Massive, dangerous bridge collapse cleanup begins
Huge crane ships, thousands of relief workers and millions of dollars are headed towards Baltimore as efforts turn from recovery after the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge to a massive cleanup that some experts are describing as unprecedented and highly dangerous.
The US Navy has deployed several floating cranes, including one that can lift 1000 tonnes, while the US Army Corps of Engineers said it would send more than 1100 engineering specialists and other experts to begin removing the hulking debris that has crippled the Port of Baltimore.
Federal officials also announced that the first relief funds – US$60 million (NZ$100m) sought by Maryland officials – would flow towards disaster recovery, just hours after the request was submitted.
Top officials with the Corps, which is leading the effort to clear the Patapsco River, described a three-step effort to get one of America’s largest shipping hubs back online. They are racing to stem the rippling economic fallout from a cargo ship striking the bridge on Tuesday.
Teams will first try to clear the shipping channel of the massive steel trusses that are blocking it, to allow one-way traffic to begin flowing again into and out of the port. Second, they will lift pieces of the bridge draped across the 300m container ship Dali and move it. Finally, they will dredge up concrete and steel that have settled on the riverbed.
Officials have yet to offer a timeline for how long that process will take, but infrastructure and salvage experts said the cleanup would pose a monumental challenge, including frigid waters for divers having to cut steel beams, and the 764 tonnes of hazardous materials that remain on board the Dali.
Peter Ford, founder of SkyRock Advisors, which provides consulting on infrastructure projects, and who is a former Merchant Marine mariner, compared the operation to freeing a container ship that became stuck in the Suez Canal in 2021, but perhaps more complex.
“This will be highly technical, very difficult and frankly dangerous,” Ford said.
“This size of vessel. This size of bridge. All of the span coming down entirely and some of it still on top of a vessel is a situation that I have never read about in my career.”
Federal officials have not described in detail how they plan to carry out the cleanup mission, but Ford said he thought they would begin by using sonar and other tools to map out where debris lay on the bed of the Patapsco River, which is about 15m deep. They would hack the debris above and below the surface into pieces, which would in some instances require divers. The barge- or boat-based cranes would then lift the pieces on to barges floating nearby.
Ford said cutting the steel could be particularly dangerous because beams might shift or fall. In some instances, he said, workers might be forced to build platforms to support the beams as they were cut.
He said teams would probably have to go below deck on the Dali to ensure it was seaworthy, before attempting to tow it to port. Finally, they would probably use scoops to dredge up materials from the riverbed.
James Bell, president of ADCO Environmental Services, a Chicago-based company that does hazardous material cleanups, said one of the complicating factors of the bridge cleanup was the 56 shipping containers containing hazardous materials, some of which have broken open. The materials include corrosive and flammable liquids, as well as lithium-ion batteries.
“The hazmat crew always goes in after the emergency responders,” Bell said. “You have to remove the hazards, so that when you bring your new workers in to start removing the bridge, they’re not in harm’s way.”
Bell said the flammable and corrosive liquids were unlikely to leak, since they were packaged inside steel drums or industrial “totes” designed to safely transport chemicals. “Those lithium-ion batteries probably present the biggest danger of all, because once they ignite they are not easily extinguished.”
Some experts said that as herculean as the cleanup sounded, it might have been even harder.
Stephen Frailey, a partner at the Pacific Maritime Group, which performs salvage operations, said Baltimore dodged a worstcase scenario.
“We are lucky in that the hull seems to be intact. It doesn’t seem to be leaking water. It doesn’t seem to be leaking fuel. It also seems to be stable, so it’s not going to capsize.”
Both Ford and Frailey predicted that it would take months to fully clear the debris in the river.
Federal agencies, including the Army Corps of Engineers, will assume the full cost of clearing shipping lanes in the Patapsco River. Money from the emergency relief fund will cover Maryland’s costs to divert traffic away from the collapsed portion of I-695, the major thruway that used the Key Bridge, and for the design and rebuild of a new structure.
Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen said policymakers had already begun discussing raising the height of a new bridge, and incorporating new technology to make the next structure safer.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg convened a meeting of port, labour and industry officials yesterday to discuss how to mitigate supply chain disruptions stemming from the partial shutdown of the Port of Baltimore. – Washington Post