Salvage operations have begun a week after the collapse of a major bridge in the U.S. city of Baltimore. Four people remain missing, along with two others whose bodies have been recovered. And there are concerns that it will impact Baltimore's economy, as shipping traffic has been suspended.

Baltimore

Salvage operations have commenced following the collapse of a significant bridge in Baltimore, USA. The incident, which occurred a week ago, has prompted a major response effort to manage the aftermath. Among the urgent priorities is the search for four individuals who continue to be missing since the incident, adding to the gravity of the situation alongside the recovery of two bodies.

The bridge collapse has raised concerns surrounding the economic impact on Baltimore, particularly given the halt in shipping traffic. The suspension of maritime activities hints at potential disruptions in the supply chain and financial repercussions for businesses dependent on these routes.



How will the Baltimore bridge debris be cleared?

The salvaging of collapsed portions of the Francis Scott Quay Bridge has begun. The plan is for sections weighing hundreds of thousands of kilograms to be lifted by crane from the water and placed on barges in a recovery process with no timeline. It is very complicated down below. These are still girders, unlike the still girders that you can see that are above the waterline still, which have significant damage. Below the waterline, along the bottom, is very challenging because these girders are essentially tangled together, intertwined, making it very difficult to figure out where you need to eventually cut so that we can make that into more manageable sizes to lift them from the waterway. For now, the port remains open while cargo delivered before the collision is processed, but soon it will close. And it's not clear what will happen to the jogs of 15,000 port employees. A further 140,000 across the state of Maryland are also estimated to rely on the port being operational for their livelihoods. Lewis Kelly was among those who attended an event to help businesses affected by the port closure. His small construction business relies on the international supply chain just as much as a major manufacturing company, with low inventory of materials kept on hand. You don't order so you can store them into your warehouse. You order when the job is ready to go. So when you look at your project schedule, where you have things planned in two weeks and six weeks and 12 weeks, all of that is out of the window. And we also just don't know how that is going to affect our employees, simply because if there is a long delay, what do we do? Do we lay them off? The investigation into the crash continues. The main question is why the Dali suddenly lost power. Another question, why the construction workers on the bridge at the time of the collision had no means of communication so that they could be warned of the impending danger. As so often happens after major accidents, multiple warnings are now coming to light issued by insurance companies and local officials that say that this bridge needed to be brought up to the standards of modern bridges that are constructed to withstand the traffic of mega-container ships. Shia Bertansi, Al Jazeera, Baltimore.

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