The timeline to reopen the main shipping channel into the Port of Baltimore remains on schedule, as work continues to mitigate the fallout from the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
The Dali container ship crashed the Baltimore bridge in the early morning hours of March 26, killing six people and shutting down traffic to the port. Since then, three smaller, temporary channels have been opened to allow vessels through to assist in clean-up efforts. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimates the waterway will be fully reopened by the end of May.
On April 19, the U.S. Department of Transportation reaffirmed that timeline in a meeting with the National Economic Council and East Coast port leaders. Port leaders also explained how they’ve been able to accommodate the recent increase in container vessel traffic in other East Coast ports, as a result of the closure at the Port of Baltimore.
The Biden administration cites a variety of factors that have led to minimal impacts to the nation’s supply chain in the weeks since the bridge collapse. That includes the monitoring of container volume and terminal use through its Freight Logistics Optimizations Works (FLOW) initiative. FLOW was launched in the wake of the pandemic in 2022, collecting and sharing data from freight hubs, rail terminals, and warehouses to better predict import import volumes and traffic.
