Key Bridge collapse: Explosives to be used to help free ship from wreckage

Crews plan to use small explosive charges to split the wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge and help to get the Dali out of the Patapsco River weeks after the cargo ship crashed into the bridge, sending it into the water and blocking the path to a key automotive hub for the U.S.

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Officials with the Key Bridge Unified Command said the charges will be used to split a large section of truss into smaller sections so that it can be lifted off the ship’s bow, WJZ-TV reported. The ship’s crew will shelter in place on the Dali while the explosives are detonated, according to WBAL-TV.

Capt. David O’Connell, the federal on-scene coordinator for the Key Bridge response, said the use of “precision cuts” will “reduce risks to our personnel.”

“It’s the safest and the quickest way, rather than having a guy up there in a crane cutting a truss that’s under a bunch of weight and tension,” Coast Guard Petty Officer Ronald Hodges of the Key Bridge Unified Command said, according to the Baltimore Sun. “You have these precision cutting devices that are able to serve that same function, but in an instant, rather than doing it over days and days and days, with a worker up there right next to it.”

Hodges told the newspaper that crews hope to complete detonations within the next week. The process of putting the explosives on the ship’s truss will take multiple days, WBAL reported. Officials said the exact timing will depend on “multiple environmental and operational factors.”

Authorities plan to send out notification ahead of the detonations. Officials said that outside of a 2,000-yard noise radius, the explosions — which will last between two and five seconds — will be “no louder than a standard fireworks show.”

Late last month, the Port of Baltimore said it expected the Dali to be removed by May 10, but it did not appear Thursday as though crews would adhere to that timeline.

“What they’re doing are best practices and historic best practices, and the way that you remove large amounts of steel,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said Tuesday, according to WBAL. “We know that as soon as that operation, that precision cutting is done, then we also have the tools to be able to remove that steel from the water, to safely refloat the Dali, and to reopen up the federal channel.”

Officials said charges like those to be used on the bridge wreckage are “an industry standard tool in controlled demolition.” They likened the process to one used earlier to demolish the Harry Nice Memorial Bridge in Maryland’s Charles County last year.

The Key Bridge collapsed into the Patapsco River early on the morning of March 26. Eight road crew workers who were on the bridge at the time were thrown into the water. Two were later rescued. Authorities on Tuesday recovered the bodies of the sixth and final worker who remained missing after the collapse.

The crash left tons of debris in the water, blocking the path to the Port of Baltimore. Thousands of tons of metal have been removed from the river, officials with the Unified Response to the bridge collapse said.

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