Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse live: Baltimore workers start removing piece of wreckage from water

The captain of the Port of Baltimore has said authorities are preparing to open an alternate channel in the vicinity of the Key Bridge.

“This will mark an important first step along the road to reopening the port of Baltimore,” Capt David O’Connell said on Sunday.

Captain O’Connell is the Maryland commander for the Coast Guard and on-scene coordinator for the wreckage clear-up operation.

“By opening this alternate route, we will support the flow of marine traffic into Baltimore,” he said.

Workers began removing the rubble of the collapsed Francis Key Scott bridge from the Patapsco River on Sunday.

A 200-tonne segment of the bridge was lifted and transferred using a crane to offload and process those parts at Tradepoint Atlantic in Sparrows Point, governor Wes Moore said.

The bridge collapsed early on Tuesday morning, killing six migrant road workers, when a container ship nearly lost power and crashed into a support pylon.

The wreckage and hazardous weather conditions have made it impossible for divers to continue searching for the four remaining bodies of the deceased construction workers in recent days, governor Moore said.

Maryland governor Wes Moore has urged Republicans to work with Democrats to approve federal funding for rebuilding the Key bridge to get the port economy back on its feet.

The Joe Biden administration released $60m in initial emergency aid on Thursday to assist in cleaning up the bridge debris and reopening the port, which is the largest in the US for “roll-on, roll-off” vehicle imports and exports of farm and construction equipment.

Mr Moore said Republicans should be willing to approve the funding for the sake of not just the city of Baltimore, but for the national economy.

“The reason that we need people to move in a bipartisan basis … is not because we need you to do Maryland a favour,” Mr Moore told CNN on Sunday.

“We need to make sure that we’re actually moving quickly to get the American economy going again, because the Port of Baltimore is instrumental in our larger economic growth.”

The cause of the 26 March collision, which resulted in the collapse of the Francis Scott Key bridge in Baltimore, is still unknown. As the investigation is still underway, the mission has shifted from one of recovery to one of clearing the waters.

Following an update by authorities on Saturday, here’s everything we know:

Maryland Governor Wes Moore said that the first debris lift, which took place on Saturday, was a “remarkably important moment”.

Mr Moore told reporters at a press conference ahead of the operations that the piece of bridge scheduled to be removed by crane was not one on top of the Dali container ship.

“We still do not yet have a timeline as to when we can actually begin lifting pieces off of the Dali, but we know that today is a remarkably important moment, but one that still is going to take further evaluation as to what type of impact that’s going to have on the remainder of the mission,” he said.

Coast Guard Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath added: “The piece of the northern part of the bridge is going to be lifted today, I believe has been cut… I can’t tell you where they are in the stage of the actual lifting but is scheduled to be lifted today.”

Mr Gilreath said he was unsure of the exact dimensions of the piece, but that it was part of the “top section” of the bridge.

“It’s gonna take the day to do it. I mean, they had to do the engineering process to plan how we could make those cuts,” he said. “They’re making those cuts, then they’re going to have to put straps to rig it, and then they will rig it and they will set it on a barge so it can be brought back here.”

President Joe Biden promised to visit Baltimore soon and said he wanted the federal government to pay to rebuild the bridge.

The Transportation Department on Thursday awarded $60 million in “quick release” emergency relief funds to aid in clearing debris and begin the process of rebuilding.

To replace the bridge, Congress would need to approve funding. After the bridge collapse in 2007 in Minnesota, Congress allocated $250 million.

Initial estimates put the cost of rebuilding the bridge at $600 million, according to economic analysis company IMPLAN.

Federal officials have told Maryland lawmakers the final cost of rebuilding the bridge could soar to at least $2 billion, Roll Call reported, citing a source familiar with the discussions.

Insurers could face billions of dollars in claims, analysts said, with one putting the cost at as much as $4 billion, which would make the tragedy a record shipping insurance loss.