‘Not your normal salvage operation’: Picking up the pieces after the Key Bridge collapse

When Robyn Bianchi was notified about the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, she recalls she and her colleagues at the New Jersey-based marine salvage firm Donjon Marine said they were shocked.

“We were all just watching the video, watching the news clips over and over and over,” Bianchi said. “It didn’t seem real.”

Within days, Bianchi, the assistant salvage master for Donjon Marine, was out on a boat in the Patapsco River with her team, assessing the site. “It’s difficult to describe the feeling that each of us were feeling at that time. It almost took your breath away,” she said.

Bianchi, a graduate of the Naval Academy, was no stranger to salvage jobs. She served in the U.S. Navy for 12 years, obtained a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School in 2018 and had worked on a variety of salvage and diving operations, but the size and scope of the job ahead was unlike any other. She said that is was “overwhelming.”

Bianchi explains: “We probably sat on the water for a good two or three hours, in our survey boat, going around, taking photos,” she said, trying to get a sense of how the pieces of the massive, twisted wreck now fit together, and how they would have to be taken apart.

And early on, she and the salvage masters she was working to support knew, “This is not going to be your normal salvage operation.”

Mindful of lives lost

One of the differences is that they were working on a site where six lives had been lost. When the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed in the early morning hours of March 26, a road crew was on the bridge working.

One member of that highway crew would survive, six others died. They were Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, of Dundalk, Miguel Angel Luna Gonzalez, 49, of Glen Burnie, and Maynor Yasir Suazo-Sandoval, 38, Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, Carlos Daniel Hernandez Estrella, 24, and Jose Mynor Lopez, 37, all of Baltimore.

Bianchi said while it was clear that a massive salvage job was ahead, “we understood that the number one priority was recovering those lost lives to provide closure to the families.”

Throughout the job, but especially as the search for the remains of the crew continued, Bianchi said the overarching mood was one of solemnity and respect knowing that families lost “someone that they cared about.”

“We really tried to shield the HR” from the workings of the salvage operation, said Bianchi, using the acronym HR to refer to “human remains.”

When bodies were found, work immediately stopped so their recovery could take place, and attention was paid to how the teams across the operation were doing.

Bianchi explains that salvage work is inherently dangerous. It demands focus and stamina, but she said it was made clear to everyone working on the project, “It is OK to have feelings about this,” because she said, “it’s very sad, and it’s OK to be sad.”

Support was offered to the members of the salvage team and others working on the site. The project would last months, said Bianchi, and “we wanted to try and make sure that our teammates and our workers would not be affected” adversely while having to focus on the massive job underway.”

Picking up the pieces

The Key Bridge was a continuous truss bridge, and when it was struck by the massive cargo ship the Dali in the dark on March 26, it plunged into the water within seconds.

“It had hanging road deck, so you had your trusses up top, and then you had these cable pendants that went into the hanging road deck that was reinforced with concrete and rebar,” Bianchi told WTOP. “So when that came crashing down, into the water, onto the sea floor,” all of the components of the bridge collapsed and the sections of the bridge twisted into themselves.

The divers and salvage crew then were confronted with “all of this rebar and concrete and hanging trusses and just debris that they had to very carefully navigate through and around,” said Bianchi.

“Not only do you have the danger of that you know, getting dislodged and coming down on top of you, pinning you, trapping you, but you also have your umbilical” to manage, she said, referring to the cable that runs the oxygen and communication lines between each diver and the teams on the surface of the water.

“As we would bring the divers up, we would do debriefs. We would talk about certain hazards in the water,” Bianchi said.

Every step of the way was documented so that subsequent divers knew what to expect as they moved through the wreckage, documenting pieces for removal. “We always had a stand-by diver ready to hat-up in the event anything occurred,” said Bianchi. “We run dive drills all the time, we talk about emergency procedures all the time,” she said.

Baltimore Pride

Bianchi said she became acutely aware of how the residents of Baltimore and Dundalk loved the Key Bridge, the span that was a part of their skyline, and their history. “Every morning we would stop at the same Royal Farms right outside of Sparrows Point,” said Bianchi, referring to the convenience store that dots the region.

Port workers and employees of the store would thank Bianchi and her crew members.

“I met a guy who proposed to his fiancé on the bridge,” said Bianchi. “I didn’t even know that was possible, but it meant so much to him — that bridge, that iconic infrastructure,” she said.

The impact of the closure of the Port of Baltimore during the first stages of the recovery and bridge salvage work was palpable.

“I understand the economic burden,” said Bianchi. “People were getting laid off and that affected their families,” she said.

The salvage team kept up with local news about the bridge collapse and recovery, “and you could see the stories, and the economic impact and the pressure that’s coming from state and local and federal governments” to see that the port could be reopened safely-and as soon as possible.

The work itself could be grueling, with 12 to 18 hour days, seven days a week. “You’re living and you’re breathing the salvage operation,” said Bianchi.

But when the project was ending, she recalls reflecting on the scope of the work just completed, the people affected, and the bonds created as she and her team worked without stopping for months to clear the debris water.

Bianchi recalls packing up and getting ready for the trip home after months on the job.

“I remember leaving the pier and looking back in my rear view mirror,” she said, explaining the twinge of sadness she felt as she left. “And then it’s on to the next job.”

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