Baltimore engineers begin clearing bridge wreckage to reopen channel

Engineers
in
Maryland
on
Saturday
began
lifting
a
piece
of

Francis
Scott
Key
Bridge
out
of
the
waterway
in
Baltimore,
the
first
step
in
a
long
process
to
reopen
the
city’s

shipping
port.

“I
cannot
stress
enough
how
important
today
and
the
first
movement
of
this
bridge
and
the
wreckage
is,”
said

Gov.
Wes
Moore
at
a
Saturday
press
conference. “The
complexity
of
this
cannot
be
overstated.”

On
early
Tuesday
morning,
the
Key
Bridge
collapsed
due
to
a
container
ship
colliding
into
one
of
its
pillars,
leaving
several
people
missing,
six
of
whom
the
U.S.
Coast
Guard
has
presumed
are
dead.

“We
are
never
going
to
lose
sight
of
the
human
aspect
of
this
crisis,”
Baltimore
Mayor
Brandon
Scott
said
Saturday.

In
the
days
since
the
collapse,
the
Port
of
Baltimore,
the
11th-largest
port
in
the
U.S.,
has
been
non-operational
until
further
notice,
forcing
shipping
companies
to

divert
to
other
ports.

Government
officials
on
the
federal,
state
and
municipal
levels
have
mobilized
their
teams
to
start
trying
to
bring
the
port
back
online.
President

Joe
Biden
is
set
to
visit
the
city
next
week
and
has
committed
to
the
federal
government
paying
for
the
full
cost
of
the
recovery
and
reconstruction
of
the
bridge.

To
execute
the
first
lift
of
the
bridge
on
Saturday,
engineers
cut
a
piece
of
the
bridge
to
make
it
manageable
for
their
crane.
Once
the
piece
is
cut,
engineers
will
attach
straps
to
it,
rig
it
and
lift
it
onto
a
barge
to
be
transported
out
of
the
waterway.

If
successful,
this
process
could
be
replicated
for
other
parts
of
the
bridge
to
clear
a
passageway
for
some
transportation
to
resume,
both
for
more
vessels
to
assist
in
the
recovery
of
the
bridge
site
and
possibly
for
some
commercial
shipping.

“Once
we
are
able
to
get
a
channel
reopen,
it
can
potentially
be
reused
for
commercial
assets
also,
but
we’ve
got
to
get
it
clear
first
and
that’s
what
we’re
working
on,”
said
U.S.
Coast
Guard
official
Shannon
Gilreath.

Economists
say
that
the
Baltimore
port
shutdown
likely
will
not
have
any
major
impacts
on
the
macroeconomy,
but
it
is
still
a
major
disruption
that
complicates
shipping
supply
chains.

“This
is
not
just
about
Maryland.
This
is
about
our
nation’s
economy,”
said
Gov.
Moore. “Our
economy
depends
on
the
Port
of
Baltimore
and
the
Port
of
Baltimore
depends
on
vessel
traffic.”