A work that promises to be lasting. Cranes began arriving in Baltimore, in the eastern United States, on Thursday (March 28) as part of efforts to remove debris from the bridge that collapsed on Tuesday. Officials have warned that reopening the port, important to the U.S. economy, will take a long time.
A complex operation
These machines will have to remove the twisted steel remains of the Francis Scott Key bridge, used every day by tens of thousands of vehicles, and which collapsed on Tuesday, March 26, like a house of cards, after being hit by a container door, blocking the entrance to the port of Baltimore.
The Army Corps of Engineers is “moving the largest crane on the East Coast to Baltimore to help us,” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore told reporters Thursday afternoon.
“Before we can lift it, we have to figure out how to cut the bridge into the right size pieces so we can lift them out of the water with a crane,” explained Coast Guard Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath.
“It is also the resting place of four parents, four brothers, four children,” declared Tom Pérez, at the White House, during an interview with the American network MSNBC.
Two bodies recovered
The bodies of two of the six missing workers were found on Wednesday. Operations to find the other four bodies were halted because authorities deemed it too dangerous to send divers to the crash site.
“The water is so dark and the debris so dense that in most cases our divers can’t see beyond 30 to 60 cm,” Wes Moore said.
“Nous sommes incroyably sensitive à l’idée qu’il s’agit également du lieu de repos de four pères, de four frères, de four fils”, declared Tom Perez, haut fonctionnaire de la Maison-Blanche, à MSNBC plus tot during the day.
The four men, all Latin American immigrants, are believed to have died after the Dali, a 300 meter long and 48 meter wide container ship, crashed into a bridge pier due to propulsion problems.
A fundraiser for the victims’ loved ones.
They were part of a team of eight workers who worked at night to repair the road. Two of them were rescued shortly after the bridge collapsed.
Area residents participated in a vigil in a nearby park Thursday morning, local media reported, while Baltimore City Council launched a fundraiser to support the victims’ families.
As for reconstruction, “it will not take hours, nor days, nor weeks,” also warned the governor of the state of Maryland, where Baltimore is located, referring to “a very long road to travel” before returning to normal. .
Maryland asked the federal government for an initial $60 million, an appeal the government quickly heard. The U.S. Department of Transportation announced Thursday the “rapid release” of this amount in “emergency relief funds” to Maryland.
“Urgent work”
This sum should “help Maryland begin urgent work” and will be followed by other funds “as reconstruction progresses,” explained Transportation Minister Pete Buttigieg.
After the tragedy, President Joe Biden promised that the federal administration would cover the full cost of rebuilding the bridge.
Due to this accident, maritime transportation remains suspended, with the port of Baltimore, which generates more than 15,000 jobs, being the ninth in the country in terms of activity.
The head of London’s Lloyd’s insurance market warned Thursday that insurance companies’ compensation for the accident could be the highest ever paid in shipping.
“This should represent a substantial loss, probably the largest” as far as shipping is concerned, “but not outside our parameters,” Bruce Carnegie-Brown said on CNBC. Its reopening is “our priority,” said the rear admiral of the coast guard.
Source: BFM TV
