LIVE: Maryland Governor Discusses Bridge Collapse Cleanup Efforts

Good afternoon of the Key Bridge Collapse and also their loved ones. My family and I had a chance to visit our home church yesterday in East Baltimore, and we asked the congregation to say a special prayer for these families. So I want them to know that our prayers and support will never stop. And for everyone who can hear my voice, these families are asking for privacy, and we need to honor that request. I've been disturbed by stories from our colleagues in county government that members of the media have been harassing these families. Baltimore County and Anne Arundel County have sent police to their homes to make sure these families are okay. These families are living a nightmare, and they deserve the time and the space to heal. So I'm asking, let us show our humanity in this moment as well. I also want to continue to thank our first responders and emergency personnel. Let us not forget that we are coming out of a holiday weekend, but for the men and women of this operation, the work did not stop. The work did not stop surveying the area. The work did not stop on environmental monitoring. The work did not stop in developing better images of the wreckage so we can move forward in a safe and efficient way. And this morning, the team was back out there in the rain, in the wind, keeping up the work. So it's hard to overstate how dedicated and remarkable this team really is. From unified command to the leaders at local and state and our federal levels and our federal delegation, to our partners in the private sector, to our partners in the philanthropic sector, to each and every one of you, I say thank you. Now today, I'll provide updates on the four directives that I've issued to this team. And as a reminder, the first, we need to recover the four remaining victims and give closure to these families. The second, we need to clear the channel and open the vessel to traffic for the port. The third, we need to take care of all of our people who have been affected by this crisis. And the fourth, we need to, and we will, rebuild the Key Bridge. And we will make sure that the new bridge honors the spirit of the city of Baltimore. This morning, I received a briefing from unified command. Now I've spoken with leaders from all across every level in response to this effort all throughout the day. And so first, on our recovery efforts, we need to do more work clearing the channel in order to move forward. Now I know there's an urgency to move fast. And nobody feels that urgency more than the people standing up here today. But we have to be clear on the risks. This is a steel bridge that is sitting on top of a container ship in the middle of the Patapsco River. We are talking about tons of steel that is mangled and cantilevered. We're talking about water that is so murky and so filled with debris that divers cannot see any more than a foot or two in front of them. We're talking about a situation where a portion of the bridge beneath the water has been described by unified command as chaotic wreckage. Every time someone goes in 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. I've been clear with this team that we have got to prioritize safety. And my directive is to complete this mission with no injuries and no casualties. We've already lost six Marylanders to this crisis. I refuse to lose any more. One of the mantras in the military is mission first, people always. And that's the mindset that we are going to apply to this work. Now, on clearing the federal channel and reopening the vessel traffic to the port, unified command has moved forward with their first crane operation. They cut up and lifted a piece of the north section of the key bridge. The entire operation took 10 hours. And in that time, they were able to cut and lift a 200-ton span of the bridge. Now, when we were getting that briefing, unified command said something that really struck me, where the admiral says this was a relatively small lift. We're talking about 200 tons. We're talking about something that is almost the size of the Statue of Liberty. And what the admiral said is right. It's a small piece of what we're talking about. The scale of this project, to be clear, it is enormous. And even the small lifts are huge. That's how we have to move forward. The temporary channel on the northeast side of the collapse opened earlier today. It will help us to get more vessels in the water around the site of the collapse. The temporary channel will be marked with government lights to aid navigation and will have a controlling depth of 11 feet. Now, we're also moving forward on creating a southwest channel for deeper draft vessels that will allow for a deeper draw. That channel will measure about 15 feet deep. And it will be open in the coming days. My command has scheduled another lift for later today, pending conditions, specifically pending lightning. And they will be lifting an estimated 350-ton piece from the bridge. The work is moving. The mission continues. We are never going to lose sight of the workers who also have been impacted by this collapse because at least 8,000 workers on the docks have jobs that have been directly affected by this collapse. And earlier today, myself, Lieutenant Governor, County Executive, Mayor, and others met with the International Longstorm Association, Local 333. These are individuals who work hard, never complain, and always get the job done. And many have continued to work on the docks. Many haven't been able to get back to work at all. And even the ones who have gone back to work on the docks, they know that the situation still feels very uncertain. And to all those individuals, we want to let them know this. We've got their backs because they've always had ours. Now, third, on taking care of our people. Last week, the Biden-Harris Administration accepted our request to approve a Small Business Administration disaster declaration within hours. And that declaration is now in effect. And once again, I want to thank the Biden-Harris Administration for their consistent support and partnership. Because of this declaration, small businesses affected by the disaster can now apply for disaster loan assistance from the federal government. As we mentioned before, these are low-interest loans of up to $2 million. These loans will help small businesses get the cash they need to pay their bills and to keep their people employed. Since Saturday morning, the Small Business Administration has received 57 applications for the Economic Injury Disaster Loans from Maryland. And the Small Business Administration has also worked with us over the last 48 hours to stand up the Business Resource Center. And it opened to the public this afternoon. Our team includes experts from across the state and across the country. And we have team leads who live in Puerto Rico, Long Island, and Atlanta. These individuals are doing tremendous work. And right now, they're Marylanders. If you need help to apply for disaster loan assistance, we are here to help. If you need help to apply for unemployment insurance, we are here to help. If you need to learn more about resources being offered to workers and businesses right now, we are here to help. And the first location is at 1501 South Clinton Street, Baltimore, Maryland, 21224. I'll say that address again, 1501 South Clinton Street, Baltimore, Maryland, 21224. Their hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. through 6 p.m., and on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. And that site includes representatives from the Small Business Administration, from the Maryland Department of Labor, from the Maryland Insurance Administration, from Baltimore City – thank you, Mr. Mayor – and from Anne Arundel County. If you need help, please show up. Walk in, and we will try to get you the support that you need and merit. We will soon be opening up a second location in Baltimore County. Thank you, County Executive. And I've deputized Lieutenant Governor Runa Miller to lead our efforts on economic and financial recovery. She has been a full partner every step of the way, and I'm grateful for her. I've also ordered the formation of the Intergovernmental Economic Response Team. This team will bring together state and local and federal agencies to coordinate our response to the economic and financial crisis resulting from this collapse. And fourth, on rebuilding. We cannot rebuild the bridge until we clear the wreckage. But I'm telling you, we are going to get this done. We will clear the channel. We will move the dolly. We will rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge. What we're seeing right now is Marylanders are rallying. Marylanders are taking care of each other. Marylanders, each and every one of you, you are proving what it means to be Maryland Tough and Baltimore Strong. And today, we're joined by members of the Maryland Transportation Authority Police Dispatch Team, because in the middle of the chaos, they stepped up to manage the chaos. They provided a calm voice for the officers in the field who were facing an unthinkable challenge. They conducted their work with professionalism and speed and coordination. And it's not lost to me that this is what they do every single day. We are so grateful to each and every one of you and to all your colleagues. And finally, I want to encourage people to follow the work. You can now visit keybridgeresponse2024.com to receive daily updates on our progress and to keep informed. So in a moment, I'm going to hand it over to Admiral Gilreath, who's representing Unified Command, but we're also joined by the following speakers. Superintendent of the Maryland Department of State Police, Colonel Roland Butler. Secretary of the Maryland Department of Transportation, Paul Wiedefeld. Lieutenant Colonel Cory McKenzie from the Maryland Transportation Authority Police. Congressman Kwasi Nfume. Mayor of Baltimore City, Brandon Scott. And Baltimore County Executive, Johnny Olaszewski. And I want to thank all of our additional partners for being here today. So now, we'll hand it over to Admiral Gilreath, representing Unified Command. Good afternoon. I'm Admiral Shannon Gilreath, about to give you some updates from the Unified Command. Our number one priority remains reopening the Deep Draft Channel into the Port of Baltimore. Number two, we're going to remove the ship. And number three, we are going to remove the debris from the rest of the waterway. So an update on the number one priority. We continue to dive on that portion of the bridge that is within the Deep Draft Channel. And what we're finding is, it is more complicated than we had hoped for initially. As the Governor described, and as you heard the State Police describe earlier last week, the conditions on the diving, it is very complicated down below. These are still girders, unlike the still girders that you can see that are above the waterline still, which have significant damage. Below the waterline, along the bottom, is very challenging because these girders are essentially tangled together, intertwined, making it very difficult to figure out where you need to eventually cut so that we can make that into more manageable sizes to lift them from the waterway. So we're continuing to dive on that. We've got advanced sonar capability out there helping us map that, but it's turning out to be more challenging than we originally thought it might be, just in trying to determine how they're tangled and how we're going to eventually cut through them. But we're continuing to work on that, and we've got great engineers helping us, and very brave, great divers doing that. But as we've said from the beginning, we have to do this safely. And you heard the Governor say that as well today. We have to do this safely. We do not want to injure a single other person in this. And so we're going to move as rapidly as possible, but we're going to continue to do it safely so that we don't take any unnecessary risks there with someone's life or getting them injured. So I really want to thank the divers, and I really particularly want to thank today Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Navy Supervisor Salavage, who are over here to my right, for their work and the work of their contractors that are doing that diving and mapping of that bottom floor there. We're making progress still on removing the ship, and so we've got more cranes coming to help us with that going forward. We're continuing to dive on the ship as well to come up with the exact right plans on how we're ultimately going to remove that. Now we've made some real progress on the third thing I talked about, and that is removing the debris from the rest of the waterway. And so along those lines, the Governor mentioned we conducted our first lift on Saturday of about 200 tons of steel, which was a tremendous mark of accomplishment. But there's more to follow. And we're working on a 350-ton lift today. And once that is cut and lifted and put onto the barge, we're going to bring those initial pieces of the bridge back here to Sparrows Point and offload them. And that will happen later this week. We also have been working on developing alternate channels to get traffic in and out of the Port of Baltimore. And so I'm proud to announce that we do, in fact, have an 11-foot channel now just to the north under the first northern part of the bridge that's still standing to be able to transit through there. And we have two transits scheduled this evening for some barges and tugs to come out and get out of the Port of Baltimore so they can bring stuff in in the future. So that is a real progress and another stepping stone. But these are stepping stones towards finishing a marathon. We're not there yet. We are making those steps and strides, and we're going to get there. But it's going to take us some time, and we're going to do it safely, but we're going to do it as soon as possible. So finally, the governor also mentioned our website, the keybridgeresponse2024.com. That's also a place that you can go if you see marine debris that may have floated away from the ship and or the bridge. And on there is a number that you can call to report that to us so that we can take that information and come out and assist with that. So thank you for what you're doing in that regard to help us. And thank you for your continued support of the Unified Command. It means a great deal. Thank you, Governor. Thanks. Good afternoon. I'm Colonel Butler of the Maryland State Police. The Maryland State Police continues its efforts as a member of the Unified Command. As Governor Moore mentioned earlier, the brave members of our underwater rescue teams remain on standby. They will resume their recovery efforts once the Unified Command has been notified that it's safe for them to resume diving operations. Our ultimate goal remains to provide closure to all the families who have lost a loved one in this tragic incident. Again, we are reminding the public that the Federal Aviation Administration has implemented a temporary flight restriction following this bridge collapse. This extends for three nautical miles from the center of the bridge and from the surface of the water up 1,500 feet. We want to emphasize the importance of refraining from firing drones in this area. Doing so poses a significant risk to the efforts to remove debris from the water. I urge everyone to exercise responsibility and respect for the airspace restrictions around the Francis Scott Key Bridge Collapse Site. Please refrain from operating drones in this vicinity and allow emergency personnel to carry out their duties safely and effectively. Law enforcement in the area is actively monitoring the area for illegal drone use. Law enforcement has responded to multiple drone incursions over the past few days. There is a zero-tolerance policy regarding any drone use anywhere within the no-drone zone established by the FAA. In addition, we know this tragedy has far-reaching implications that will affect the daily lives of Marylanders for the foreseeable future. I want to ensure the public that the Maryland State Police, the Maryland Transportation Authority Police, and all of our allied law enforcement partners are working together with the Maryland Department of Transportation to mitigate the impact of this incident on traffic safety. As always, our troopers are actively monitoring road conditions, directing traffic, enforcing safety regulations to prevent crashes and minimize delays. We are asking motorists now more than ever to exercise caution and patience as we navigate through this challenging period. Please adhere to the posted speed limits, avoid distractions while driving, and never drive while impaired. Also, please, please remember the move-over law for first responders, tow truck operators, work crews, and vehicles that have become disabled on the side of the road. We understand this situation is going to cause inconvenience for some time, which is why it's paramount that people operate their vehicles with care and caution. Thank you. Good afternoon. Paul Wiedefeld, Secretary of Maryland Department of Transportation. I want to echo Governor Moore's extreme thanks and appreciation for our first responders, including the Maryland Transportation Authority police officers who were first on the scene. As secretary and as chairman of the Maryland Transportation Authority's board, I cannot stress enough how grateful I am for the life-saving actions of our Maryland Transportation Authority police officers and our dispatchers. Under Governor Moore's leadership, the Maryland Department of Transportation continues to work with our unified command to advance the governor's key directives. Obviously, one of our top priorities is to reopen the shipping channel. Tomorrow marks one week since the collapse, and the unified command has already removed several pieces of debris and is working to remove the second largest piece later today. These are significant steps forward, and just so you know, the rain does not impact the team's work. Obviously, lightning and strong winds would. I also want to stress, as has been by the Admiral, the tremendous effort it takes to do this. It's basically plan the work, engineer the work, implement the work, and then go back and do that all over again, as anything may have shifted during this very dangerous operation. Turning to the Port of Baltimore and its operations, it continues to be open, and obviously in much limited fashion, but is open. We are assessing opportunities at the Port of Baltimore, the portions that we control, to improve maintenance and basically take advantage of the reduced work there to deliver maintenance projects that we had planned. Regarding returning cruises, which left Baltimore before the tragedy, yesterday was the first of two diverted ships that arrived in Norfolk, Virginia, and offloaded passengers. About 60 buses transported approximately 2,500 Carnival Cruise passengers back to the Maryland cruise terminal, where some left their vehicles. Everything ran very smoothly, thankfully. The same thing will happen with the 2,500 Royal Caribbean passengers who are scheduled to return from Norfolk Thursday. Turning to traffic coordination, another primary focus of the department, tomorrow we expect heavy traffic in the Baltimore region during the morning and evening rush hours as students head back to class and commuters return to their routines. Weather is also expected through Wednesday, which will impact commuting times. I strongly recommend everyone to prepare for extra travel time. The department continues to evaluate shifting travel patterns so that we can make necessary adjustments as well. For example, the State Highway Administration has adjusted traffic signals on Maryland 2, Ritchie Highway, and Maryland 157, the Peninsula Expressway, to help alleviate traffic congestion, particularly local traffic congestion. Trucks carrying hazmat materials can no longer travel through the tunnels and must use I-695 West, so again, we're monitoring that very closely as well. And it's also important to keep in mind we have a tremendous transit system in the Baltimore region. We have a bus system, local system, commuter bus system, light rail, metro subway, and MARC trains. So they are another option for commuters. And I would suggest that you visit our website for commuter benefits that we offer in terms of reduced fares and also work with employers to promote commuting through transit. In terms of rebuilding the bridge, we continue to work with our federal partners in basically coming up with the innovative design that the governor mentioned, the engineering and the building methods, and we continue to work on that as well so that we can deliver this bridge as quickly and safely as possible. In closing, we work in honor of the victims of this tragedy and their families. Please join us in honoring them by making safe choices on the road, as was just outlined by the superintendent. So with that, I'll turn it over to Lieutenant Colonel McKenzie from the Maryland Transportation Authority Police. Thank you, Secretary Wietelfeld. Good afternoon. I'm Lieutenant Colonel Cory McKenzie with the Maryland Transportation Authority Police, also known as the MDTA Police. I want to start by thanking Governor Moore, sir, for your support in highlighting the efforts of the MDTA Police Dispatch Team. They are our heroes behind the headset. Excellent work. Certainly as we learned more about the response last Tuesday morning by our officers, our dispatchers, and other first responders, I could not be more proud of their efforts. From MDTA police officers to include Corporal Herbert, Sergeant Pastorek, and Officer Kurtz, immediately stopping traffic on the Key Bridge, they saved so many lives. To MDTA police officers, Senior Officer Kinsey and Officer Boblitz, who had our Marine Unit in the water at the Key Bridge in approximately 15 minutes, which allowed them to rescue a survivor who was clinging to debris and get him to immediate care. There are so many other MDTA police employees, sworn and civilian, deserving of recognition. And certainly we know that the MDTA Police Team had help from every local, state, and federal agency we could ask for, and we thank everybody for that support. The MDTA Police and the Maryland Transportation Authority are part of the Unified Command team and will continue to support response effort through their finish. Our overall focus, though, remains at this time on doing our part to recover the four remaining victims of this tragedy. You just heard from Secretary Whitefield about expected traffic impacts. Our MDTA Police Team is deploying additional resources to meet the needs of increased traffic at other MDTA facilities and surrounding roadways, but we need your help. Trucks carrying hazmats and also oversized vehicles, there's various restrictions at both the Fort McHenry and Baltimore Harbor tunnels. Please be cognizant of those restrictions. Our Commercial Vehicle Safety Unit will have increased presence to enforce these restrictions. Your daily route to work or school may have changed, but traffic safety is our main priority. We thank drivers and the community for their patience and their support. The MDTA Police remains committed to providing safety, security, and service in partnership with the community to all persons who use and work on MDTA facilities and other vital transportation assets throughout the state of Maryland. Thank you for your support, and I'll turn it over now to Congressman Mfume. Thank you. Thank you very much. Good afternoon, everyone. Kwaisi Mfume, member of Congress, 7th District of Maryland. I want to just take the few moments I have to do as I've been trying to do each and every time I've addressed you, and that is to point out the Maryland example, the example of leadership in crises, the example that has come together from different aspects of our state and has all taken place under the leadership of Governor Westmore, whose heart has been bleeding since this has happened, as has been the case with his partners, Mayor Brandon Scott of Baltimore City and Johnny Olszewski of Baltimore County. And let me just say also on behalf of Senator Van Hollen and Senator Cardin, both of whom could not be here today because of official duties, Team Maryland will remain in place, Democrat and Republican. We are a united delegation to make sure that we're able to move forward. Just a couple of quick things. I'd be remiss if I did not reference two groups that are not here. The first group is the family of the victims that have been recovered and those who have not been recovered. Each time we talk to you, we continue to lift them in prayer because it could have been any one of us, quite frankly. And my hats are off to Gustavo Torres and the people of Casa Maryland who have embraced that family of men, husbands, fathers, to make sure that their families are able to find some healing in all of this. The other group is the group of the hundreds of men that many of us just left down at the docks, the longshoremen of Local 333 and 953 and the other locals under the leadership of Scott Cowan, who have grabbed it together, recognizing that they are going to be affected in a way that they never thought and that their jobs are at risk, but who are so committed to doing everything they can on their end to make sure that we get through this together. They, like myself, many of them remember this bridge before it became a bridge, when for five years, having grown up not far from here, I watched that construction and watched that opening. And so all of our hearts break at what's left out there. But the governor is right, and I hope that he will always be deliberately redundant as he has been about the fact that that bridge will be re-erected again and that this port will be open for business again. Now, just a couple of quick things on the federal response, and I'll move away. Most of you know that President Biden, to his credit, reached out almost immediately to virtually all of us here to have conversations hours after that about what has happened. And the commitment that he has made to the state and the governor and all the people of Maryland is phenomenal. It has reached some criticism by some, but we know that petty minds have petty thoughts. The larger base of Americans realize how valuable this port is to the national economy and to supply lines. President will be here in a couple of days, as you all know, and will be able to speak for himself about what he sees going forward. But I, having worked under seven presidents, I can tell you this means a lot. I also spoke with the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, over the weekend, who understands the significance of this and who, along with myself, has continually said this is not and nor should it be a partisan issue. It's not Democrat or Republican. It's about finding a way to reinstitute the normalcy that was in place here before last Tuesday morning. And I've spoken with Tom Cole, the ranking Republican of the Appropriations Committee, who long before I had a chance to call him, went on television to talk about how dedicated he is and will be to making sure that this is taken care of. So we hope that the Maryland example that is an example of people working together is an example that moves us forward beyond this and, unfortunately, beyond what we know will be future tragedies in our future. I'm just glad to be a part of this team. Thank you all very much. Let me bring forward the mayor of the city of Baltimore, who's done a yeoman's job, as I indicated before, Mayor Brandon Scott. Good afternoon, everyone. Let me first start off by saying again that our hearts, thoughts, and prayers are with the families of those who we lost. And I want to drive home a point that my governor made earlier. Please give these families the space and time and everything they need to heal. They don't just need it. They deserve it. We should treat them just as we would want someone to treat our family if we were going through this situation. Today, as you know, we had the opportunity to talk to our workers at the port, hardworking men and women whose work makes so many ports of each and every one of our lives more convenient and easier. These are great people from great Baltimore families who have a history of delivering for us. I feel a special responsibility to them and their families because it was that port that brought my family to Baltimore and provided the opportunities for me. And I know that there are so many others. We have to, and they heard it from us today and they will hear it from us every single day, that even though despite the situation at hand, they are in great spirits, but they are also understanding the magnitude of the situation. But they know we will be with them every day, every second, every hour to make sure that we support them in every way humanly possible as we work together through this tragedy. They will not be left out. No human will be left out. We will think about the complete human toll from those families that lost individuals to these workers, that over 8,000 who depend on this port. Every single first responder, we will be with them each and every day as we all collectively heal through this tragedy. And lastly, I want to say a big thank you to the Unified Command, Army Corps of Engineers, Navy Suit Sal, for their work that's already underway on clearing debris. But saying again that this will not be a quick task. You heard from the Admiral and the most important thing that each and every one of us can understand is that we will do it quickly, but the right and safe way every single day until we get this channel back open. Baltimore will recover. It will be long. It will be likely a very hard road. But we here in Baltimore are built with grit. Baltimore Obey Flavored Grit, and we're going to show the world what that truly means. Thank you, and I'll turn it over to County Executive Shusky. Thank you, Mayor, and good afternoon all, Baltimore County Executive Johnny L. Shusky. Some Easter reflections. Like the Governor, like the Mayor, I had the opportunity to worship with my family in the home church this weekend, and two things struck me. First was the families who weren't able to worship together as a result of this tragedy. So I ask that you continue your prayers for them, and heed the call of both the Governor and Mayor Scott that we give those families the space to heal, to grieve, to gather. Second is that as we were worshiping, as the Governor indicated, the heroes, our first responders, Unified Command, were and still are working around the clock for our benefit. So we thank them for their incredible service. We had the chance to meet with our port workers today, and in a reminder of just how interconnected we are, just of the many conversations we had, one was with a former high school classmate, one was with a cousin. So we all feel this in very real and personal ways, and our resolve and commitment to supporting them is undetermined, is determined and focused and unwavering. Closer to home, in Baltimore County, as the Governor said, we have soft-opened our Dundalk location. We thank the Small Business Administration for providing resources to the Dundalk location, as well as unemployment support. We will make sure that this facility remains open as long as needed for our families. Lastly, we continue to work with and we thank the Governor, his legislative team, Speaker of the House Adrian Jones, Senate President Bill Ferguson, and our respective delegations to provide the Governor all the support he needs following the conclusion of session to support us. Closer to home, Mayor Scott and I continue to coordinate on what our local response should be, and we'll be working with members of my Council, including Councilman Julian Jones, who is here with us today, Chair of the Council Izzy Patoka, and local Councilman Todd Crandall, to ensure that we provide whatever local resources are necessary. It's what we do in local government. City, county, it's all Baltimore, but it's what we do in local government. We fill the gaps, and we'll be here for you. Fortunately, we are a year-round legislature, so we can take whatever action is necessary in the days and weeks ahead. Again, Governor, I'm going to thank you for your leadership, everyone at Unified Command and our first responders, and my partners in government. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. So the team, both from Unified Command and also NTSB, has been in close communication with the team from the DALY. Fortunately, the part of the ship that was most deeply impacted by the wreckage is not the part of the ship where either their living quarters or the kitchen and the cooking conditions are in, nor the fuel. So they're still able to move and maneuver in that area. The team has been in close touch and contact with them, and we'll continue to be so going forward. I think those plans are still under development. They're still identifying those resources, but generally, when the debris is taken to the laydown yard at Tradeport Atlantic at Sparrows Point, it'll be inspected and secured until they find a final disposition for disposal in a safe manner. We know we are going to get that shipping channel open as quickly and as safely as possible. It is one of the core priorities that we have, being able to open up the channel, get commercial commerce going, and even, I think, as Admiral Gilbreath mentioned earlier, today was an important milestone in the process of beginning to pull the wreckage out, beginning to open up channels. We know we still have more work to do. We know we still have more work to do to get the channels open, particularly the channels that will take the larger ships and require the deeper draw, but we are going to move as quickly and as safely as the conditions continue to operate. It's a tremendous amount of work. This is a remarkably complicated operation because of all the facets and the assets that have to be involved in it. We currently have 50 assets that are in the water. We currently have over 370 individuals that are working on the project, but we know that in order to be able to move the dolly, we have to be able to open up the channel, begin the process of removing the wreckage and the debris, and to remove the dolly, it must also mean we've got to get the key bridge off of the dolly. We're talking 3,000 or 4,000 tons of steel, metal that's sitting on top of the ship. It's a remarkably complicated operation. It's the reason that we are so unbelievably grateful to this outstanding team and all these leaders that are here and the people who are putting this work in 24-7 because this is a 24-7 operation, but we are going to get the dolly out, but you cannot overstate the complexity of this operation. There's still currently power to the ship, but power to the ship is just one variable when it comes to movement of it. If you look at the ability to move the dolly out, there are still more unknowns than knowns, and there's still a tremendous amount of variables as we're continuing to move the individual debris out that can even just clear the channel and clear the pathway, so there are still things that we just do not yet know about how that's going to translate into time. There's a continued investigation going on with NTSB, and the investigation is still in the relatively early phases of that investigation, so we will find out what happens. The thing that I know is that I want this process to be done quickly. We need to make sure that people who need to be held accountable are held accountable, and we're also, we can't wait for the completion of the investigation to start making the work happen. We've got to prioritize the four lanes that we laid out before, getting a sense of closure and comfort for these families, making sure that we are opening up these channels, making sure that we're taking care of our people, and beginning the process of rebuilding the Brent Scott Prefecture. We're telling them this is going to be a long road, but the thing that we know is we're going to walk this road together. No one's going to be left behind, and we are going to walk this road together, but it will be a long road. So we've been working on three alternate channels. The channel that we're opening today is on the northbound side of the bridge, and it is still under a section of the bridge that is still standing. That one will have a controlling depth of 11 feet, so that will be for more shallow draft vessels. The tug and barges that I mentioned today that are going to transit through there are commercial, but it can also be used by some of the boats that we need to move back and forth to get equipment positioned on both sides of the bridge to continue to do surveys and eventually do lifts. The second alternate channel we are working on is on the southbound side of the bridge under the portion that is still standing, and that particular channel we think will be around 15 to 16 feet in depth, which will allow us to move slightly larger vessels and barges through there. We are working with the State of Maryland Department of Transportation and their contractors. There is a pre-existing, not part of this accident, pilings that are in that because we didn't need that for our channel previously. They are working to pull those pilings out. We'll complete that survey, and we will re-mark that one also with Coast Guard buoys so that mariners can safely transit through that. The third alternate channel we're working on is just north of the deep draft shipping channel. That particular channel is what we hope to open by clearing the bridge debris that we're working on right now. This will be another significant lift, but there's still much more of that section of the bridge that's going to have to come out before we can open it. That controlling depth, we think, will be somewhere between 20 and 25 feet. Once that's open, that should allow us to move almost all of our tug and barge traffic in and out of the Port of Baltimore once that's open. I don't have a timeline other than we're going to do it as fast as we possibly can, and we're going to do it safely. These girders that we're cutting in that section are three-foot girders. They are constructed of inch-and-a-half steel. They are I-beams that we have to cut through and then lift. We've got to do that safely because we don't want to injure any of the people that are doing the cutting or the rigging or diving even below to do the rigging below when we get down to that section. We're going to do it as soon as we can, but we're going to do it safely. We're working in coordination with both members of the General Assembly, with our local elected officials, as well as our fantastic federal delegation and letting them know that the reality of some of them having not just been at work but working around the clock and many of them not having worked at all. We're talking about looking at a number now upwards of 1,800 individuals who just haven't worked, so there is a significant urgency that we all feel that we're all going to move on this and that we're all going to work in partnership to be able to address. The ones that are transiting tonight are commercial barges. I'm not sure whether they have goods on them or not or they're going to transit somewhere else and then load goods, but they are commercial barges and tugs. They are not part of the response. They were traffic that was trapped inside the Port of Baltimore after the bridge collapsed. We currently have 3,000 feet of boom that still continues to surround the ships and from the collections from the boom that we've received and the analysis that has then taken place, what we have seen from the 4,000 containers, 56 had some form of hazmat. Again, I want to remind people when we're talking about hazmat, we're talking about things like perfumes and ion batteries. What we have is that it is not posing a risk to the public, but we currently have 3,000 feet of boom that's surrounding the ship. The lifts aren't really a day-by-day, here's how many we can do a day scenario. It really depends on the size that you're trying to lift and the piece that you can get out. Some lifts will take a limited amount of time and other lifts will take a lot larger amount of time to actually set up and rig depending upon how much we're trying to lift and where we're trying to lift from. It's not a, there's this many lifts a day, it is a cut sections, lift those sections, put them on a barge, move to the next section, cut those sections, lift those, it is a continuous process, but there's not a given time for each particular lift. And I'd say the Biden administration has been in touch with us and has been walking with us every step of the way. Our phones first started ringing in the middle of the night from the Biden members of the Biden administration. I think each and every one of us was on the phone with the president literally from the first day and throughout. So I think we're thankful that the president is coming to visit and I think Congressman Fomey, I think he said it so well, you cannot overstate how important it is that the president of the United States is coming to visit. The thing that I know that he's going to see is he's going to see the unprecedented level of damage that this has caused. He's going to see the fact that we have a ship that is almost the size of the Eiffel Tower that weighs about as much, that's sitting in the middle of the Patapsco River. He's going to see a bridge that has been in existence since I was alive. I don't know what that skyline looks like without that key bridge. And he's going to come and he's going to see it sitting on top of the ship. He's going to see the level of complexity. And we're thankful that the presidents, that the Biden-Harris administration have moved so swiftly and have been such good partners inside this work. And we're grateful to have his visit.