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As the cargo ship Dali was leaving the port of Baltimore early on the morning of March 26, it faced a sudden loss of power and drifted into the Francis Scott Key Bridge, bringing down much of the bridge and ensnaring itself in the wreckage. In the aftermath, a pivotal maritime salvage operation has unfolded with urgency and precision.
Within hours of the collapse, the U.S. Navy’s Supervisor of Salvage and Diving (SUPSALV) office alongside maritime salvage teams from Resolve Marine and Donjon Marine, and construction company Skanska mobilized their resources to the site.
Facilitating these efforts is SUPSALV, whose mission is to coordinate and establish maritime salvage and diving readiness.
“SUPSALV is required to make sure that there is a national capability, which includes both contractors as well as active duty salvage capability,” says Paul Hankins, Director of Salvage Operations at SUPSALV. “We have standing contracts across the world, so we can immediately access that national capability.”
In this case, Donjon Marine is the salvage company contracted by SUPSALV to respond.
“The Navy has the world divided into three geographical zones in which they lean and rely on for help from salvage contractors,” said Timothy Williamson, Project manager and Vice President of Salvage Operations at Donjon. “Donjon is contracted with the U.S. Navy for the Atlantic Ocean, from the North to the South Pole.”
Working alongside Donjon Marine is Resolve Marine, who was under contract for maritime salvage with the company that owns the Dali.
“All ships transiting in the U.S. waters have to have an approved vessel response plan that lays out who your salvage and firefighter responder will be,” said Gregg Baumann, government program manager at Resolve Marine. “In this particular case, the motor vessel Dali is Resolve Marine’s client, so we were responsible to our customer to respond to the salvage incident.”
The operation has proven to be an unusual challenge, with three salvage cases intersecting simultaneously.
“Resolve has the ship part of this operation and Donjon Marine is under contract to SUPSALV to clear the federal channel of the bridge debris,” said Baumann. “The third company is called Skanksa, which is under contract to the Maryland Transportation Authority, and their piece of this is to clear the bridge material outside of the main channel and the material that is outside of the ship.”
Skanska is one of the largest construction and development companies in the United States. While they do not traditionally do salvage work, they have proven to be invaluable to the operation at the Key Bridge.
“Skanska is not your typical salvage company, but they have been instrumental during this,” said Baumann. “Because they have a lot of bridge background, they have been able to help our understanding of the weights and design of the bridge.
With so many teams on the site, coordination and communication are critical to the effectiveness and safety of the divers. Every day, SUPSALV meets with the other teams at 0630 to coordinate where everyone’s assets will be that day, and again at 1730 to share what was accomplished that day and what they hope to accomplish the next.
“One thing salvors are known for is having strong opinions, which is good because to do a good salvage job you have to be able to say “here is my decision, and here is what we are going to do,”” said Hankins.
This collaborative endeavor underscores the importance of preparedness and swift action in mitigating the aftermath of disasters. The speed and competency with which the salvage teams mobilized their resources highlights how important it is for the U.S. to have such a national capability that they can rely upon.
“The way this situation rolled out was much more efficient than many marine disasters like this because of the mechanisms in place,” said Baumann. “Because of the contracts in place, we were able to get people on site in around three hours, and because SUPSALV has their salvage service contracts, they were able to immediately activate Donjon.”
Through collaboration, expertise, and unwavering determination, these salvage teams, SUPSALV, and the other members of the unified command underneath the Coast Guard are demonstrating in real time their ability to rise to the occasion, reaffirming their critical role in safeguarding maritime infrastructure.
| Date Taken: | 04.11.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 12.08.2024 19:10 |
| Story ID: | 486849 |
| Location: | BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, US |
| Web Views: | 55 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Key Bridge Incident 2024, by PO3 Christopher Nielsen, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
