$60M and a giant crane: Resources pouring into Baltimore after Key bridge collapse

BALTIMORE — $60 million in emergency federal funds and the largest crane on the Eastern seaboard are heading to Baltimore to help clear the debris of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed after a cargo ship slammed into a key support pillar early Tuesday morning.

The announcements come after three tense days of helicopters flying search and rescue missions over the Patapsco River, divers attempting to recover bodies from the buried superstructure and worries about the economic impact of a prolonged closure of the Port of Baltimore, a key shipping node on the Eastern seaboard.

Within hours of receiving a request for federal funds from Maryland’s state government on Thursday afternoon, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration approved $60 million in “quick release” emergency funds to help with initial costs for debris removal, demolition, detours, emergency repairs and work to begin designing and building a new bridge.

“The federal emergency funds we’re releasing today will help Maryland begin urgent work, to be followed by further resources as recovery and rebuilding efforts progress,” Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said in a statement.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said at a Thursday press conference in Dundalk, steps from the collapsed bridge, that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was moving the largest crane on the Eastern seaboard — with a 1,000 ton lift capacity — to Baltimore to help clear debris from the channel. That crane should arrive sometime on Thursday evening, he said.

Another 400 ton life capacity crane will arrive on Saturday, according to Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md).

“We’ve got the cranes on our way to help us do that,” said U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath about the process to clear the channel. “But before we can actually engage in lifting, we’ve got to complete the assessment process of the bridge, so we can figure out how to cut the bridge into the right size pieces so we can lift it with the crane.”

Moore compared the process of clearing the channel to the Port of Baltimore to the blockage of the Suez Canal in 2021, when the cargo ship Ever Given blocked the key waterway for global trade.

“This work will not take hours,” said Moore. “It will not take days. It will not take weeks. We have a very long road ahead of us.”

After the conclusion of search and rescue operations on Wednesday, officials pivoted to recovering the bodies of missing workers who are presumed dead and clearing the shipping channel into the Port of Baltimore as soon as possible. The port is a major United States entry point for cars, trucks and agricultural machinery. Around 8,000 people work directly in the port, and a prolonged closure would have far-reaching impacts on supply chains across the country.

“This is not just about Maryland,” said Moore. “This is about the nation’s economy.”

The early timeline for the clearing of the channel into the Port of Baltimore and the repair of the bridge itself comes three days after the Dali, a Singaporean-flagged vessel, collided with the Key bridge early Tuesday morning.

Initial reports from the National Transportation Safety Board and videos of the collision shared on social media suggest that the vessel suffered a power outage in the critical minutes before colliding with a key support pillar of the structure.

Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the NTSB, said at a hearing near BWI Airport on Wednesday night that the agency had evidence from data recorders that would suggest the ship suffered a blackout, but that they were still working to collect evidence — especially from the engine room — that would be able to confirm that assertion.

There are also concerns about hazardous materials that are on the vessel, which is still stuck, prow first, against the collapsed structure of the bridge. During the collision, 14 of the 56 containers holding hazardous materials were impacted, according to a Joint Information Center release, and officials have detected a “sheen” on the water around the vessel.

The breached containers held soaps, perfumes and different resins. Officials haven’t detected any flammable vapors, but have placed 2,400 feet of hard containment booms around the vessel in an effort to prevent any spill from spreading and are using air monitors to assess any contamination.

On Wednesday morning, divers recovered two bodies in a pickup truck that had tumbled into the water after the bridge collapsed. Inside the truck, divers found the remains of two men who had been doing construction work on the bridge at the time of the collision: Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, of Baltimore and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, of Dundalk. The two men were originally from Mexico and Guatemala, respectively.

Four workers on the bridge at the time of the collapse are still missing. Officials believe they may be in at least one larger vehicle that is buried underwater in the concrete and superstructure of the destroyed bridge.

At opening day for the Baltimore Orioles earlier in the afternoon at Camden Yards, Moore celebrated the first responders who halted traffic from traveling over the bridge in the moments before the Dali collided with the structure.