By Tashi McQueen,
AFRO Political Writer,
tmcqueen@afro.com
Mayor Brandon M. Scott and members of the Baltimore City Council filed a lawsuit against the owner and manager of the Dali, the cargo ship that struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26, causing a deadly collapse.
In the lawsuit, filed on April 22 in the U.S. District Court of Maryland, the city alleges that the owners were negligent in allowing the vessel to leave the Port of Baltimore even though alarms on the ship were allegedly reported before the vessel left port, indicating an unreliable power supply.
Scott refused to speak on the “pending legislation” at the live-streamed Key Bridge update on April 23.
Moore gave several updates on the Key Bridge salvage operations at the press conference.
“We’ve lifted over 2,900 tons of wreckage,” he said. “There have been 145 commercial vessels that have moved through the temporary channels that have been set up by Unified Command.”
Moore announced a fourth channel, available to commercial transit, that they expect to open later in the week.
“Three of these channels are already open,” said Moore. “One with a controlling depth of 11 feet, one with a controlling depth of 10 feet [and] one with a controlling depth of 20 feet. Today, the Unified Command began laying out buoys and lights to mark a fourth temporary channel with a controlling depth of 35 feet.”
Moore emphasized that this situation remains complex as he described the work involved in pulling a 560-ton piece of the bridge out of the water.
“It’s important to remember that just the process of rigging it, just the process of preparation, was about a two-and-a-half day operation,” said Moore. “We are going to work efficiently and we’re going to work safe. We’re not going to choose between the two.”
U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath said that the Unified Command will suspend vessel traffic in the fourth channel for about 10 days to remove the Dali from the channel.
Col. Estee Pinchasin, Baltimore district commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said they plan to open the full federal channel by the end of May.
Tashi McQueen is a Report For America corps member.