The biggest Key Bridge section yet was pulled from the Patapsco River this weekend. Here's how.

A salvage worker uses a cutting torch on a 450-ton section of the Francis Scott Key Bridge on Monday. The piece, the largest so far, was moved from the collapse site to a lot at Tradepoint Atlantic over the weekend.





https://www.baltimoresun.com/2024/04/15/key-bridge-salvage-tradepoint-atlantic/


Dangling from one of the biggest floating cranes on the East Coast, the largest chunk yet of the fallen Francis Scott Key Bridge was moved ashore Sunday.

The approximately 450-ton section of truss sat Monday morning at a processing yard at Tradepoint Atlantic in Baltimore County, where orange sparks flew as workers sawed at the steel. Minutes later, a clawlike pair of shears attached to an excavator tugged on a weakened steel member, folding an entire triangular section of truss onto the ground.

“To date, this is the largest single lift of steel that we’ve had,” said James Harkness, chief engineer for the Maryland Transportation Authority. “When they brought it in yesterday, they actually had to cut it in half, because it was about 90 feet tall. So in order to make it manageable for the crews working in the processing yard, they cut it down.”

Officials estimate that a total of 50,000 short tons of debris are sitting in the Patapsco River, blocking access to the shipping channel that leads to the Port of Baltimore. The debris is steadily coming ashore in Sparrows Point, and once it’s cut down, it will be sent to local recycling companies.