Trapped vessels start moving out of Baltimore after bridge collapse

The Port of Baltimore opened a temporary channel on Monday, freeing some tugs and barges that had been trapped by last week’s bridge collapse.

The Coast Guard said on Facebook that he first vessel to transit the channel since the incident was a tugboat pushing a barge supplying jet fuel to the U.S. Department of Defence.

Baltimore’s shipping channel has been blocked since a fully loaded container ship lost power and collided with a support column of the Francis Scott Key Bridge last Tuesday, killing six road workers and causing the highway bridge to tumble into the Patapsco River.

A recovery team led by the U.S. Coast Guard and the state of Maryland aims to quickly reopen the port, the largest in the U.S. for roll-on, roll-off (roro) vehicle imports and exports of farm and construction equipment.