BALTIMORE – The Dali ship is expected to be removed from the wreckage site by early May, before the opening of a deeper temporary channel at the Port of Baltimore.
The update means major progress after the Key Bridge collapse five weeks ago, which caused deaths of six construction workersthe closure of the port, and challenges for businesses that use the port to transport goods.
After the ship is removed, the Fort McHenry Limited Access Channel will be reopened. The 45-foot-deep channel is expected to be operational in less than two weeks, by Friday, May 10th.
That channel will be open from 8 pm to 7 am and will have a 300-foot by 214-foot clearance.
Three other shallower channels will remain open during the removal process.
WJZ was granted rare access to one of three simulators that models the exact conditions on the day of the incident. The Cal Maritime simulation found little could have been done to prevent the tragedy once the ship lost power other than to quickly warn those in its path.
One scenario did show the ship may have avoided crashing into the bridge if two tugboats were able to pull it at full speed.
“We could compare it to the perfect storm of accidents where everything that could go wrong did go wrong at exactly where we would not want it to go wrong,” said Cal Maritime assistant professor of marine transportation Kevin Calnan.
The main 50-foot-deep channel is still set to reopen by the end of May. A giant hydraulic claw will make that possible by removing pieces of the bridge embedded in the Patapsco River.
Christian Olaniran
Christian Olaniran is a Digital Producer for CBS News Baltimore, where he writes stories on diverse topics including politics, arts, culture, and more. With a passion for storytelling and content creation, he produces engaging visual content for social media, and other platforms.
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