The cargo ship Dali left Baltimore for Virginia on Monday, nearly three month after it lost its power and crashed against one of the Francis Scott Key Bridge’s supporting columns, causing the bridge to collapse.
The 984-foot Dali began moving with four tugboats shortly before 8:30 am.
In a press release, the U.S. Coast Guard stated that the Dali was sailing independently with a crew of 22 people and six salvage experts.
The Coast Guard supervises the trip and provides a 500-yard zone of safety around the Dali while it is on its journey.
The Coast Guard stated that the Dali will be going directly to Virginia International Gateway for approximately 1,500 cargo containers to be unloaded to reduce draft.
The vessel will then travel to Norfolk International Terminal where it will undergo further salvage and repairs for damage caused by the bridge collapse.
Six construction workers were killed when the ship lost propulsion shortly after leaving the Port of Baltimore on early March 26.
The Dali refloated on May 20 and was guided back to port. The vessel was stuck in the wreckage of the Baltimore Bridge collapse for almost two months. A massive steel truss was draped across it damaged bow.
In an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board, the ship had two power outages just hours before it left Baltimore. The ship lost power moments before it collapsed and went off course. The agency is still investigating the cause of the electrical failures.
The FBI has also launched a criminal probe.
A federal judge confirmed an agreement last week that allowed some members of the Dali crew to return home. Darrell Wilson, the spokesman of ship manager Synergy Marine, confirmed that eight of the ten allowed to leave have already done so. The two dozen seafarers are all from India and Sri Lanka.
According to the agreement, crew members returning home must be present for depositions.
The collapse has affected the jobs of thousands of longshoremen and truckers, as well as small business owners. Local and state officials have prioritized reopening and restoring the port’s traffic to normal capacity, in order to reduce the ripple effects.
In the first week of this month, the Fort McHenry Federal Channel was reopened after the wreckage had been removed from the 700 foot-wide and 50-foot deep channel.
Maryland also had a deadline for submitting proposals to rebuild a bridge on Monday. Regulations on procurement prohibit the state from releasing information about the proposals before the contract is awarded and the state announces its design-build team. The state estimates that the announcement and award will take place between mid-to-late summer.
Officials have stated that they hope to rebuild this bridge by 2028.