(PatriotPostNews.com) — Democratic Maryland Governor Wes Moore said in an interview that the Port of Baltimore is open once again after the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. The waterway where the bridge stood was impassable for nearly 12 weeks after the collapse, but the passage has been deemed “safe for transit” by the US Army Corps of Engineers.
The bridge collapsed after it was struck by the cargo ship Dali on March 26.
The passage is 700 feet wide and roughly 50 feet deep. Governor Moore asserted that original estimates to complete the clean-up would take six to twelve months, but boasted that he was able to get the job done in only eleven weeks. The US Army Corp of Engineers said that 50,000 tons of wreckage was removed from the channel.
After the initial collapse, a section of the bridge was severed via the use of explosives while more than 20 crewmen were still on board. The crew, a group of 20 Indian nationals as well as one crewmember from Sri Lanka, were not permitted to leave the ship.
The CIA confiscated the crew’s phones as part of the investigation into the collapse. The men were required to remain on board to operate the ship’s vital controls but were left without means to contact the outside world. Influential seamen’s unions demanded that the crew’s phones be returned, citing the need to contact family and to pay bills online. The crew were eventually given temporary phones without internet access. The crew remained on board for seven weeks.
Six construction workers who were working on routine maintenance atop the bridge were killed in the crash. Divers were forced to abandon recovery attempts after only three of the men’s bodies were found.
According to Governor Moore, the cost to rebuild the Key Bridge could be as high as $2 billion, and he called for a 100% federal cost share. Moore, a frequent surrogate of President Biden, asserted that he is confident that the Biden administration will support the project.
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