At the site of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, crews plan to refloat and remove the grounded Dali container ship by the end of next week, allowing more maritime traffic to resume through Baltimore’s port.
The ship, which lost power and crashed into one of the bridge’s supporting columns, has been stationary amid the wreckage since the March 26 collapse. Officials expect to have it removed by May 10, according to a news release Tuesday from the Port of Baltimore.
Six members of a roadwork crew plunged to their deaths in the disaster. Four bodies have been recovered while two remain missing.
Crews have identified “areas of interest” where they believe the bodies could be, but they’ve been unable to access them so far, Maryland State Police Superintendent Roland Butler said during a news conference Tuesday afternoon.
“We’re working in generalizations of areas where we think they should be, based on sonar images and other mapping techniques,” he said.
Officials declined to provide a projected timeline for how long the cleanup will continue and when the victims’ families can expect to be made whole. So far, 3,300 tons of debris have been removed from the Patapsco River.
“What we know is that we’re putting forth every single asset that we have at our disposal to bring closure to these families,” Gov. Wes Moore said during the news conference.
A large span of the steel bridge came crashing down on the Dali’s bow, damaging the ship and destroying some of its containers. Removing those pieces of bridge is the next major priority in the cleanup process, officials said.
“That work is remarkably complicated,” Moore said, because cutting the spans into shorter sections could risk destabilizing other pieces of wreckage.
Crews are using the largest hydraulic grabber in the country to help in that effort, he said.
Once the Dali returns to port, officials said they expect to open a 45-foot channel by May 10 that can accommodate more large cargo ships. They plan to fully restore the port’s 50-foot main channel by the end of May.
Thousands of longshoremen, truckers and small business owners have seen their jobs impacted by the collapse, prompting local and state officials to prioritize fully reopening the port in hopes of easing the economic ripple effects of the collapse. Officials have also established various assistance programs for unemployed workers and others impacted by the closure.
Last week, officials opened a temporary deep-draft channel that allowed some stranded cargo ships to finally leave the Port of Baltimore. Others entered the port through the channel, which will remain closed until about May 10 so crews could focus on extracting the Dali from the wreckage.
The Balsa 94, a bulk carrier sailing under a Panama flag, passed through the new 35-foot (12-meter) channel headed for Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. Two more commercial ships followed later Thursday, including a vehicle carrier headed to Panama.
Their long-awaited voyages marked an important step in the ongoing cleanup and recovery effort as crews have been working around the clock to clear thousands of tons of mangled steel and concrete from the entrance to Baltimore’s harbor.
Five vessels that had been stranded for weeks were able to finally leave Baltimore through the new, temporary channel. Other ships are scheduled to enter the port, which normally processes more cars and farm equipment than any other in the country.
On Thursday morning, the Balsa 94 moved through the channel guided by two tug boats, one in front and one behind. It glided slowly past the fallen bridge and grounded Dali, the massive container ship that caused the collapse when it slammed into one of the bridge’s support columns.
Pieces of the steel span are still blocking other parts of the port’s main channel, which has a controlling depth of 50 feet (15 meters), enough to accommodate some of the largest cargo and cruise ships on the water.
The Balsa 94 is expected to arrive in Canada on Monday.
The Dali lost power and veered off course shortly after leaving the Port of Baltimore bound for Sri Lanka last month.
Six members of a roadwork crew — all Latino immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras — plunged to their deaths in the collapse. Four bodies have been recovered from the underwater wreckage while two remain missing.
A memorial for the victims near the south end of the bridge has grown in recent weeks. It now includes six large wooden crosses decorated with flags from the victims’ home countries and other personal items, including the hardhats and work boots that allowed them to provide for their families and chase the American dream. A painted canvas backdrop displays abstract scenes from the bridge collapse and salvage efforts as well as handwritten notes from the men’s loved ones.
“We want to send a message to the world that we’re here and we care,” said the artist, Roberto Marquez, who was visiting the memorial late Thursday morning. “We will be here working until they are all recovered.”
A hulking vehicle carrier named Carmen that is nearly as long as the Dali became the third commercial ship to traverse the channel Thursday afternoon. Viewed from the deck of a nearby passenger boat, it appeared to sail steadily between the marker buoys, dwarfing the cranes, barges and other wreckage removal equipment that was stationed nearby.
In the meantime, both the FBI and the National Transportation Safety Board are conducting probes to determine what caused the ship to lose power and strike the bridge.
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