Europe 1 with AFP 4:17 p.m., April 1, 2024
The authorities of the port of Baltimore announced Monday that they were working to create a temporary navigation corridor by clearing part of the rubble from the bridge which collapsed after being hit by a container ship, in order to allow the ships considered to pass. as “essential”.
In a press release, the various national authorities of the State of Maryland and Baltimore specified that this first corridor would constitute the first step towards a gradual resumption of maritime traffic in the port of the northeastern United States, the one of the main ones in the country.
This corridor will, however, initially not be wide enough to allow the passage of large vessels and will therefore initially be reserved for vessels "involved in operations" as well as emergency vessels.
An opening of the bridge planned for this Monday
“It will not be wide enough to allow container ships to pass through. Work is underway to gradually open the passage to more ships, but we do not have a timetable for this,” he said. 'AFP Carmen Caver, coast guard spokesperson.
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It should be open “today, without specifying the time yet,” added his colleague, Kimberly Reaves. A second navigation corridor is being opened, but it was impossible on Monday to have details as to whether it would be open to navigation, she added.
The announcement follows the launch, on Sunday, of the clearing of the elements of the bridge, a complex operation which required the cutting and moving of a first section, weighing “around 200 tonnes”.
Operations to find other bodies interrupted due to weather
Earlier this week, a container ship rammed into the Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore, on the American east coast, in the middle of the night, causing it to collapse and killing six people. The boat is now stuck in place, with part of the bridge collapsed on it. It thus blocks maritime transport in one of the busiest ports in the country.
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Six workers who were working on repairing the roadway on the bridge at the time of the accident are considered dead. The bodies of two of them were found.
Operations to find the other remains are interrupted because the authorities currently consider the work of divers on the scene too dangerous, because of "the weather and the quantity of debris present in the water", Governor Wes Moore repeated on Sunday .