Delay in Port of Baltimore Reopening Main Shipping Channel

Salvage crews cleaning the wreckage of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge

Salvors continue to remove debris from the wreckage site of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse as seen from the edge of the remaining bridge that still stands April 17. Debris and wreckage removal is on-going in support of a top priority to safely and efficiently open the Fort McHenry channel. Photo: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District

The reopening of the Port of Baltimore's permanent 700-foot-wide shipping channel has been delayed by more than a week.

The main access channel for the port was initially slated to reopen to all commercial vessel traffic by the end of the May. Now, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) says the project will likely wrap up sometime between June 8 and 10. According to the USACE, the delay is due to the complexity and rigging needed to lift what remains of a 10-million-pound steel truss that had pinned the Dali container ship under the Francis Scott Key Bridge for almost seven weeks.

"It also accounts for safety measures and possible inclement weather potentially impacting ongoing salvage operations," USACE spokesperson Jeremy Todd told SupplyChainBrain.

Salvage crews refloated the Dali on May 20, before using tugboats to fully pull it out from under the wreckage. On that same day, they also expanded the larger limited access channel to the Port of Baltimore to 400 feet in width. The Dali slammed into the Key Bridge on March 26, killing six construction workers and collapsing the bridge into the port's main shipping channel.