Baltimore shipping channel reopens 11 weeks after Key Bridge collapse

The main ship channel to the Port of Baltimore has been fully cleared of debris and was reopened Monday evening, 11 weeks after a cargo ship lost power and struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

The Fort McHenry Channel had been blocked since March 26, when the container ship Dali lost power and crashed into one of the Francis Scott Key Bridge’s support piers, knocking it over and killing six construction workers who were filling potholes on the roadway.

“We’ve cleared the Fort McHenry Federal Channel for safe transit,” Col. Estee Pinchasin, Baltimore District commander for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said in a news release.

The ship channel was restored to its original operational dimensions of 700 feet wide and 50 feet deep for cargo ships through the port.

The Dali was lodged in the ship channel for nearly two months, along with 50,000 tons of debris from the bridge that was part of Interstate 695 over the Patapsco River. The ship was removed from the site of the bridge collapse on May 20.

“This has been a remarkably complex operation, spanning thousands of people, hundreds of assets and multiple objectives,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said in a statement. “With the channel now fully open, we can get more Marylanders back to work at the Port of Baltimore, increase the flow of commerce through the city and accelerate our economic recovery.”

In May, federal investigators released a report that said the ship went through multiple power failures before colliding with the bridge.

The Port of Baltimore is the deepest harbor in Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay, with five public and 12 private terminals. It handled over $80 billion worth of cargo in 2023. It serves more than 50 ocean carriers making nearly 1,800 annual port calls.

Officials for brokerage giant C.H. Robinson said it could take several weeks for maritime traffic to ramp up at the Port of Baltimore.

“It may take until mid-July for the full range of regular weekly sailings to resume. We’ve been diverting our customers’ ocean freight primarily to New York/New Jersey and to Norfolk, which has come at an elevated cost. We’ll be helping them return to the Port of Baltimore as soon as it’s practical to do so without disrupting their supply chains,” Matt Castle, C.H. Robinson’s vice president of global forwarding, said in an email to FreightWaves. “New York/New Jersey has mostly been able to absorb the extra cargo, with only sporadic congestion easily. But Norfolk has been especially congested for the past few months, so we hope re-opening the Port of Baltimore will alleviate that.”

The Francis Scott Key Bridge was also a major conduit for traffic in the region, with up to 31,000 passenger vehicles crossing it daily.

Federal authorities estimate replacing the bridge will cost $1.7 billion to $1.9 billion. It could take up to four years to construct a new bridge, with completion sometime in 2028.

Source: Freightwaves