BALTIMORE — Shipping channels circumventing the Francis Scott Key Bridge wreckage are providing some relief for idling container ships outside the Port of Baltimore, while other cargo companies are using the city’s vast rail network.
Authorities cleared two alternate channels, with plans to open a third, so some ship traffic could resume after the March 26 bridge collapse, which suspended most commercial activity at Baltimore’s normally bustling port.
A representative for one local port company said it’s using the small channel to supply a client cargo ship docked in Annapolis.
The representative, who asked not to be named, said the firm is sending spare parts, safety equipment and food to the cargo ship that’s in limbo until officials can clear the main channel in the Patapsco River.
That can still be a challenge. The representative said the providers they normally work with to resupply ships are mostly locked in helping government officials at the bridge wreck site.
The representative didn’t disclose what the ship was bringing in but said the company specializes in dry-bulk shipments — mainly coal. Ports in Baltimore and Norfolk, Virginia, are the two largest exporters of coal on the East Coast, with the cargo going to Europe, Brazil, India and China.
“That cargo can’t be done anywhere else,” the representative told The Washington Times. “They can’t find any other shipments for their ship. So they’re just going to wait until the port reopens.”
Salvage teams from the Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Coast Guard are using massive cranes to remove the bridge wreckage that’s clogging the river.
The Key Bridge fell last week after the cargo ship Dali lost power and rammed into a support pillar, sending the structure crashing into the water.
An eight-man construction crew was filling potholes on the bridge when it went down. The bodies of two men were found inside a submerged pickup truck, and officials fear at least four more are dead. Two men were saved shortly after the bridge crumbled into the water.
While officials work to clear the bridge’s hulking metal remains, some companies are working around the port’s closure by tapping into their train connections instead.
Ports America Chesapeake said in a Wednesday press release that it’s working with rail companies CSX and Norfolk Southern to “divert export cargo and return Baltimore-bound imports for release.”
Ports America Chesapeake said it will move freight to partner locations in New Jersey and New York during the port’s closure.
“Our on-dock railyard at the Seagirt Intermodal Container Transfer Facility also offers direct services and seamless connections for our customers in the face of the present crisis and is facilitating the flow of export and import cargos through the Baltimore market,” the release said.
Ports America Chesapeake could not be reached for comment.
The announcement comes as daily truck transactions at the Seagirt Terminal begin to shrivel.
Data from Ports America Chesapeake showed close to 3,000 transactions on March 28 with that number slumping to just over 2,000 Monday and roughly 1,000 Tuesday.
By midday Wednesday, only 500 trucks had come to the facility that sits on the Patapsco’s northern bank.
Officials are mum on when the main channel will be reopened.
Col. Estee S. Pinchasin, head of the Army Corps of Engineers in Baltimore said Tuesday that the bridge’s wreckage has “pancaked” into the Patapsco River, making cutting the metal into removable pieces especially tedious.
“We’re completing survey data from the other side as well, and we’re going to be able to put together a plan to get after this,” she said. “It might change how we’re going to lift this portion of the collapsed wreckage off the bottom of the seabed.”
Earlier this week, the Small Business Administration opened two offices in the Baltimore area to help the companies affected by the port’s abrupt closure.
The Canton office in Baltimore and the Dundalk office just across the city line in Baltimore County are offering emergency loans of up to $2 million for businesses in a pinch.
Thousands of workers — including 15,000 who work directly at the port and 140,000 indirectly — rely on the steady flow of cargo activity for employment.
The representative for the local shipping company is trying to stay optimistic, saying he hopes the main channel is cleared by the end of the month.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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