Baltimore port to launch more profound route

Officials in Baltimore have announced that they are going to create deeper and new channels to make it easier for big ships to come in and out of the city’s port. This will happen on Thursday and is a big deal because the port has been closed to most traffic since the bridge collapsed last month.

The new channel will be much deeper than the three other temporary channels made recently. The cleanup is going faster than expected. Officials said they wanted to open a channel of that depth by the end of April.

Five out of the seven cargo ships that were stuck in Baltimore’s harbor will now be able to go through the new channel. This includes a ship carrying cars. Officials announced this on Tuesday, which is one month after the deadly disaster. Other ships are supposed to come to the port. This port usually deals with a lot of cars and farm equipment, more than any other port in the country.

“Four weeks ago, our lives were greatly affected by the Key Bridge collapsing,” said Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott at a press conference.

The big ship that knocked down the bridge had stopped working and went off its planned route not long after it left the Port of Baltimore on its way to Sri Lanka. The Dali ship is staying still in the middle of the broken pieces while workers are trying to remove large twisted steel that fell on the ship’s deck.

Six workers fixing the road fell and died when the road caved in. Four bodies were found in the sunken ship, but two people are still missing.

Authorities said that workers have removed a lot of debris, more than 2,900 tons, so that ships that are important for business can use the new channel from Thursday to Monday or Tuesday. Boats must have a Maryland pilot and two tugboats with them as they go through the channel.

The passageway will be closed until about May 10th while workers remove metal from the Dali and get the ship floating again. Then, the ship will be guided back into the port.

The main waterway in the port is going to open again next month after they remove the ship. It is 50 feet deep. That will basically make boat traffic go back to normal.

“We will work well and we will work without any danger, we won’t have to pick between the two,” stated Maryland Gov Wes Moore during the news conference.

In a legal document filed in court, the mayor and city council of Baltimore are asking for the Dali’s owner and manager to be held responsible for the bridge collapse. They believe this could have a really bad impact on the economy of the area. They said the port has been an important part of Baltimore’s economy for a very long time. The bridge being lost has caused problems for a big trucking route on the east coast.

The two companies filed a response to a petition that asked a court to limit their responsibility under a law from 1851. This is a normal process for cases like this. A court in Maryland will decide who is to blame and how much they must pay in the end.