Ship that caused Baltimore bridge collapse moved back to port

MV Dali collided with bridge March 26, killing 6 constructions workers

The MV Dali was refloated and moved Monday away from the site of its collision with the Francis Scott Key Bridge. (Photo: U.S. Coast Guard/U.S. Army Corps of Engineers)

Almost two months after colliding with Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, the MV Dali cargo ship was hauled away from the site and taken to shore Monday.

The Unified Command, a group of local and federal agencies managing the operation, said the Dali was floated around 7 a.m. ET, and tugboards slowly moved it to a local marine terminal.

The Dali will spend several weeks getting temporary repairs at the terminal and then will be moved to a shipyard for more substantial repairs, authorities said.

Twenty-one crew members remain on board the Dali, a nearly 1,000-foot-long NeoPanamax cargo ship weighing 120,000 tons. The ship has a container capacity of 9,971 twenty-foot equivalent units.

The Dali lost power and crashed into one of the bridge’s supporting columns in the early morning hours of March 26. The collision caused the bridge to immediately collapse, killing six construction workers who were on the bridge and halting maritime traffic through the Port of Baltimore, the busiest port in the U.S. for car shipments.

Federal investigators released a report last week that said the ship went through multiple power failures before colliding with the bridge.

Authorities have opened four temporary channels on the Patapsco River leading to the harbor in response to the incident, allowing shipping operations to continue.

The Port of Baltimore is the deepest harbor in Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay, with five public and 12 private terminals. It handled over $80 billion worth of cargo in 2023. It serves more than 50 ocean carriers making nearly 1,800 annual port calls.

The Francis Scott Key Bridge was also a major conduit for traffic in the region, with up to 31,000 passenger vehicles crossing it daily.

Federal authorities estimate replacing the bridge could cost $1.7 billion to $1.9 billion. It could take up to four years to construct a new bridge, with completion sometime in 2028.

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Noi Mahoney

Noi Mahoney is a Texas-based journalist who covers cross-border trade, logistics and supply chains for FreightWaves. He graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in English in 1998. Mahoney has more than 20 years experience as a journalist, working for newspapers in Maryland and Texas. Contact nmahoney@freightwaves.com