FOX News Chief National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin gives an update on cleanup efforts after the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse on “Claman Countdown.”
of port of baltimore It opened a temporary channel Monday for some tugboats and barges stuck in the port after a bridge collapsed last week. Work continues to broadly restore commercial shipping traffic to the port.
The port’s main shipping lane has been cut off since the container ship MV Dali lost power and collided with the supports of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing the bridge to collapse into the Patapsco River and killing six construction workers. .
A recovery team led by the U.S. Coast Guard and the state of Maryland is working to reopen the nation’s second-largest port in a “roll-on, roll-off” manner. Import and export of automobiles Manufacture of agricultural machinery and construction machinery.
Limited shipping traffic was allowed Monday after a temporary canal with an administrative depth, or minimum depth, of 11 feet was opened on the northbound side of the canal, which was blocked by bridge debris and a still-trapped container ship. It was reopened for the first time.
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Inclement weather and the complexity of disposing of the bridge wreckage have delayed recovery efforts. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/Getty Images)
The first ship to pass through the strait was a tugboat with a barge that supplied jet fuel to the Pentagon. coast guard he said in a Facebook post, showing a video of the barge passing under a cut-out section of the bridge that still stands.
A second temporary channel is planned on the southbound side and will be 15 to 16 feet deep. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said Monday that a second channel would open “within the next few days.”
Once the debris is cleared, a planned third waterway, 20 to 25 feet deep, will allow most tug and barge traffic to enter and leave the port, U.S. Coast Guard Maj. Gen. Shannon Gilreath told reporters. He said this at a press conference.
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A Crystal Coast barge carrying fuel is the first to use the new waterway near the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge as efforts begin to reopen the Port of Baltimore in Baltimore on April 1, 2024. It was one of the ships. (Tassos Katopodis/Getty Images/Getty Images)
Officials declined to specify a timeline for the full reopening of the Port of Baltimore. container ship dali Remains of the bridge were recovered and debris removed from the waterway. Recovery efforts have been hampered by bad weather in recent days.
They noted that it took recovery workers 10 hours to cut and remove 200 tons of debris, calling it a “relatively small lift.”
“We’re talking about something about the size of the Statue of Liberty,” Moore said at a news conference. “To be clear, the scale of this project is huge. And even the smallest (task) is huge.”
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Salvage crews remove the remains of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, April 2, 2024. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/Getty Images)
Mr Gilreath added that the task of clearing the waterway would be more complicated than initially imagined, given the large amount of dismembered steel hidden in the murky waters of the port.
“These spars are essentially intertwined and intertwined, making it very difficult to figure out where they need to be cut to get them to a manageable size when lifting them out of the water,” Gilreath told reporters. He said this at a press conference.
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The Coast Guard and the state of Maryland plan to open a second temporary channel soon, and a third after more debris is removed. (Michael A. McCoy of The Washington Post via Getty Images/Getty Images)
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said President Biden will visit Baltimore on Friday to tour recovery efforts.
The Biden administration helped secure barges and cranes for recovery efforts and the first influx of relief funds.of White House is working with Congress on a funding plan that would force the federal government to pay for the bridge’s reconstruction.
Reuters contributed to this report.
