Rescue teams were scheduled to recover the inaugural fragment of Baltimore’s shattered Francis Scott Key Bridge on Saturday. This event, highlighted by Maryland and US officials, marks the commencement of a multifaceted task to unblock the city’s impeded port, thereby granting access for barges and tugboats to the calamity area.
The metal truss bridge experienced a catastrophic failure early Tuesday morning which tragically resulted in the death of six road workers. The catastrophe ensued when a gigantic cargo ship had a power outage and rammed into a support post. This impact knocked large parts of the bridge into the Patapsco river, effectively obstructing Baltimore Port’s shipping lane.
Wes Moore, the governor of Maryland, indicated at a press briefing that a segment of the bridge’s metal superstructure located north of the collision site, would be divided into a piece that would subsequently be hoisted by a crane onto a barge. It would then be transported to the nearby location of Tradepoint Atlantic at Sparrows Point.
“This will ultimately grant us the capacity to establish a transitory delimited channel, enabling us to deploy more ships in the water around the collapse location,” said Governor Moore.
He declined to discuss the schedule for this clearance phase, stating, “We won’t complete this in hours, nor in days. However, once this phase is finished, we’ll be able to deploy more tugboats, barges, and boats to expedite our bounce back.”
Efforts to extract a mangled section of the bridge’s superstructure resting on the front part of the Dali, a 300m container ship sailing under a Singapore flag that caused the bridge collapse, have yet to commence. Governor Moore admitted the timeline for shifting the ship remained unknown but reassured that, despite damage, its hull remained “whole.”
“This operation of removing bridge rubble and reopening Baltimore Port to maritime traffic is impressively complicated,” Moore said.
The remains of two workers who were servicing the bridge platform during the incident have been recovered, Moore noted. However, operations to locate and recover four other workers, presumed deceased, continue to be on hold. The hazard presented by an excess of debris makes it too perilous for divers to operate he declared.
Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath from the US Coast Guard conveyed to the press that the remainder from Patapsco river’s profound draft shipping pathway needs to be cleared before facilitating any movement of the Dali. The collective efforts of the US Coast Guard, the US navy’s salvage division, and the US army corps of engineers are crucial in this operation.
The debris will be transferred to Tradepoint Atlantic, formerly known as Bethlehem Steel Mill. The site is set to emerge as a distribution hub for renowned companies like amazon.com, Home Depot and Volkswagen. Despite the bridge collapse, the port facility in this location, situated by the Chesapeake Bay, remains fully functional.
Five days post-calamity, around 15,000 individuals involved in day-to-day port operations have found their trade temporarily suspended. Although experts in logistics confirm other ports on the US east coast can manage the container traffic, Baltimore holds the record as the largest US port that overlooks “roll-on, roll-off” imports and exports of vehicles including agriculture and construction equipment.
Maryland’s US Senator Chris Van Hollen reported that the Small Business Administration has granted the state’s application for a disaster declaration. This authorises small businesses affected by the disaster to seek emergency loans with low interest, up to $2 million, until the end of 2024.
On Thursday, the federal government expediently gave the initial green light for a $60 million emergency fund distribution to Maryland to facilitate debris clearance and the commencement of reconstruction for the Key Bridge. US President Joe Biden made a commitment that all expenses for debris removal and bridge reconstruction would be covered by the federal government, as reported by Reuters. Omnibus copyright Thomson Reuters, 2024.