DUNDALK, Maryland —
Maryland’s leaders held a press meeting Wednesday afternoon to talk about the latest work being done at the site of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge.
Today, these reports came out on the same day that the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board spoke at a hearing in the U.S. Senate about their investigation into why the Dali crashed into the Key Bridge.
Officials said they are still on track to open a temporary channel 35 feet deep and 280 feet long by the end of April and let ships back into the Port of Baltimore for good by the end of May.
“We’ve already completed two temporary channels, one on the northeast side of collapse with a depth of 11 feet (and) one on the south side with a depth of 14 feet,” Moore said. “As of (Wednesday) morning, there have been 58 commercial movements throughout those two channels.”
Moore also said that’s about 15% of the amount of ship travel there was before the collapse.
Crews are still working to get the piece of the Key Bridge that’s sitting on top of the Dali ship’s containers off of it, he said.
Moore said, “That work is hard and dangerous.” “Just one empty container sitting on the vessel can have the weight of over 1.5 tons.”
About 178 containers will need to be taken off the Dali ship before the piece of damage on it can be lifted and the ship put back on the water. At least 34 crates have been taken away so far.
“The deadline will be met by the end of April,” said Col. Estee Pinchasin, who oversees the Army Corps of Engineers Baltimore District. “We’re still planning all the operations making sure safety is still paramount in all that we’re doing throughout the entire waterway.”
Pinchasin talked about the damage below the waterline and said that a 1,500-ton bridge piece is being cut in half so that it can be recovered from the water.
“They’ve created a gap by creating a hole to lower a bucket to dig out the roadway and the debris that’s laying on top of the bottom part of this truss,” she stated. “That’s not to say it’s all clean and clear sitting there; the road went all the way over the wreckage, so it’s not out in the open.” They had to dig it out to cut it.
After the digging is done, divers will get into the sea and attach hydraulic shears to different parts of the bridge so that they can be cut.
“(The) 1,500-ton span is going to be broken up into 720 and about 794 tons each and then we’re going to see the action, taking it out to Sparrow’s Point,” he said.
Mayor Brandon Scott of Baltimore also talked about an Action Plan that his office put out on Wednesday. He said that people whose lives were affected by the port’s closure might be able to get help with their rent and electricity bills.
“To help families who need it, we’re going to run these programs through our current program.” “I’ve told the whole city government to let workers who were affected by the bridge collapse in,” Scott said.
Moore said that the Maryland State Police have more than 25 people working on recovery activities every day. He also said that the head of immigrant affairs has been in touch with all of the families of the victims nonstop and that 30 people from the state government have been assigned to help each one.
