BALTIMORE — Giant salvage buckets are hauling up the remnants of the Francis Scott Key Bridge roadway to clear space for workers to use hydraulic shears to cut a bigger part of the structure into smaller pieces.
Removing the spans of the bridge that collapsed into the water March 26 after being struck by a ship and that are sinking into the bed of the Patapsco River is the most complex task of the cleanup effort, Col. Estee Pinchasin of the Army Corps of Engineers said at a news conference Wednesday. But the team of engineers and divers has a plan.
“Once they dig out and expose the chords on the bottom of the truss, divers are going to go into the water and place the hydraulic shears on the spans that they're going to cut,” said Pinchasin, referring to the two outside steel beams of a bridge truss that connect and brace it.
Pinchasin spoke in front of a 3D image of the wreckage created with sonar. That representation shows how the roadway, mud and debris fell on top of the mangled bridge spans that sit next to the base of one of the bridge's main pillars that still stands.
Pinchasin said crews are preparing to cut a 240-foot bridge span that weighs around 1,500 tons into two pieces. Once separated, they will be lifted and taken by barge to Sparrow's Point.
Pinchasin, as well as Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Coast Guard Rear Adm. Shannon Gilreath, reiterated Wednesday that they are on track to meet the end of May deadline…
