Baltimore channel fully reopened

The US Army Corps of Engineers and US Navy Supervisor of Salvage and Diving announced the Fort McHenry Federal Channel has been restored to its original operational dimensions of 700 feet wide and 50 feet deep. The milestone enables two-way traffic and the removal of extra safety requirements put in place on the channel due to its reduced width. 

The restoration of the channel required the removal of around 50,000 tons of bridge wreckage from the Patapsco River, said Unified Command, a group of agencies and companies which co-ordinated the response across around 56 federal, state, and local agencies, including 1,587 individual responders. 

An additional 500 specialists were brought in from around the world, along with subject matter experts from across the US. Assets involved included 18 barges, 22 tugboats, 13 floating cranes, 10 excavators, and four survey boats, said Unified Command.

Agencies will continue to survey and remove steel at and below the 50-foot mud line in order to enable future dredging works, work characterised as routine maintenance.

“We are proud of the unified efforts that fully reopened the Federal Channel to port operations,” said Lt. Gen. Scott Spellmon, commanding general of US Army Corps of Engineers. “The partnerships that endured through this response made this pivotal mission successful.”

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“We’ve cleared the Fort McHenry Federal Channel for safe transit. USACE will maintain this critical waterway as we have for the last 107 years,” said Col. Estee Pinchasin, Baltimore District commander. “I cannot overstate how proud I am of our team. It was incredible seeing so many people from different parts of our government, from around our country and all over the world, come together in the Unified Command and accomplish so much in this amount of time.”