A second temporary alternate channel opened on Tuesday near Hawkins Point that will allow some commercial ships to get around the wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

Speaking to reporters at Maryland Transportation Authority Police headquarters, Gov. Wes Moore said the passage opened in the afternoon.The development comes after a first, temporary alternate channel came online on Monday near Sollers Point.

On March 26, the Dali, a 984-foot-long ship loaded with about 2,700 containers, struck one of the main support piers of the bridge, which tumbled seconds later into the Patapsco River. Six construction workers repairing potholes were killed in the disaster.

“I’m thankful that after only a week after the collapse, we have pathways and channels so commercial traffic can now move through,” Moore said. “But I want to be clear: We are still a long way from being able to get the size and the cadence of the commercial traffic back to where it was before the collapse.”

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Rear Adm. Shannon Gilreath, commander of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Fifth Coast Guard District, said the team is continuing to work and plan for a third, temporary alternate channel, but added that it will take time.

Meanwhile, Col. Estee Pinchasin, district commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Baltimore District, said the priority remains clearing the main shipping channel, though the team is also looking out for the remains of four construction workers yet to be recovered.

Pinchasin said the wreckage on the bottom of the channel is “far more extensive than we could have imagined.” The operation is complex, she said, and it’s dangerous for divers to go into the area.

“Salvage operators are not an easy task,” Pinchasin said. “The magnitude of this is enormous.”

Dylan Segelbaum

dylan.segelbaum@thebaltimorebanner.com

Dylan Segelbaum

Dylan Segelbaum is the courts reporter at The Baltimore Banner.

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