14 May 2024 (Lloyd's List) - SALVORS successfully blew apart portions of the bridge wreckage on top of the 9,900 teu Dali (IMO: 9697428) on Monday, a significant milestone in the efforts to refloat the vessel and reopen the channel.
The controlled detonation was initially scheduled to take place over the weekend, but was rescheduled to 1700 hrs local time on Monday due to adverse weather.
The explosions were designed to make “precision cuts” in the bridge’s truss, breaking it down to smaller pieces that can be loaded on barges.
Baltimore mayor Brandon Scott hailed the US Coast Guard-led Unified Command’s “flawless, safe execution of these precision cuts”.
“This is an important milestone in our effort to clear the channel,” he said on social media platform X.
Maryland Governor Wes Moore told reporters during a press conference on Monday ahead of the controlled detonations that efforts to fully reopen the channel by the end of May remain on track.
“We are now very close to fully clearing the channel, and we’re already getting large ships in and out of the port of Baltimore,” he said.
“Over the next week, we are expecting about 30 vessels and barges at the port’s public and private terminals. Those vessels would include containerships; ro-ro ships carrying farm machinery and new cars; and bulk ships carrying sugars, metals and oil.”
Moore added that while some suggested that clearing the channel would take months, “because of the hard work, the diligence, the speed, the 24/7 operation that has taken place, we’ve been able to get it done in a matter of weeks”.
Vessel traffic to and from the port of Baltimore ground to a halt when Dali crashed into the Key Bridge in the early hours of March 26, killing six construction workers who were on the bridge at the time of the allision, and injuring two others.
Limited commercial traffic has since been gradually restored to Baltimore using temporary channels with shallow draughts, allowing some vessels that were stranded since March 26 to leave the port.
On Monday, ACL’s Atlantic Sun (IMO: 9670614) became the first ro-ro vessel to arrive at Baltimore’s Dundalk Terminal since the incident, the port said on X.
