The Port of Baltimore has been shut down since the Frances Scott Key bridge collapsed on March 26th. The bridge collapsed after the 984 foot long container ship, Dali, hit one of the bridge’s support structures. The ship struck the bridge in the middle of the night when seven men were on the bridge working on a construction project. Only a couple of the men’s bodies have been recovered and the rest are unfortunately presumed dead. Immediately after the incident, they were beginning to clean up the wreckage, more with the goal of searching for the fallen men. Due to the unfortunate nature of the incident and the men now being presumed dead, they are refocusing the clean-up in order to get the port reopened for business.
The clean-up requires them to remove containers from on board the ship in order to then move it.
The removal process is estimated to be a several weeks long journey. They will need to remove about 140 containers from onboard the Dali in order for it to be refloated and moved by tugboats. Currently, the ship is grounded. The removal process began on Sunday, April 7th and so far, seven containers have been removed. They need to remove a total of around 10 to 12 containers first in order to restart the search for the fallen men. These containers are located on the ship in such a way that it poses a serious risk to search teams, so they had to pause that process. Once they have removed all that they need to remove, they will continue to lighten the Dali’s load to eventually move it.
The project is being led by a group titled United Command, which is made up of several entities. First in United Command is Synergy Marine, which is the management company behind the Dali. There is also the U.S Coast Guard, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Maryland Department of Environment, Maryland Transportation Authority, and the Maryland State Police. All of these organizations are working together to ensure quick and easy clean up that is best for the workers, environment, and port’s future.
Once the containers are removed, they are placed on a barge and sent off.
The first seven containers that were removed were sent to Sparrows Point. This is a former site for large industrial projects. For now, they will continue to bring the removed containers here.
