By Tashi McQueen
AFRO Political Writer
Tmcqueen@afro.com
After a weekend of delays, the Unified Command was able to cut the remaining portion of the steel frame bridge with several small detonation charges, which caused the bridge to fall into the water within a matter of seconds.
“It went as planned in terms of separating into two pieces and some of the other pieces falling away from the ship,” said David O’ Connell, captain of the port, to the media shortly after the detonation. “I think we’re in good shape. We’re going to do an assessment tonight and tomorrow and see what needs to be done to clean up and get the Dali out of here as soon as we can.”
Detonation charges were used to ensure the safety of salvage workers and other members of the Unified Command.
“Safety in this operation is our top priority,” said Moore in a press conference that took place earlier in the day on May 13. “We’ve gotten to this point without a single injury. We plan on continuing this mission without a single injury. That is the standard that we have going forward.”
Now that the Dali cargo ship is freed in most areas, with only portions of the debris remaining on the boat, the vessel is expected to be refloated and moved by tugboats on Wednesday, May 15. The ship will be moved by several tugboats about 2.5 miles away to the Seagirt Marine Terminal in Baltimore.
Before the ship can move, O’Connell says that the Navy’s supervisor of salvage and diving will be in the water through the night using their Coda 3D system to get a look of the detonation aftermath.
“They will be followed by a dive survey tomorrow morning,” said O’Connell. “They will be removing water from the ship to make it lighter in preparation for it to be moved in the next couple of days.”
Moore reminded the public of the Unified Command’s four directives: bring closure to the impacted families, clear the channel and fully reopen traffic to the port, take care of all of those impacted by the collapse and rebuild the Key Bridge.
Unified Command members said they see this progress as a significant win, helping them get closer to reopening the full channel by the end of the month.
Tashi McQueen is a Report For America corps member.
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