Reopening the Port of Baltimore could take weeks as colossal wreckage cleanup gets underway, officials say

It could take weeks for the Port of Baltimore to reopen as an arduous cleanup process to clear the massive wreckage from this week’s catastrophic bridge collapse begins, leaving commuters and workers in limbo and supply chains in disarray, officials said.

It could take weeks for the Port of Baltimore to reopen as an arduous cleanup process to clear the massive wreckage from this week’s catastrophic bridge collapse begins, leaving commuters and workers in limbo and supply chains in disarray, officials said. The Chesapeake 1000 – the largest crane on the East Coast – arrived Friday to help clear debris from where a 213-million-pound cargo vessel slammed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge, destroying the vital thoroughfare and killing six construction workers. Four of their bodies have not been found. Crews will try to work quickly so the search for the missing victims can resume and a cargo channel critical to the local and national economies can reopen, authorities said. “I don’t think we’re talking days, I don’t think we’re talking months … I think we’re talking weeks,” said Scott Spellmon, commanding general of the US Army Corps of Engineers, of the cleanup effort and the reopening of the channel. “I just can’t put a number on it yet until we get our analysis complete.” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said on Saturday that the cargo ship’s hull is damaged but intact, and that the Army Corps and its partners will move forward with crane operations. “The north sections of the Key Bridge are going to be cut up and removed,” Moore said on Saturday. “This will eventually allow us to open up a temporary restricted channel that will help us to get more vessels in the water around the site of the collapse.”