Port of Baltimore channel fully reopened

The U.S. Coast Guard Captain of the Port of Baltimore has reopened the Fort McHenry Channel to commercial vessel traffic for 24-hour availability, the Port of Baltimore agency has announced.

The channel has been fully or partially obstructed since March 26, when the multilane highway Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed after a cargo vessel collided with the bridge. Six members of a crew working on the bridge died in the collapse.

“This channel has been fully restored to its original depth of 50 feet, its 700-foot horizontal clearance, and a vertical clearance of 214 feet due to the adjacent Baltimore Gas & Electric power lines,” the port authority says.

Salvage operations to retrieve an estimated 50,000 tons of concrete and steel that fell into the channel, also considered part of the Patapsco River, are still underway.

In the meantime, “Deep draft vessels still require a Maryland State Pilot and one escort tug, and the temporary alternate channels remain open and available for use until approximately June 30, the [estimated date of] conclusion of all on-water salvage and survey operations relating to the Key Bridge Response,” according to the Port of Baltimore agency.

“We thank [Maryland] Gov. Wes Moore for his strong and unwavering leadership throughout this crisis. We thank the Unified Command, especially the Coast Guard and Army Corps of Engineers, for their tireless and incredible work to reopen our full channel safely and much faster than was first expected. We thank our valued business partners for your loyal and continued support.”

In 2023, about 460,000 metric tons of steel for recycling valued at more than $220 million was exported from the Port of Baltimore, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. That volume made the port the 10th most active ferrous scrap export district in the nation and the fifth busiest on the Atlantic coast, behind New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Providence, Rhode Island.

In terms of truck traffic serving the port and in the wider region, it likely faces several more years of using alternate routes, including two interstate highway tunnels that pass beneath the Patapsco River. Trucks carrying cargoes banned from entering the tunnels face a wider detour on the Interstate 695 beltway.

Building a replacement bridge might cost an estimated $2 billion and is unlikely to be completed before 2028, according to an Associated Press report on the channel reopening.