First vessel passes through temporary channel near Key Bridge wreckage site

BALTIMORE, MD (CBS NEWS) — The Tugboat Crystal Coast, pushing a fuel barge, was the first vessel Monday to move through a temporary alternate channel in the Patapsco River following the collapse of the Key Bridge, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. It’s headed to Dover Air Force Base with jet fuel.

The emergency passageway —264 feet wide and 11 feet deep— was cleared on Monday to allow essential vessels to pass along the Patapsco River around the mangled wreckage at the bridge disaster site.

A second 15-foot channel is expected to allow marine vessels access to the Port of Baltimore and a third, even deeper channel will follow.

“Today was an important milestone in the process of beginning to pull the wreckage out, beginning to open channels. We know we still have work to do,” Governor Wes Moore said on Monday.

U.S. Coast Guard Captain David O’Connell, the federal on-scene coordinator for the Unified Response to the bridge collapse, said in an exclusive interview with CBS News that auxiliary channels are planned to open along the northeast section of the channel and one running along the south.

There’s pre-existing debris along the south side of the channel that the Coast Guard is working to remove.

“We’re working with salvage to pull that out of the water tomorrow,” O’Connell said.

The two temporary channels will mainly be for response vessels, commercially essential vehicles and those participating in salvage efforts.

A deeper third channel is in the works that would require up to 25 feet of depth to operate, but more debris surrounding the striking ship, the Dali, needs to be removed.

“I anticipate smaller draft commercial vessels, maybe some small tugs in the next few days,” O’Connell said. “That’s that 13 to 14 foot draft, but that unfortunately, that’s not a lot of vessels. But it certainly is a start on our way to phase three, which will hopefully get us to 20 to 25 foot draft and that would be a lot more commercial vessels.”

In a complexly woven case, Moore says untangling the mangled mess of debris remains dangerous.

“We’re talking about a situation where a portion of the bridge beneath the water has been described by Unified Command as ‘chaotic wreckage,'” Moore said. “Every time someone goes into the water, they are taking a risk. Every time we move a piece of the structure, the situation could become even more dangerous. We have to move fast but we cannot be careless.”