Two weeks after Baltimore’s Francis Scott
Key Bridge collapsed, the steel structure is still strewn across the
massive cargo ship that struck it, while state and federal officials face a
multitude of challenges, including clearing the harbor channel to restore port
access, investigating what happened, and securing funds to rebuild
the bridge.
President Joe Biden has pledged the federal government would pay for
the bridge recovery and rebuild, and Maryland’s congressional
delegation met with the administration this week to build support for that
project. Officials warned that addressing those challenges will take time and
will include battles around liability for the foreign ship and a lengthy safety
investigation.
The US Army Corps of Engineers set a timeline for
opening the Port of Baltimore to normal capacity by the end of
May as they work to establish another temporary channel. The
operation started removing containers from the cargo ship on April 7,
but most remain. The Unified Command has opened two temporary channels and is
working on opening a third by the end of the month that would deal with the
majority of traffic into the port of Baltimore.
Lawmakers say they will pursue full federal funding for the recovery.
Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) said this week that he will soon introduce
legislation with his delegation to ensure 100% of the federal cost share.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore has said all options – including private
partnership and tapping capital markets – will be considered to finance
reconstruction of the bridge if the federal government is unable to
cover the costs as originally promised.
The Singapore-flagged cargo ship Dali lost power and struck the bridge on March 26, killing several workers on the span and bringing a halt to marine traffic at the Port of Baltimore that relies on the channel. The container ship and workers on it have remained in place since.
The National Transportation Safety Board is on the vessel, still
collecting information, and the agency’s preliminary report is expected in the
first week of May, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy told Congress on April 10.
Lieutenant General Scott Spellmon of the US Army Corps of Engineers told
reporters they would be working on the heavy lifting of steel and concrete in
the weeks ahead as the channel has 9,000 tons of steel at the bottom and 3,000
tons of concrete.
Spellmon said he told Biden, who got an aerial tour of the wreckage on
April 5, that part of the bridge atop the ship weighs 5,000 tons, the
equivalent of a dozen Air Force Ones fully loaded with gasoline. More than 50
divers have been in the water over the past two weeks and officials are looking
to stabilize the vessel before attempting to move it.
Removing some of those containers is going to alleviate “a lot of that
pressure and allow the ship to become a little bit lighter,” Coast Guard
Commander Roberto Concepcion said, noting that there is still a lot of debris
under the water line. “Making the ship a little bit lighter allows for us to do
additional surveys underneath the waterline and hopefully free up the vessel,”
he added.
