Crews scramble to build temporary channel for 'essential' ships at Baltimore port

Six days after a container ship's catastrophic crash into a Baltimore bridge, authorities were preparing to establish a temporary alternate channel to allow "commercially essential" ships to navigate through one of the nation's busiest ports.

Coast Guard Capt. David O'Connell said the 11-foot-deep temporary route will be marked with lights and represents part of a phased approach to opening the main channel. A 2,000-yard safety zone remains in effect around the Francis Scott Key Bridge site to protect salvage workers, ships and the marine environment, according to the Unified Command representing multiple agencies and led by O'Connell.

“This will mark an important first step along the road to reopening the Port of Baltimore,” O’Connell said. The alternate route will allow some marine traffic into Baltimore, he said. No ships or people will be permitted to enter the safety zone without permission from the port.

The cargo ship Dali, which weighs 95,000 tons when empty, was loaded with thousands of containers when it rammed the bridge Tuesday. The crew broadcast a mayday moments before the collision, which allowed authorities to halt traffic before the bridge collapsed into the Patapsco River. Six workers patching potholes on the bridge were killed. Two bodies have been recovered and four are believed trapped underwater in the tangle of steel and concrete.

Authorities are scrambling to reopen the Port of Baltimore, blocked by the wreckage of the 1.6-mile-long bridge and the damaged but apparently seaworthy Dali. The port handles more cars, heavy trucks and agriculture equipment than any other "inside this country," Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said. He provided no timeline for clearing the debris.

“We have a ship that is nearly the size of the Eiffel Tower that is now stuck within the channel that has the Key Bridge sitting on top of it,” Moore said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Salvage work: Demolitions crews cut into first piece of rubble

How Francis Scott Key Bridge was lost: A minute-by-minute visual analysis of the collapse

Developments:

? President Joe Biden will visit the site of the bridge collapse Friday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday.

? The Biden administration quickly approved Moore's initial request of $60 million to begin the debris cleanup, but much more will be needed to rebuild the bridge. The Democratic governor asked Congress to work together to assign the money not as a favor to his state but "because the port of Baltimore is instrumental in our larger economic growth," he told CNN.

Stabilizing the Dali is a top priority

Preventing the ship that crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge from pivoting and refloating it away from the bridge’s wreckage are key goals for the Army Corps of Engineers, according to a senior U.S. official and Corps documents.

Stabilizing the Dali will be accomplished by using anchors and tugboats, the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said Monday. Meanwhile, Corps engineers will continue to analyze the massive steel truss structure that fell across the Dali and into the shipping channel.

Heavy lift cranes, including one capable of lifting 1,000 tons, will be positioned to help lift a 4,000-ton section that rests across the Dali. Lt. Gen. Scott Spellmon, the commander of the Army Corps of Engineers, told USA TODAY last week that the span will be cut up into sections before removing it.

Cargo aboard the Dali will be assessed, and some of it possibly removed. Then the ship will be refloated from a “hard grounding” and moved away from the wreckage.

200-ton section of bridge removed from wreckage

The first major section of debris was removed late Sunday from the debris field that has blocked entry into the Port of Baltimore, authorities said. A 200-ton piece of the bridge was lifted by crane, but thousands of tons of debris remain in the river and atop the ship, Moore said. Authorities were still devising a plan for removing it, he said.

"We're talking about huge pieces," Moore told ABC News. "I mean, just sitting on the Dali, you're looking at 3,000 or 4,000 tons of steel. Sitting on top of the ship."

The bridge took five years to build. Biden has pledged federal money to rebuild it, but authorities say they can't estimate the cost or time required until they fully examine the damage below the water.

EPA at scene to mitigate impacts to environment

Coordinators and technical specialists with the Environmental Protection Agency are on the ground providing technical advice on the environmental portions of the bridge response, the agency said.

The EPA is working with the Coast Guard and others on a unified command team "to minimize any potential environmental impacts resulting from the bridge collapse,” said Adam Ortiz, the EPA's mid-Atlantic regional administrator.

The coordinators will review information from the incident command team regarding hazardous cargo on the Dali to provide recommendations. Last week, the Coast Guard said 14 of the 56 containers on board with potentially hazardous material were damaged when a section of the bridge fell onto the deck. Those materials were primarily soaps and perfumes, officials said. Containment booms have been established in the water to try to keep any products from spreading.

The federal emergency response plan designates the Coast Guard as the lead agency for events related to potential or actual releases of oil or hazardous substances originating in navigable waterways such as the area of the Patapsco where the bridge collapsed.

? Dinah Voyles Pulver

Prayer service held for the victims

Searchers on Wednesday recovered the bodies of Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, and Dorlian Castillo Cabrera, 36, from a pickup submerged in 25 feet of water. The search for the other victims was delayed because of treacherous conditions.

The Rev. Ako Walker held a Mass in Spanish at Sacred Heart of Jesus, about 5 miles up the Patapsco River from the collapse, The Associated Press reported. The workers weren't parishioners there, but Walker said he reached out to the families because the Latino community in Baltimore is large and closely connected. Walker told the AP he hopes their sacrifice encourages people to embrace migrant workers seeking better lives for themselves and their communities.

Latino communities 'rebuilt' Baltimore: Now they're grieving bridge collapse victims

"We have to be bridges for one another even in this most difficult situations," Walker told AP. "Our lives must be small bridges of mercy of hope of togetherness and of building communities."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Crews scramble to build temporary channel after Key bridge collapse