Cleaning up the huge bridge that collapsed this week in BaltimoreUnited States, began this Saturday, a process that promises to be long and difficult, local authorities announced.
A crane must lift a first piece of the structure previously cut by the emergency services.
“This is a first step before many, many others,” Maryland Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld said at a news conference. “But it is an important step,” he noted.
A US Coast Guard official, Shannon Gilreath, said a crane capable of lifting more than a hundred tons was being mobilized to move the cut piece.
Maryland Governor Wes Moore clarified that this is not the structure that collapsed on the container ship Dali, but is still there.
The ship collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in the middle of the night earlier this week due to propulsion problems.
Moore explained that the goal of the operation was to clear an entire section of the bridge to open a “temporary channel” to allow more ships to take part in the work, but he said that process would take “days.”
Cleaning the bridge and freeing the container ship is a priority for local authorities, aware of the economic impact of the blockade of the Port of Baltimore.
“At least 8,000 longshoremen are directly affected,” said the governor, who began the press conference by remembering the victims of the tragedy.
Six Latin American workers who were on the bridge at the time of the accident are presumed dead. Only the bodies of two of them have been found.
Work to search for the remains of the other four remained suspended after authorities deemed divers’ work at the accident site too dangerous.
AFP