Thursday Evening Open Thread: Baltimore Key Bridge Updates

SEE IT: Crews conducted a controlled demolition to break down the largest remaining steel span of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, a major step in the cleanup as officials seek to fully reopen the port’s busy shipping channel. https://t.co/vIH4r9UPoK pic.twitter.com/TtYSNjj7u4

— ABC News (@ABC) May 13, 2024

The Baltimore Bridge is EXPLODED 💥

Workers detonate explosives to help free the Dali from the wreckage of the Key Bridge near Baltimore. pic.twitter.com/tIk52mC0CF

— FocuSeaTV (@focuseatv) May 14, 2024

They left the crew on board for two months- and whilst they blew up the bridge on top of them- because “they don’t have visas or shore permits” https://t.co/I2tGc0O3ZL

— madeline odent (@oldenoughtosay) May 15, 2024

Per the BBC, “Crew trapped on Baltimore ship, seven weeks after bridge collapse”:

As a controlled explosion rocked the Dali on Monday, nearly two dozen sailors remained on board, below deck in the massive ship’s hull…

Authorities – and the crew – hope that the demolition will mark the beginning of the end of a long process that has left the 21 men on board trapped and cut off from the world, thousands of miles from their homes.

But for now, it remains unclear when they will be able to return home…

The crew, made up of 20 Indians and a Sri Lankan national, has been unable to disembark because of visa restrictions, a lack of required shore passes and parallel ongoing investigations by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and FBI.

On Monday, the crew remained on board even as authorities used small explosive charges to deliberately “cut” an expanse of the bridge lying on the ship’s bow.

Ahead of the controlled demolition, US Coast Guard Admiral Shannon Gilreath said that the crew would remain below deck with a fire crew at the ready.

“They’re part of the ship. They are necessary to keep the ship staffed and operational,” Adm Gilreath said. “They’re the best responders on board the ship themselves.”…

Among those who have been in touch with the crew is Joshua Messick, executive director of the Baltimore International Seafarers’ Center, a non-profit organisation that works to protect the rights of mariners.

According to Mr Messick, the crew has been left largely without communication with the outside world for “a couple of weeks” after their mobile phones were confiscated by the FBI as part of the investigation.

“They can’t do any online banking. They can’t pay their bills at home. They don’t have any of their data or anyone’s contact information, so they’re really isolated right now,” Mr Messick said. “They just can’t reach out to the folks they need to, or even look at pictures of their children before they go to sleep. It’s really a sad situation.”

The plight of the sailors also attracted the attention of the two unions representing them, the Singapore Maritime Officers’ Union and the Singapore Organisation of Seamen.

In a joint statement on 11 May, the unions said that “morale has understandably dipped”, driven by “unfounded fear of personal criminal liability” and emotional distress.

The statement also called for the “swift return” of the crews’ phones, noting that losing communication with family members is “causing significant hardship for crew members with young children at home.” …

For the time being, the crew has been given SIM cards and temporary mobile phones without data included, according to Mr Messick.

They also received care packages from various community groups and private individuals, which in recent weeks have included batches of Indian snacks and handmade quilts…

Darrel Wilson, a spokesperson for Synergy Marine, the Dali’s Singapore-based management company, told the BBC that the crew is “holding up well” and that company representatives dispatched to Baltimore have been “checking on them constantly, from day one.”…

Mr Wilson, however, said he was unable to provide a timeline for the crew to disembark, noting that – in addition to the investigations – “nobody knows the ship better than they do” and that they are integral for it to function…

Ship that struck Baltimore bridge had 4 blackouts before disaster. Here's what we know https://t.co/QyAcEYShRN

— The Associated Press (@AP) May 16, 2024

The Dali container ship experienced a near-perfect storm of calamities before it struck Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge in March, killing six people. But Tuesday’s preliminary report by federal safety investigators leaves many questions unanswered.

For example, the National Transportation Safety Board described four power failures that beset the 984-foot (300-meter) ship. Reasons for three of them are yet to be explained, including two that occurred right before the crash…

HOW MANY TIMES DID THE SHIP LOSE POWER?
The Dali suffered four blackouts in roughly 10 hours: two the day before the crash and two in the minutes before.

The first came after a crew member mistakenly closed an exhaust damper during maintenance, causing one of the ship’s diesel engines to stall, according to the safety report. A backup generator came on, but insufficient fuel pressure soon caused that generator to kick off, resulting in a second blackout. It’s unclear why the fuel pressure dropped…

The third outage struck hours later, after the ship had left the Port of Baltimore and was navigating the Patapsco River. Electrical breakers unexpectedly tripped, causing a power loss. The Dali’s diesel engine automatically shut down because its cooling pumps lost power.

The pilot’s dispatcher called police and notified the Coast Guard of the power loss. Crew members momentarily restored electricity by manually closing the breakers. Then more breakers tripped, causing another outage as the ship approached the bridge. The crew restored power, but it was too late.

One of the pilots ordered the rudder turned, but since the main engine remained down, there was no propulsion to assist with steering, the report said. The ship struck one of the bridge’s main supports, causing the span to collapse.

WHAT MAY HAVE CAUSED THE BLACKOUTS?
The reason behind one power outage is known — the crew member’s failure to close the exhaust damper. The reason for the second blackout remains unclear, and the two instances of the tripped breakers appear to be complete mysteries…

WHAT ELSE COULD HAVE BEEN DONE?
Gallagher added that the mistake with the damper would have caused some concern but not enough to raise major worries before leaving port.

“They went for 10 hours and had no problems,” he said. “And in all fairness, the breakers that shut down when they were underway were not the same as what happened when the engine lost power because they closed the damper.”…

Bradley Martin, a former U.S. Navy captain and a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation, said the limited space in many ports increases the risks of these type of disasters.

“Anybody who’s ever been around ships knows that machinery fails at inopportune times,” Martin said. “And being so close to infrastructure like this means there’s no good way of reacting quickly enough.”

Thomas McKenney, a University of Michigan professor of naval architecture and marine engineering, said the tragedy in Baltimore raises questions about whether most cargo ships have enough safeguards.

“I think the relevant question here is how reliable and redundant should systems be onboard ships, especially understanding that ships have gotten larger and larger over time,” McKenney said, adding, “Shipping remains by far the most efficient way to transport goods. So it’s really having the right balance between cost efficiency without compromising safety.”

What will happen before, after the Dali is refloated? Here are next 3 steps for ship that hit Key Bridge. https://t.co/M8YpGTf3us

— The Baltimore Sun (@baltimoresun) May 16, 2024

Per the Baltimore Sun, “What will happen before, after the Dali is refloated? Here are next 3 steps for ship that hit Key Bridge”:

The ship that caused the Francis Scott Key Bridge to collapse in March, killing six construction workers, is expected to move soon, with officials setting a target of early next week for the refloat.

Moving the ship out of its current position is a critical step in Key Bridge Response Unified Command’s current efforts to reopen the Patapsco River’s main 50-foot-deep, 700-foot-wide shipping channel, which has been closed since March 26. The Fort McHenry Channel being blocked by the bridge wreckage has limited marine traffic into the Baltimore Harbor, though authorities have opened several smaller, alternate paths over the past several weeks to allow ships of increasingly larger sizes to come and go from the Port of Baltimore. The main channel is expected to be reopened by the end of the month…

Plans to refloat the Dali have been in flux — officials said while planning the controlled demolition that in a best-case scenario, the refloat could be done at high tide two days after the charges detonated. That point came and went Tuesday, as officials said they needed to clear additional wreckage and conduct a dive survey. Coast Guard Vice Admiral Peter Gautier told a congressional committee Wednesday that crews expect the ship “will be able to be refloated and removed from that site early next week.”…

Diving and clearing wreckage
Officials have already evaluated sonar and light detection and ranging imagery of the aftermath of the controlled demolition, but they will have to do more in-depth surveying to get a better look at the post-detonation wreckage.

To refloat the ship carefully, crews will also have to conduct a dive survey, Unified Command said Wednesday. To dive safely, they will have to clear some of the submerged wreckage that plunged into the Patapsco River during the controlled demolition, as well as other unstable debris, such as the destroyed section of roadway that’s still hanging off the edge of the Dali’s bow. Some damaged containers will have to be secured or removed as well, officials said, though some bridge pieces might stay on the bow to be removed later…

Refloating the ship
Through the dives and other surveys, crews are still evaluating what exactly it will take to get the Dali moving.

The factors at hand include the ability of the ship, which has been dormant with its crew onboard for more than 50 days, to operate during the roughly 2-nautical-mile journey. It’ll also take into account the position of the ship on the riverbed and of any remaining wreckage surrounding it. Any operations to move the ship will also have to consider a Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. pipeline, which has been purged of gas, that is beneath the riverbed, along with an old water main nearby…

Getting pieces off and people on
Once the ship is moored at Seagirt, more wreckage will be removed from the bow, as well as some of the roughly 4,500 containers on board. Engineers will take a closer look at the vessel’s condition and work on more repairs.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board, which is probing the events leading up to the bridge collapse, will be allowed onto the ship ahead of inspections from parties who have made claims against the companies that own and manage the freighter, according to an email obtained by The Baltimore Sun late last week. The visits by experts and attorneys for the claimants, which include the city of Baltimore, will be limited, staggered and subject to restrictions due to salvage work on the bow of the ship, a representative for Grace Ocean Private Ltd. and Synergy Marine Pte Ltd., the vessel’s respective owner and manager, said in the email…