More than 1,000 US Army Corps of Engineers personnel were activated to help clear the critical shipping channel where Baltimore's Key Bridge collapsed.
Lt. Gen. Scott Spellmon, commander and chief of engineers, explained the team will approach the mission in three steps. Here's what they are:
- Step 1: Get the steel truss out of a 700-foot-wide by 50-foot-deep channel, and examine what parts of the concrete are still at the bottom. "Any piece of concrete, any piece of steel on the bottom is just as much as of a hazard as that in the channel," Spellmon said. This step will allow "one-way traffic going in and out of the Port of Baltimore again," he said.
- Step 2: Work closely with the Coast Guard to stabilize containers on top of the ship. Then the truss of the bridge that is still on top of the ship needs to be taken off "so it can be tugged to a safe part of the port," Spellmon said. "By removing the vessel, that will allow us to reopen two-way traffic."
- Step 3: Take out the remaining 2,900 feet of steel and all the associated concrete and roadway that's at the river bottom.
"We're up to this task. We have what we need," Spellmon said.
This post has been updated with additional information about the bridge collapse.