First container ship arrives at Seagirt terminal since collapse of Key Bridge in Baltimore

BALTIMORE — The first container ship has come and gone from the Port of Baltimore since the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, taking advantage of a four-day opening of a deep-draft shipping channel.

The MSC Passion III sailed Saturday into Seagirt Marine Terminal through the channel that opened last week as a temporary measure for commercial vessels, port officials said Monday. The ship, which arrived in Baltimore from Wilmington, Delaware, was en route to Costa Rica on Monday.

“Another milestone,” port officials announced on social media. “We’re getting there.”

About 80 longshoremen, represented by International Longshoremen’s Association Local 333, unloaded nearly 1,000 containers, the post on X said. The state-owned Seagirt can handle 1.5 million 20-foot units of containers a year, according to operator Ports America Chesapeake.

The truck-sized shipping containers, which can be readily shifted between ships, trucks and rail cars, can hold a variety of cargos, including consumer goods such as clothing, electronics, big screen TVs, sporting goods and furniture.

Container ships have been unable to come into the port since March 26, when the Singaporean-flagged container vessel Dali struck a support pier of the Key Bridge, collapsing the span over the Patapsco River connecting Hawkins Point and Dundalk, killing six road crew workers and blocking maritime commerce into and out of the port. Authorities have recovered four bodies and are continuing to search for two others.

The new 38-foot channel opened Thursday. It is the deepest yet of four temporary, alternate routes in and out of the port. That channel shut down at 6 a.m. Monday and will remain closed until about May 10 to allow salvage crews to begin lifting steel off the grounded Dali and using a hydraulic grabber to clear debris from the harbor’s main shipping channel.

As of Friday, 171 commercial vessels had traveled through the four alternate channels, including five of the seven commercial ships that were stranded at the port and unable to depart, according to the Key Bridge Response 2024 Unified Command. Two loaded coal ships need the full 50-foot channel to depart.

About half the vessels that currently call in Baltimore’s port can use the new deep-draft temporary channel, according to the Maryland Port Administration. The Coast Guard has the final say, taking into consideration criteria such as weight and beam limits.

The Army Corps of Engineers has said it expects to reopen the Port of Baltimore’s permanent 700-foot wide, 50-foot deep channel by the end of May.

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(Sun reporter Dan Belson contributed to this story.)

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