Baltimore Channel Reopens Fully 11 Weeks After Ship Topples Key Bridge
The Baltimore channel fully reopened Monday evening. Ships now have unrestricted access to the port 11 weeks after the Key Bridge collapsed. The Fort McHenry Federal Channel, which was reopened 11 weeks after a ship accident that killed six road workers and displaced over 1,100 port jobs, has now been reopened. The restored 700-foot-wide and 50-foot deep channel allows two-way traffic without restrictions. All ships were cleared to return to port in late May, but still had to pass through a thinner shipping lane due to wind and safety restrictions. The operation involved 1,587 workers from 56 federal, state, and local agencies. The closure of the bridge was praised by Lt. Gen. Scott Spellmon, commanding general of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
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With the Fort McHenry Federal Channel back to its original size, ships once again have unrestricted access to the Port of Baltimore. All ships were cleared to return to port in late May, but they still had to pass through a thinner shipping lane subject to wind and safety restrictions. The restored 700-foot-wide and 50-foot-deep channel allows two-way traffic without any restrictions.
"We are proud of the unified efforts that fully reopened the Federal Channel to port operations," Lt. Gen. Scott Spellmon, commanding general of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said in a press release. "The partnerships that endured through this response made this pivotal mission successful."
The 984-foot container ship Dali lost power and crashed into the Key Bridge on March 26, killing those six road workers and costing over 1,100 port jobs. "Although the overarching goal to restore full operational capacity to the Federal Channel was successful, each day, we thought of those who lost their lives, their families, and the workers impacted by this tragic event," stated Col. Estee Pinchasin, Baltimore District commander of the Army Corps of Engineers. "Not a day went by that we didn't think about all of them, and that kept us going."
Crews started removing bridge debris on March 30. They had to pull about 50,000 tons of bridge wreckage from the Patapsco River. At its height, the operation required 1,587 workers from 56 federal, state and local agencies.
Roughly 500 specialists from around the world operated a fleet of 18 barges, 22 tugboats, 13 floating cranes, 10 excavators and four survey boats. "This has been a remarkably complex operation, spanning thousands of people, hundreds of assets, and multiple objectives," Gov. Wes Moore said in a statement. "This is government cooperation at its best—we can get big things done when we work together." The first of three temporary alternate channels for shallow-draft vessels opened on April 2. Containers were removed from the Dali starting on April 7. A 300-foot-wide, 35-foot-deep limited access channel opened on April 25. Recreational boats were allowed to return on May 9. On May 13, controlled explosives freed the Dali from a 10-million-pound Key Bridge segment atop its bow.
All ships have been able to return to the port using a 400-foot-wide, 50-foot-deep channel since May 20. That's when crews refloated and relocated the Dali after it was grounded for 55 days. Crews on June 4 removed the last large hunk of bridge wreckage blocking the Patapsco River. They later conducted surveys and recovered smaller debris before reopening the full channel.
The May 20 partial reopening beat the state's initial target of May 31, but Monday's full reopening missed that goal slightly.
The team will continue transporting wreckage from the barges to Sparrows Point for processing. Workers will still be in the river for routine channel maintenance to ensure future dredging doesn't hit bridge debris. Commerce leaders think port traffic will rebound quickly, but they warned that the trucking industry will suffer until the bridge is rebuilt.