Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge: Salvage crews commenced the challenging task of lifting the initial piece of Baltimore’s collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge from the water on Saturday, marking the first phase in efforts to reopen the city’s obstructed port, as announced by Maryland and U.S. officials.
The collapse of the steel truss bridge occurred in the early hours of Tuesday, resulting in the tragic deaths of six road workers after a massive container ship lost power and collided with a support pylon. Subsequently, a significant portion of the bridge plunged into the Patapsco River, impeding the shipping channel of the Port of Baltimore.
Governor Wes Moore of Maryland stated during a news conference that a segment of the bridge’s steel superstructure located north of the crash site would be carefully cut into sections suitable for lifting by crane onto a barge. These sections would then be transported to the nearby Tradepoint Atlantic site at Sparrows Point.
Moore explained, “This will eventually allow us to open up a temporary restricted channel that will help us to get more vessels in the water around the site of the collapse.” Moore refrained from specifying a precise timeline for completing this phase of the clearance operation. “It’s not going to be a matter of hours,” he stated, “nor will it take days. However, once we finish this stage of the process, we can deploy additional tugs, barges, and boats to the area to expedite our recovery efforts.”
At present, workers are not prepared to extract the crumpled section of the bridge’s superstructure that currently rests on the bow of the Dali, the 984-foot Singapore-flagged container ship responsible for the bridge’s collapse. Moore noted that it remains uncertain when the ship can be relocated, although he mentioned that its hull, albeit damaged, remains “intact.”
Officials are grappling with the economic ramifications of both a closed port and the disruption of a vital highway connection. The bridge, constructed in 1977, served as a route for Interstate 695 around southeast Baltimore.
Maryland transportation authorities are devising plans to reconstruct the bridge, pledging to explore innovative designs or construction materials in the hopes of expediting a project that may span several years.
President Joe Biden’s administration has greenlit $60 million in immediate assistance and assured that the federal government will cover the entire expense of the reconstruction effort.
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