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.