Chesapeake 1000 lifts 440-ton section of Baltimore bridge

A 440-ton section of the Francis Scott Key Bridge framework was hoisted from the Patapsco River Sunday in one of the biggest heavy lifts yet as work continues to clear the Baltimore Harbor channel.

 Donjon Marine’s Chesapeake 1000 crane barge hoisted the section clear after workers cut steel, part of a grueling process to clear tangled wreckage from the Fort McHenry Channel.

With two shallow draft emergency channels open, at least 68 vessels have made transits, according to the joint command managing the response to the March 26 ship allision and bridge collapse.

Six construction workers died in the collapse, and the port shut down, although vessels have been using the Tradepoint Atlantic terminal below the bridge site.  

Army Corps of Engineers officials say clearing more wreckage is a step toward opening deeper water to one-way traffic. Tradepoint Atlantic has also set aside a yard where the steel wreckage is being stockpiled for recycling.