Page 17 - Port of Baltimore - Issue 3 - 2024

The Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed into the waters of the Patapsco River just before 1:30 a.m. on March 26.
The first few hours after the disaster were spent trying to determine the human toll, recalled Col. Estee Pinchasin, District Commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District. “We didn’t know what had happened on the bridge itself in those first few hours. Initially, we assumed the worst because we didn’t know the incredible job that the Maryland Transportation Authority Police had done to minimize the loss of life.”
Thanks to the quick work of MDTA officers to stop traffic on the bridge just before the Dali collided with it, no motorists went down with the bridge. Unfortunately, there wasn’t time to warn a crew of construction workers that had been performing maintenance on the bridge. Eventually, six workers’ bodies would be recovered from the river.
For the first day after the bridge’s collapse, search and rescue was the first priority, Pinchasin recalled, with divers sent in to try to find the missing construction workers. “The lead of the dive team needed engineers to help clear his team to go into the water safely. You had a structure there that was unsound, and [the Corps of Engineers has] structural engineers that are very familiar with urban search and rescue.”
Some of those structural engineers were brought in from Philadelphia to support local Baltimore engineers and ensure round- the-clock engineering expertise.
At the same time, Pinchasin’s thoughts also turned to how work at the Port would be affected by the obstruction of the shipping channel. “That’s our navigation channel. We are responsible for maintaining it at 50 feet depth all year,” she noted.
Pinchasin and her team began contact- ing the U.S. Navy’s salvage experts as well as Capt. David O’Connell, Commander of the Coast Guard’s Sector Maryland-National Capital Region. “I reached out to him right away,” Pinchasin said. “He said, ‘I’m here for whatever you need.’ I asked him to come down to the Command Center that had been set up at MDTA headquarters, right by the
Opposite page: Federal official like U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and state officials like Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller and Gov. Wes Moore (at top) kept in frequent touch with key Unified Command staff like Col. Estee Pinchasin of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (bottom right) and Capt. David O’Connell of the U.S. Coast Guard (bottom left).
BILL MCALLEN
Gov. Moore, Secretary Buttigieg
CELEBRATE PORT’S FULL REOPENING
On June 12, Gov. Wes Moore joined U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs Director Tom Perez at the Port of Baltimore to announce the Port’s full reopening following the reinstatement of the Fort McHenry Federal Channel a few days earlier.
“After the bridge fell, we laid out four key directives: Bring closure to the families of the victims; clear the full federal channel and fully reopen the Port of Baltimore to vessel traffic; support everyone affected by this crisis — from our workers to our businesses; and rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge. We promised to bring each of these priorities to completion
— even though success was never guaranteed,” said Gov. Moore. “By working together, we have achieved the first three of our four directives. But in this administration, we don’t settle for ‘almost.’ We finish the work we start. We can look out onto the Patapsco and see that the Dali is gone and the wreckage has been cleared. But I will not be satisfied until I can look out on the Patapsco River from this spot and see the Key Bridge standing tall again.” >>>
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