Key Bridge collapse: Deeper channel opens Thursday, allowing ships to leave Port of Baltimore

BALTIMORE — Ships trapped for a month behind the wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge will be given a chance to leave the Port of Baltimore using an alternate shipping channel that opens Thursday morning.

The 35-foot channel will be the deepest yet of four temporary, alternate routes in and out of the port. But the new Fort McHenry Limited Access Channel, for commercially essential vessels, will stay open only through 6 a.m. Monday, or through Tuesday if weather adversely affects transit.

“The primary focus of this four-day period is to allow the ships that have remained within the Port of Baltimore since the March 26 incident to leave,” port officials said in a statement Wednesday.

The port has been blocked to most vessel traffic since the Dali freighter struck a bridge support column March 26, causing the 1.6-mile bridge to collapse and killing six construction workers.

It’s unclear how many vessels will depart. Of the 11 cargo ships docked at berths in the port, four have no “immediate” plans to depart just yet. They are part of the U.S. Maritime Administration’s Ready Reserve Force, a fleet established in 1976 to quickly supply American troops around the world. A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration said Wednesday that he knew of no immediate plans to move those ships from the port.

Of the remaining seven commercial ships, it appears based on vessel drafts that four or five of the ships would be capable of navigating the 35-foot-deep channel.

Here’s some of what we know:

— The nonmilitary vessels trapped behind the wreckage are berthed around the harbor from Seagirt Marine Terminal and the Canton industrial waterfront to a coal pier in Curtis Bay.

— Two likely need to wait before they can leave, based on their required draft depth, including the bulk carrier Klara Oldendorf, sailing under the flag of Madeira, and the coal carrier JY River, sailing under the flag of Liberia. Both need a nearly 50-foot channel to sail when loaded.

— Others that have been stuck in port but may be able to depart include:

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