Crews continue to remove steel and concrete from collapsed Baltimore bridge

As divers assisted crews in the complex and meticulous task of removing steel and concrete from Baltimore’s collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge, some near the site took some time on Easter Sunday to reflect on the six workers who may have fallen to their deaths .

As the crane periodically swung into place and workers measured and cut the steel in preparation for lifting the twisted steel, the Rev. Ako Walker spoke in Spanish at the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, about 8 kilometers upstream from the site of the collapse in the Patapsco River. A mass was celebrated.

“Yes, we can rebuild a bridge, but we have to think about how we treat immigrant workers and how we can best improve their situation when they come to the United States of America,” Walker said of men from those countries . Potholes are being patched in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

Dive teams were in the river on Sunday to survey the underwater portion of the bridge and inspect the ship to ensure it would float safely away once the wreckage was recovered. Workers in the elevator had earlier used torches to cut away part of the twisted steel superstructure above the water.

The bridge collapsed early on Tuesday (March 26) after the crew of the cargo ship Dali lost power and control. They called for help, which gave police enough time to stop vehicles from getting onto the bridge but not enough time to get the eight workers off the bridge.

Two workers survived, two bodies were found in a submerged pickup truck and four other men were presumed dead. Weather conditions and tangled debris underwater made it extremely dangerous for divers to search for their bodies.

Coast Guard Rear Adm. Shannon Gillies said each section of the bridge removed from the water will be lifted onto a barge and floated to the Atlantic Trade Point Logistics Center, where it will be inspected.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said everything salvage crews do will affect what happens next and ultimately the time it takes to remove all the wreckage and reopen the waterway and the blocked Port of Baltimore.

It could also change the course of the National Transportation Safety Board investigation, which Moore said is important to ensuring this never happens again.

“We need answers to what happened. We need to know who was responsible. We need to make sure they are held accountable,” Moore said on CNN on Sunday.

The Dali is as long as the Eiffel Tower and the crew remains on board. The ship was entangled in 3,000 to 4,000 tons of debris. Most of the containers were intact, but some were torn apart or knocked off by falling debris.

Dali is managed by Synergy Marine Group and owned by Grace Ocean Private Ltd. Danish shipping giant Maersk had charted the Dali route when the ship hit a support column of the bridge on its way out of the port.

In addition to clearing the channel to reopen the port, officials are trying to figure out how to rebuild the bridge. Completed in 1977, the bridge connects Interstate 695 around southeast Baltimore and is an important link to the city’s centuries-old maritime culture.

The original bridge took five years to build.

President Joe Biden’s administration has pledged to cover the full cost of reconstruction and states, and federal transportation officials say they will get to work as quickly as possible.

However, it is still unclear how long the new bridge will take to complete. Engineers have not been able to assess the condition of the ramps and smaller bridges that caused the collapsed structure to fully understand what measures must be taken.

Congress is expected to consider an aid package to help people who have lost their jobs or businesses due to the prolonged closure of the Port of Baltimore. The port handles more automobiles and farm equipment than any other facility in the United States.

“This is important to people in rural North Carolina, Kansas and Iowa. This is important to the global economy. And it shouldn’t be something that should be around any party or any conversation. We’re talking about a building An American tragedy in an American city,” Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

On Monday, the Small Business Administration will open a center in Dundalk, Maryland, to help small businesses obtain loans to help them cope with damage caused by bridge collapses.

The staff were not parishioners at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church, where the pews were packed for Sunday Mass. But Walker, his pastor, reached out to the families because, as he said, Baltimore’s Latino community is large but tight-knit.

They were good people who worked not only for their families in the United States but also for their relatives back home, he said in an interview before the Mass.

Walker hopes their stories will encourage people to embrace immigrant workers who want to improve their lives and grow their communities.

“We must be bridges to each other even in the most difficult situations. Our lives must be bridges of kindness, bridges of hope that unite and build community,” Walker said.