BALTIMORE — The temporary deep shipping channel is expected to reopen to commercial vessel traffic at the Port of Baltimore at a depth of 45 feet on or around May 10, after a period in which salvage crews aim to remove the bridge wreckage from the grounded Dali freighter, the U.S. Coast Guard and other officials said Tuesday.

The deepest temporary channel to date had a depth of 38 feet and closed as expected Monday morning after being open for four days, allowing five stranded ships to escape Baltimore and the first container ship to call the port since the March 26 collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

In total, during that four-day window, 19 vessels sailed through, including nine arrivals and 10 departures, carrying sugar, cement, fertilizer, lumber and other goods, and providing work for nearly 200 members of the International Longshoremen’s Association, Gov. Wes Moore said Tuesday during a press conference. More than 200 vessels have come through four alternate channels that have been opened.

The deepest route to date, the temporary Fort McHenry Limited Access Channel, was closed Monday to allow salvage crews to begin lifting steel off the grounded Dali and using a hydraulic grabber to clear debris from the harbor’s main shipping channel. The “Gus” hydraulic grabber has a capacity to lift 1,000 tons in a single pull in the water, Moore said. More than 3,300 tons of debris has been pulled from the water so far, he said.

There’s an estimated 50,000 tons of wreckage — steel and concrete — along the bridge’s former path.

A precision cutting technique will be used to remove bridge wreckage from the bow of the Dali, Coast Guard Rear Admiral Shannon Gilreath said.

So far 182, containers have been removed from the ship and the next step is “remarkably complicated,” removing a piece of steel the size of the Eiffel Tower, the Democratic governor said.

“This work is dangerous, and we need to put the safety of the team” above everything, Moore said.

Only limited commercial traffic has been able to come in and out of the port since March 26, when the Dali struck a main support pier of the Key Bridge, collapsing the span and killing six road workers.

“We’re still looking for two missing workers, two unaccounted-for souls, and that search and the search for them has not changed,” Moore said. “We’re still working closely with the families of the victims and that has not changed.”

When it opens, the new 45-foot channel is expected to be open daily from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m.

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