shipping channels to the port. He said he understands the urgency but that the risks are significant because of the mangled steel of the fallen bridge that crews have described as “chaotic wreckage.”
“We have to move fast, but we cannot be careless,” he said.
RELATED: Owner of ship that destroyed Baltimore’s Key Bridge asks to cap liability at $43M
U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath said divers examining the steel girders beneath the surface found that the steel is tangled and intertwined, making it difficult to figure out where they can be cut to make them manageable to lift out of the water.
“What we’re finding is it is more complicated than we hoped for initially,” Gilreath said.
Moore said crews used a large crane to cut up and lift a 200-ton span of the bridge, a task that took 10 hours. He said the piece was considered a “relatively small lift.”
“The scale of this project, to be clear, it is enormous, and even the small lifts are huge,” he said.
Moore said crews will lift another 350-ton piece from the bridge later Monday as weather allows.
Officials earlier said the temporary channel was to be marked with lighted aids to navigation and have a controlling depth of 11 feet, a 264-foot horizontal clearance, and a vertical clearance of 96 feet.
“This marks an important first step along the road to reopening the Port of Baltimore,” said Capt. David O’Connell, federal on-scene coordinator for Key Bridge Response 2024. “By opening this alternate route, we will support the flow of marine traffic into Baltimore.”
President Joe Biden will visit the site Friday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre announced Monday afternoon. He will meet with state and local officials and get an “on-the-ground look” at federal response efforts, Jean-Pierre said.
In Annapolis, a hearing is scheduled Tuesday for a bill authorizing the use of state reserves to provide financial assistance to port employees who are out of work because of the bridge collapse. Lawmakers are working to pass the bill quickly in the last week of their legislative session, which ends Monday.
Also Monday, the Small Business Administration opened two centers in the area to help companies get loans to assist them with losses caused by the disruption of the bridge collapse. One of the centers is in Dundalk, a suburb of Baltimore on the northeast end of the bridge.
RELATED: Building a new Key Bridge could take years and cost hundreds of millions, experts say
Yvette Jeffery, a spokesperson for the agency’s disaster recovery office, said affected businesses can receive loans for as much as $2 million. She said the effects could range from supply-chain challenges to decreased foot traffic in communities that depended heavily on the bridge.
The collapse of the Key Bridge Tuesday has prevented ships from entering or leaving the Port of Baltimore because the Patapsco River channel is blocked with bridge debris.
The current 2,000-yard safety zone around the Francis Scott Key Bridge remains in effect and is intended to protect personnel, vessels, and the marine environment, the announcement said. No vessel or person will be permitted to enter the safety zone without obtaining permission from the Captain of the Port or a designated representative.
On Sunday, divers assisted crews with the complicated and meticulous operation of removing the steel and concrete from the fallen bridge. Cranes periodically swung into place and workers measured and cut the steel to prepare to lift sections of twisted steel.
Dive teams were in the river Sunday surveying parts of the bridge underwater and checking on the ship to ensure it can be safely floated away once the wreckage is lifted. Workers in lifts used torches earlier to cut parts of the twisted steel superstructure above water.
The bridge fell early Tuesday as the crew of the cargo ship Dali lost power and control. They called in a mayday, which allowed just enough time for police to stop vehicles from getting on the bridge, but not enough time to get a crew of eight workers off the structure.
Two workers survived, two bodies were found in a submerged pickup and four more men are presumed dead. Weather conditions and the tangled debris underwater have made it too dangerous for divers to search for their bodies.
Each part of the bridge removed from the water will be lifted onto a barge and floated downstream to the Tradepoint Atlantic logistics center, where it will be inspected, Coast Guard Rear Adm. Shannon Gilreath said.
Baltimore’s Key Bridge destroyed: Everything you need to know
Everything the salvage crews do affects what happens next and ultimately how long it will take to remove all the debris and reopen the ship channel and the blocked Port of Baltimore, Gov. Wes Moore said.
It can also alter the course of the National Transportation Safety Board investigation, which Moore said is important to ensure this doesn’t happen again.
“We need to have answers on what happened. We need to know who should be accountable for this. And we need to make sure we’re holding them accountable,” Moore said Sunday on CNN.
The crew of the Dali, which is as long as the Eiffel Tower is tall, remains onboard the ship. The vessel is tangled in 3,000 to 4,000 tons of debris. Most of its containers remain intact, but some were torn open or knocked away by the falling debris.
The Dali is managed by Synergy Marine Group and owned by Grace Ocean Private Ltd. Danish shipping giant Maersk charted Dali, which was on its way out of port when it hit the bridge’s support column.
Along with clearing the shipping channel to reopen the port, officials are trying to figure out how to rebuild the major bridge, which was completed in 1977 and carried Interstate 695 around southeast Baltimore and was a vital link to the city’s centuries of maritime culture.
It took five years to build the original bridge. President Joe Biden’s administration has promised to pay the full cost to rebuild and state and federal transportation officials said they will work as quickly as possible.
But exactly how long the new bridge will take can’t be figured out now. Engineers haven’t been able to assess the condition of the ramps and smaller bridges leading to the collapsed structure to get the full scope of what must be done.
Congress is expected to consider aid packages to help people who lose jobs or businesses because of the prolonged closure of the Port of Baltimore. The port handles more cars and farm equipment than any other U.S. facility.
“This matters to folks in rural North Carolina, in Kansas, and Iowa. This matters to the global economy. And it should not be something that has anything or any conversation around party. We are talking about an American tragedy to an American city,” Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
