by Lia Russell and Darcy Costello at The Baltimore Sun
The first of three temporary vessel channels opened Monday on the northern side of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, offering responders a clear path as they work to salvage the bridge and ship that struck it.’
At a depth of roughly 11 feet, the temporary route is a fraction of the main “deep draft” shipping channel’s 50-foot depth. But it will provide a route for shallower draft tugs and barges, as well as for responders’ boats, officials said.
The goal, the governor and others said at a Monday news briefing, is to create three temporary channels. A second route, south of the collapse and at a slightly deeper depth of 15 feet, could open in the “coming days,” Gov. Wes Moore said. A third alternate route, estimated at a depth of 20 to 25 feet, ideally would allow most tugs and barges to move in and out of the Port of Baltimore.
Before that can happen, more pieces of the bridge will have to be cut up and lifted out of the water. The first operation to remove debris took 10 hours over the weekend as a giant crane pulled up a 200-ton span of the bridge. Responders described that as a “small lift,” Moore said.
“The scale of this project, to be clear, it is enormous,” said Moore, a Democrat. “Even the small lifts are huge.”
The Dali, a Singapore-flagged vessel,…
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