Page 28: of Marine News Magazine (August 2024)

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Feature

Salvage the U.S. Gulf. As noted above, Donjon is the Navy’s emer- vey allowed the new Uni? ed Command to issue its ? rst gency responder for the Atlantic zone, and it was the Navy instructions. Donjon’s team knew, from the accident dy-

Supervisor of Salvage and Diving that facilitated Donjon’s namics, there was no way to remove intact pieces of the priority role with the Army Corp. collapsed bridge and highway. He cited an old joke at

Witte received a call about the Key Bridge a few hours after Donjon: “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. the Dali’s hit. His initial thought: “It’s time to go to work.” That’s how we started on the wreckage.”

Over the last 40 years, Donjon has worked extensively in Donjon brought the largest barge crane on the east the Chesapeake Bay. Donjon knows the territory. “We had coast, the Chesapeake 1000, to the Key Bridge site three the advantage of an already developed relationship with days after the emergency started. Other assets included a the COTP (Captain of the Port),” Witte commented, “and hydraulic wrecking bucket and independent horizontal with local regulatory organizations. We had developed a shear. The 1000 short ton bucket – called “the Grab” – was level of trust and mutual respect which, obviously, is al- af? xed to the Chesapeake, lowered to where its jaws could ways a positive when dealing with any sized event, but es- closed around debris and then lifted. The horizontal shear pecially one of this signi? cance.” partnered with an onsite crane barge, cutting debris that

Witte said that in an emergency the most pressing chal- could not be cut manually. New underwater survey capa- lenge is to establish coordination among players – not easy bilities included a system known as “Blue View” – a 3-D when people are trying to understand, in the dark, exactly scanning Sonar generating a clear and detailed view of de- what happened and to what extent. People and safety are bris. Operators could develop lift and removal plans based the top concerns. “Steel can be replaced, and bridges re- upon actual conditions, not just estimates. However, once built,” Witte commented, “but when a life is lost, there is the scope of the work became clear, additional equipment no way back from that.” was called in from New York plus Donjon hired numerous

Once at the scene Donjon linked up with Navy, Coast local operators to assist. Additionally, some equipment was

Guard and Army Corps counterparts. An initial site sur- moved from other projects, and other customers.

Dylan Burnell / U.S. Army Corps of Engineers 28 | MN August 2024