The Chesapeake 1000 crane barge carries a large section of the Francis Scott Key Bridge toward Tradepoint Atlantic as efforts continue to open the Federal Channel. (Jerry Jackson, Baltimore Sun/TNS)
BALTIMORE (Tribune News Service) — Crews lifted the last large piece of the Francis Scott Key Bridge blocking the main shipping channel in the Patapsco River on Tuesday morning, according to the Army Corps of Engineers.
The lift, which an Army Corps spokesperson said followed “extensive operations” to free the section of steel from the mudline, marked the end of operations to cut and haul out a large section of the Key Bridge that had fallen onto the Dali and the surrounding riverbed in late March after the freighter struck a bridge support column.
Key Bridge Response Unified Command crews are now set to pull smaller chunks of debris out of the water before reopening the full 700-foot-wide channel into the Port of Baltimore. The full marine route is expected to open sometime between Saturday and Monday after surveys to ensure no debris remains in the federal channel.
Opening the main channel will mark a return to normalcy for maritime traffic into the port, which was significantly hampered when the bridge collapsed into the federal channel on March 26, killing six construction workers.
A 400-foot-wide section of the main channel has allowed 24/7 cargo vessel access into the Baltimore harbor for about two weeks, opening after crews refloated the Dali.
Over the past several weeks, Unified Command crews have been cutting a 10-million-pound bridge segment into large pieces and lifting them out of the river using the Chesapeake 1000 crane. The large piece of steel truss, dubbed “Section 4,” is the same segment of bridge that had pinned down the Dali for 55 days.
The first segment, which weighed in at 140 tons, was lifted on May 24 and taken to Sparrows Point for processing. A second segment was lifted over the weekend, and the third and final was picked up and transported Tuesday morning.
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