DUNDALK, Md. — An aerial view of the wreckage draped across the bow of the Dali provides a clearer picture of the work crews still have cut out for them.
.@GovWesMoore shows an aerial view of the wreckage draped across the Dali. You can see the roadway sitting on top of the ship.
— Elizabeth Worthington (@ElizWorthNews) April 19, 2024
So far 120 shipping containers have been removed - he says just 20 left to go - to clear a staging area for the removal of that huge piece of wreckage.… pic.twitter.com/fBSSQLrp4J
"This is the road. That is literally the road from the Key Bridge that's sitting on top of the ship," Governor Moore said as he showed reporters the image during a Friday press conference.
"So the first thing that we're focused on is opening the temporary limited access channel, and right now we’re removing the wreckage that’s wrapped around the pillar that’s across from the Dali. It’s really important to get relief for the Port first," Colonel Estee Pinchasin from the Army Corps of Engineers said. "At the same time, as all this is going on, there's a tremendous amount of planning and engineering that's taking place to work on how we're gonna remove that massive span that's on top of, laying across, and on the side of the Dali."
Cranes removed large pieces of steel from the water this week. Meanwhile, the team that's focused solely on the ship, Resolve Marine, continues to remove shipping containers, clearing space for the removal of the bridge span on top of the Dali. Gov. Moore said today, 120 containers have been lifted off so far - there's just 20 left to go. There was 4,000 containers on the ship in total, but not all of them needed to be removed.
Once the wreckage is cleared, crews will re-float the ship and take it back to the Port of Baltimore for assessment by the shipper, making way for the full channel to reopen.
Then, it's on to rebuilding the bridge. So far, the focus has been figuring out who's going to pay for it. Gov. Moore says there was momentum on Capitol Hill this week in the effort to secure federal funding.
"We've been incredibly encouraged by the conversations that we have had with members of Congress both in the House and the Senate, both Republican and Democrat."
State and federal officials have said on numerous occasions they still intend to hold any responsible parties liable, which could result in making the taxpayer "whole," later. But, they don't want to hold up the work of rebuilding the bridge by waiting for the legal process to play out.
The state is also already looking at what kind of safety features the new bridge will have.
We asked Gov. Moore about early warning systems - like the kind railroads use - which could have warned the construction crew to get off the bridge. Engineers across the country were quick to point out the lack of such a system.
"Anything when it comes to how we're going to and how we need to fortify all elements of critical infrastructure in the state, the number of gating criteria has got to be safety. So I think any options that are going to make sure that the people of this state are safe are options that we are going to consider and look to implement."
As we approach the one-month mark of the collapse, we asked Gov. Moore to reflect - what have you learned most from this experience, and is there anything you might have done differently in hindsight?
After a long pause, Gov. Moore said, "I’m still heartbroken we have two still unaccounted for souls. I just can’t stop thinking about the pain these families are feeling. […] There have been a lot of lessons learned, there continue to be truly heartbreaking moments. There have been moments that I know for all of us, our chests have just been swelled with pride in watching how remarkable this team and this response has been - how coordinated, the local leadership - the Mayor, the County executive, all the teams. The thing I cannot and will never shake - we’ve still got two souls who are unaccounted for. And their families will never leave our thoughts and our prayers."
