Posted on September 30, 2024
The main channel to the Port of Baltimore fully reopened, nearly 11 weeks after a cargo ship lost power and slammed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge, shutting down one of the nation’s busiest waterways.
Six construction workers were killed in the March 26 disaster, when a Singaporean containership leaving the port lost power around 1:30 a.m. and struck a bridge support column. A large section of the 1.6-mile span crumpled into the Patapsco River. Its wreckage blocked most of the port’s 700-foot wide channel.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Monday that the channel has been restored to its original dimensions and the riverbed was certified as safe for transit.
Underwater salvage crews, coordinated by several agencies, worked to separate and remove tons of bridge debris from the harbor floor, about 50-feet below the surface.
Crews pulled the final steel truss—a slab of concrete, cables and steel rebar—from Fort McHenry Federal Channel last week, clearing the way for the port’s full reopening, officials said. Tugboats transported the containership, called the Dali, to a local marine terminal last month.
The nearly 50-year-old bridge, opened in 1977, was part of the Interstate 695 beltway that rings Baltimore. President Biden has said he wants the federal government to pay to rebuild the bridge.
The Dali suffered several electrical outages in the hours before the deadly collision, according to a National Transportation Safety Board report released last month. It lost electricity before and after leaving the Port of Baltimore, the report said.
The vessel was six-tenths of a mile from the Key Bridge when its electrical breakers unexpectedly tripped. The Dali lost steering and propulsion, the NTSB said.
Its crew rushed to restore electrical power, but had another blackout just two-tenths of a mile from the bridge, the report said.
Maryland authorities, alerted by ship personnel, stopped cars crossing the bridge before the crash. Eight construction workers repairing potholes on the bridge fell into the water. Two were rescued.
