BALTIMORE – The recovery from the deadly Baltimore Bridge collapse reached a significant milestone Monday as the ill-fated container ship Dali was slowly escorted back to port, its damaged bow still covered in shattered shipping containers, toppled steel beams and damaged concrete.
Almost two months have passed since the Dali lost power and collapsed One of the bridge’s supporting columns killed six construction workers and halted most maritime traffic through the Port of Baltimore.
The ship was refloated at high tide on Monday morning and slowly moved away from the scene of the March 26 disaster, guided by several tugboats. Extensive damage to the bow included a huge gaping hole above the waterline on the starboard side.
Removing the huge ship opened a new gap The Baltimore skyline, which lost a landmark and symbol of the city’s proud maritime history. The changed water landscape also illustrated the progress in the clean-up work. Crews have already removed thousands of tons of mangled steel that once protruded from the water’s surface.
The bodies of the six victims were recovered from the underwater wreckage – all of them Latino immigrants who came to the United States for job opportunities. They were filling potholes on a night shift when the bridge was destroyed.
Officials said the Dali was traveling at a speed of about 1 mph on the roughly 2.5-mile (4-kilometer) journey back to port, a fraction of the speed it was traveling at when it lost power and caused the bridge to collapse brought. It will spend several weeks undergoing temporary repairs at the same marine terminal where it was before beginning its ill-fated voyage, then move to a shipyard for more extensive repairs.
To refloat the Dali, crews loosened the anchors and pumped out more than a million gallons of water that had kept the ship grounded and stable during the complicated cleanup effort. The crews conducted a controlled demolition on May 13 to tear down the largest remaining span of the collapsed bridge, which was draped over the bow of the Dali. Dive teams then confirmed that the path was clear.
The Dali experienced two Power outages approximately 10 hours before leaving the port of Baltimore en route to Sri Lanka. According to a preliminary report released last week by the National Transportation Safety Board, the crew later made changes to the ship’s electrical configuration, switching to a transformer and breaker system that had previously been out of service for several months.
Two further power outages left the Dali without power and veering off course just as it approached Key Bridge. By then, two tugboats that had escorted the Dali out of the harbor had left — normal protocol, the report says — but when the power went out, the tugboats were gone too far away to help avert disaster.
The FBI also launched one Investigation process about the circumstances that led to the crash.
The ship’s crew members were not allowed to leave the ship. Officials said they were busy maintaining the ship and assisting investigators and could disembark once the Dali docked.
Officials plan to reopen the port’s 50-foot (15-meter) draft by the end of May. Until then, crews have set up a temporary channel that is slightly shallower.