Browsing: #dali

Cruising Life
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Dali Leaves Baltimore – Finally

Escorted by a fleet of four tugboats and a Coast Guard cutter, the 984-foot-long container ship Dali left Baltimore on Monday, almost three months after it hit the Francis Scott Key Bridge there, killing six construction workers and closing the busy harbor. The Coast Guard established a 500-yard safety zone around the Dali as it headed down to Norfolk. On board were a full crew of 22 and six salvage experts. The ship arrived in Norfolk the next day for repairs. Last week a Federal judge oversaw an agreement where some members of the original 21-man crew were allowed to…

Cruising Life
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Baltimore Ship Channel Now Fully Open

The main shipping channel leading to Baltimore’s port officially reopened to its full depth and width on Monday, following the March 26 collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge when it was hit by the 984-foot-long container ship Dali, killing six construction workers. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Navy Supervisor of Salvage and Diving announced the reopening after crews were finally able to remove wreckage of the bridge at the 50-foot mud line. The channel then was restored to its original dimensions of 700 feet wide and 50 feet deep. Since the crash, crews removed more than…

Cruising Life
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Dali Refloated, Baltimore Harbor Reopens

The 984-foot-long container ship Dali was refloated and towed back to a dock inside Baltimore harbor on Monday, 54 days after it hit the Key bridge there, sending the center section plummeting into the water, killing six construction workers, and closing the main channel to all traffic.  The Dali, and its 21-man crew, had been trapped in the debris ever since. The Dali was refloated at high tide before 7 a.m. with the help of five tugboats and several other vessels. It was then towed and pushed 2.5 miles back to the Seagirt Marine Terminal. Freeing the Dali from the…

Cruising Life
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Electrical Problems Caused Dali Crash: NTSB

The Coast Guard has opened a 48-foot deep channel in the Baltimore harbor to commercial traffic, just after salvage crews blew up a portion of the collapsed Key Bridge that was resting on the deck of the 984-foot-long Dali container ship there. The Dali, which had lost power and steering, hit the 1.6-mile-long bridge at 1:29 a.m. on March 26, killing six construction workers and sending the center section of the bridge tumbling into the Patapsco River (and the bow of the Dali). The new channel, which is 350-feet wide, will be open daily. Meanwhile, the National Transportation Safety Board…

Cruising Life
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New Channel Opens in Baltimore Harbor

There’s lots of news from Baltimore this week. A new, wide channel that’s 35-feet deep just opened, allowing some commercial ships to leave the harbor for the first time since a container ship hit the Key Bridge on March 26, sending its center span into the channel below. The Army Corps of Engineers removed a huge 56-ton steel section of the bridge, and a massive 200-ton hydraulic claw arrived on a barge from Galveston to remove more. The claw has a 1,000-ton lifting capacity. And the City of Baltimore sued the owners and operators of the Dali, the 984-foot-long container…

On Watch With Peter Janssen
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Did Electrical Problems Cause Bridge Crash?

Federal officials are investigating whether electrical problems caused the 984-foot-long container ship Dali to lose power and crash into Baltimore’s Key Bridge at 1:30 a.m. on March 26, sending it falling into the Patapsco River and closing the harbor. The crash killed six construction workers filling pot holes on the bridge. Meanwhile, FBI agents were on the ship last week, interviewing some of the 21 crew members, investigating whether any federal laws were broken. The City of Baltimore filed a suit against almost everyone involved, and the Dali’s owner and operator filed their own suit trying to limit their damage.…

Cruising Life
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Temporary Channels Open in Baltimore

The first ship, a barge carrying jet fuel to Dover Air Force Base, passed under the wreckage of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge on Monday afternoon, almost a week after the 984-foot container ship Dali lost power and crashed into it, sending it toppling into the Patapsco River. The accident, at 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday, March 26,  killed six construction workers filling pot holes on the bridge, and shut down the Port of Baltimore, one of the busiest commercial ports in the U.S. (More imported cars land in Baltimore than anywhere else.) Colonel Estee S. Pinchasin, commander of the U.S. Army…