Baltimore officials scramble to build two back up channels into vital trade hub ... trends now
Baltimore officials have announced they will build two temporary alternate channels for commercially essential vessels following last week's collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after it was struck by the Dali cargo ship.
Crews have begun the complicated work of removing steel and concrete at the site of the bridge’s deadly collapse into the Patapsco River after the freighter collision, which left six construction workers.
Twenty-two sailors from India are still confined to the Dali since last Tuesday's disaster as they answer investigators' questions about the catastrophe.
On Sunday, dive teams surveyed parts of the bridge and checked the ship, and workers in lifts used torches to cut above-water parts of the twisted steel superstructure.
The captain of the port is preparing to establish the temporary channel on the northeast side of the main channel - It will have a controlling depth of 11 feet, a horizontal clearance of 264 feet nd a vertical clearance of 96 feet, officials said. A video released Sunday showed the Coast Guard dropping buoys in the water.
Baltimore officials have announced they will build two temporary alternate channels for commercially essential vessels following last week's collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge
Debris is cleared from the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge as efforts begin to reopen the Port of Baltimore on Sunday
'This will mark an important first step along the road to reopening the port of Baltimore,' Capt. David O’Connell, the federal on-scene coordinator of the response, said in a statement Sunday night. 'By opening this alternate route, we will support the flow of marine traffic into Baltimore.'
On Monday, the Small Business Administration is opening a center in Dundalk, Maryland, to help small businesses get loans to help them with losses caused by the disruption of the bridge collapse.
The bridge fell as the crew of the cargo ship
