VIDEO: Explosive cuts part demolish Key Bridge

Screengrab from YouTube video

Using precision explosive cuts, the Key Bridge Unified Command today demolished part of the Francis Scott Key Bridge that had been pinning down the bow of the Dali, the containership whose strike on the bridge initiated its collapse. Videos posted on YouTube and on C-Span, show that the demolition did not proceed exactly as originally planned.

Initially, the plan had been to demolish the whole of the bridge section resting atop the Dali.

Today, WBAL 11 TV reported that while the simulation video released by the Unified Command showed all of the bridge truss sliding off the Dali after the explosion, that’s “not what happened Monday evening, as a sizable chunk of the steel truss remained on the bow of the Dali.”

WBAL 11 News investigators received information from Unified Command confirming that no explosives were placed on the portion of the bridge that remained on the ship as there were flammable materials in damaged shipping containers on the deck nearby.

To avoid the risks that explosive cuts in that area could have presented, Unified Command is planning to remove that portion of the steel truss once the ship is docked at Seagirt Marine Terminal in the coming day, reports WBAL 11 TV.

More when the Unified Command releases its official version of things.