PATAPSCO RIVER, Md. — In the sun-dappled water below where the Francis Scott Key Bridge once stood, signs of disaster are impossible to miss.
Street lights poke improbably above the surface, and speed limit signs stand dutifully atop concrete pillars that once supported the span’s frame.
The bridge’s distinct metalwork, twisted and bent, angrily pins the container ship that toppled it nearly a month ago to the day.
As a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers boat captain deftly maneuvered his debris-removal ship, the Reynolds, around the captive tanker, the Dali, the focus Tuesday was on the salvage operation and the push to clear a channel for idling freighters that have been waiting weeks to access the Port of Baltimore.
The structure’s remnants towered over the salvage ship as it sailed around the worksite and moved past the temporary channel, which Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said is slated to open later this week.
U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Shannon Gilreath said the 35-foot-deep alternate channel will handle ships carrying heavier cargo, such as sugar and coal, and get one of the nation’s busiest ports back to work.
PHOTOS: Key Bridge salvage effort advances with new channel on horizon
Officials said they hope to have the 50-foot-deep federal channel reopened by the end of May. Three smaller channels were opened in the weeks after the collision.
“This still remains a remarkably complex situation. Our team, though, now is double tracking,” Mr. Moore said during a Tuesday briefing. “What we mean by that is salvage operations are happening while also commercial vehicles are moving in and out of the Port of Baltimore.”
Larger vessels will use the temporary channel created just north of the container ship Dali, the Sri Lanka-bound freighter that authorities said lost power and destroyed the Key Bridge by ramming into a support beam.
Eight members of a construction crew were filling potholes on the span during the March 26 collision, officials said.
Six men were presumed dead, and the bodies of four of the road workers have been recovered. Two members of the construction crew were saved by rescue teams shortly after the bridge crumbled around 1:30 a.m. the day of the crash.
Mr. Moore stressed the importance of finding the remains of the two men feared dead and bringing closure to those families, as well as getting the thousands of Port of Baltimore workers back to the docks.
An Army Corps member aboard the Reynolds said clearing the alternate channel became the main goal once salvage teams realized the Dali was trapped under the bridge’s wreckage.
The Corps started by mapping out the channel with sonar and then going through the process of identifying pieces to cut and lift out of the water.
First, salvage teams had to dredge the riverbed and free up the heavy metal remains lodged below.
The final piece of opening the temporary channel took place the past three days. Corps teams had to move a 560-ton portion of the Key Bridge wrapped around one of the structure’s concrete beams.
After the piece was severed into a smaller chunk, a Corps member said the Chesapeake 1000 — the Eastern Seaboard’s largest barge-bound crane — grasped the remnant in its claws and carried it to a nearby harbor.
“The Chesapeake 1000 looks like it’s popping a wheelie when it carries heavy loads because of the counterweights and how the crews flood the back,” said the Corps member, who asked not to be identified.
The Reynolds swung by the Chesapeake 1000 on its tour Tuesday to highlight the scope of wreckage. Mud was visibly caked onto the bottom portion of the bridge segment that was now being chopped into smaller pieces in hopes of recycling the steel.
None of the Corps members wanted to estimate how much of the salvage operation was left to go, but one said a “considerable amount” remains beneath the surface.
Gov. Moore said more than 2,900 tons of wreckage have been removed from the site in nearly a month.
Tuesday’s good news contrasted with the contentious legal fight announced a day earlier.
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and the city’s council said in a Monday court filing that the Dali’s owner and manager should be held fully liable for the bridge collapse.
The ship, registered in Singapore and chartered by Danish company Maersk, petitioned to cap its liability in an earlier court filing.
Baltimore’s filing argued the destroyed bridge would have an enormous impact on the port, which employs 15,000 people directly and close to 140,000 indirectly. The Port of Baltimore is a major hub for coal and automotive products.
The bridge was also a crucial trucking route on the East Coast, particularly for moving gasoline and other hazardous materials that can’t use Baltimore’s tunnels.
Shipping companies are already feeling the effect.
Close to 3,000 truck transactions were taking place daily in the Ports America Chesapeake’s Seagirt Terminal around the time of the crash, according to the organization’s data.
The facility on the Patapsco’s northern bank averaged roughly 350 truck transactions in the past week.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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