Tradepoint Atlantic will be essential to Key Bridge cleanup

Over the weekend, demolition crews began to carefully remove the first pieces of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge from the Patapsco River.

A 200-ton portion of the bridge was cut away by demolition experts, hoisted out of the water with massive cranes, and floated away on a barge.

According to Gov. Wes Moore, this 200-ton segment was only a small, “bite-sized” piece of the wreckage. Thousands of tons of steel and concrete need to be removed from the Patapsco River after the devastating collapse of the Key Bridge last week when it was hit by a cargo ship. Estimates to clear the debris and reopen the shipping channel range from months to over a year, with a heavy emphasis on safety.

“I cannot stress enough how important today and the first movement of this bridge and of the wreckage is. This is going to be a remarkably complicated process,” Moore said.

Central to the cleanup efforts is Tradepoint Atlantic, the Sparrows Point-based logistics center on the site of the old Bethlehem Steel mill. Located off Interstate 695, businesses at Tradepoint Atlantic depend almost entirely on the Key Bridge and the Port of Baltimore to move goods.

“I want to thank Tradepoint Atlantic,” Moore said. “This human tragedy is also an economic catastrophe. In the early hours, it was Tradepoint who said ‘Let us help.’”

Although the facility won’t be able to take in most of the shipping traffic bound for the Port of Baltimore, it will act as a staging area for Unified Command to bring in heavy equipment like the Chesaepeake 1000, a crane capable of lifting 1000 tons. After a piece of the collapsed bridge is lifted and carried away, barges take it to Tradepoint for disposal.

“Generally when the debris is taken to the laydown yard at Tradepoint Atlantic at Sparrows Point, it will be inspected and secured until they find the final disposition for disposal in a safe manner,” Army Corps of Engineers Col. Estee Pinchasin said.

With deep-water docks, railroad connections and plenty of heavy equipment, Tradepoint is in an ideal position to take away the debris. In fact, it has the only deep-water berths in the Chesapeake Bay that are still accessible.

“We will continue working with their team, and we are grateful for their support and grateful for their leadership,” Moore said from a shipyard at Tradepoint.

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.

“I know, right now everybody wants to see things moving,” Pinchasin said. “You need to know and you need to trust that behind the scenes, it’s moving.”

Even as the demolition crews shift their focus to removing the debris, officials extended their sympathy and prayers to the families of the six victims. Two have been identified: 35-year-old Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, and 26-year-old Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, who lived in Dundalk. Four others remain missing and are presumed dead.

“As our engineers are assessing and surveying and figuring out how they’re going to lift those loads, they know in the back of their minds that they’re also looking for any traces of the fallen.” Pinchasin said.