BALTIMORE-
The first cargo ship passed through a newly opened deep-water canal in Baltimore on Thursday after becoming stuck in the harbor since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed four weeks ago, halting most shipping traffic through the port. from the city.
The Balsa 94, a bulk carrier sailing under the Panama flag, passed through the new 35-foot (12-meter) canal bound for St. John, Canada.
Their trip marked an important step in the ongoing cleanup and recovery effort, as rescue teams have been working around the clock to remove thousands of tons of shattered steel and concrete from the entrance to the Port of Baltimore.
The ship is one of five stranded vessels expected to pass through the new temporary canal, including a loaded car transporter. Other ships are scheduled to enter the port, which typically processes more cars and farm equipment than any other in the country.
On Thursday morning, the ship moved through the canal guided by two tugboats, one in front and one behind. She passed between red and green buoys that marked the limits of the canal and slowly slid between the remains of the bridge and the stranded Dali, the huge container ship that caused it to collapse when she crashed into one of the bridge’s support columns.
Pieces of the fallen bridge are still blocking other parts of the port’s main channel, which has a checkpoint depth of 50 feet (15 meters), enough to accommodate some of the largest cargo ships and cruise ships. Authorities have prioritized opening a temporary canal deep enough for large commercial ships to pass through in hopes of easing the economic impacts of the collapse.
The Balsa 94 is expected to arrive in Canada on Monday.
The Dali lost power and veered off course shortly after leaving the port of Baltimore bound for Sri Lanka last month. Six members of a road works team died in the collapse. Four bodies have been recovered from the underwater wreckage and two remain missing.
The new channel will remain open until Monday or Tuesday. It will close again until about May 10 as crews work to remove steel from the Dali and refloat the ship, which will then be guided back to port, officials said earlier this week.
The 35-foot depth is a substantial increase over the three other temporary channels established in recent weeks. This slightly advances the cleanup effort than planned, as officials previously said they hoped to open a canal of that depth by the end of April.
The port’s main channel will reopen next month after the ship has been removed. That will basically restore shipping traffic to normal.
In a court filing Monday, Baltimore’s mayor and city council called for the Dali’s owner and manager to be held fully responsible for the bridge’s collapse, which they said could be devastating to the regional economy. They said the port, which was established before the founding of the nation, has long been an economic driver for Baltimore and the surrounding area. The loss of the bridge has also disrupted a major East Coast trucking route.
Officials have set up a series of assistance programs for dockworkers and others whose jobs are suffering as a result of the collapse.
The filing came in response to an earlier petition on behalf of the two companies asking a court to limit their liability under a pre-Civil War provision of an 1851 maritime law, a routine procedure for such cases. A federal court in Maryland will ultimately decide who is responsible and how much you owe.
Meanwhile, both the FBI and the National Transportation Safety Board are conducting investigations to determine what caused the ship to lose power and crash into the bridge.