With a new channel cleared around the wreckage of the Key Bridge, the first commercial ship of the eleven stuck in Baltimore harbor after the span’s destruction was able to exit and head to sea, a significant sign that the shipping traffic will soon resume, the Baltimore Sun reports.
The Balsa 94, a Panamanian-flagged bulk cargo carrier, sailed passed the grounded Dali via a 38-foot deep channel created around the bridge as it set sail for Saint John, Canada. The channel will allow at least eight of the ten remaining ships, including a car carrier, to depart the harbor; the last two ships, bulk cargo carriers with 50-foot drafts, still sit too deep to transit the channel.
A schedule to release the remaining ships has not been released, but officials believe the eight vessels will be able to depart over the next four days. Some small inbound vessels, including a bulk cargo carrier and a ship full of aluminum, are expected to enter the harbor in the next few days, the first new shipment into the Baltimore harbor, one of the top ports by tonnage on the East Coast.