Complex and time-sensitive tasks are nothing new to Colonel Estee S. Pinchasin. In August 2021, just weeks after becoming the commander of the US Army Corps of Engineers’ 69th Baltimore District, she led an accelerated effort to identify, lease and equip properties suitable for the Washington, DC area to temporarily house and process thousands of entrants. Afghan evacuees, a critical first step toward their eventual resettlement in communities across the country.
Just over two years later, when a disabled container ship struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore in the early morning hours of March 26, 2024, causing the main span to collapse, Pinchasin’s leadership would prove critical again when became a member of a multi-agency unified command tasked with coordinating the emergency response.
Since the Corps is responsible for maintaining the deep-draught Patapsco River channel to the Port of Baltimore, it was the primary person to oversee a massive federally contracted salvage effort to reopen one of the nation’s major ports of entry. With the expertise and resources of the US Navy Salvage Operations Division and the marine salvage industry, the operation ultimately removed more than 50,000 tons of debris from the bridge, an effort that required planning and meticulous execution given the difficult underwater conditions and the intricate and unstable juxtaposition of large sections. of steel and concrete.
The Corps also provided underwater assessments using divers, remotely operated vehicles and sonars, and structural technical expertise for bridge safety and urban search and rescue.
These and other Corps response activities required careful coordination with other elements of the unified command’s multifaceted mission, from restoring partial access to shipping through temporary shallow channels to preparing ‘a strategy to safely remove the massive mess of steel and concrete from the bow. of the crippled container ship, allowing the ship to be refloated and moved back to port.
“It’s been an incredible team effort,” Pinchasin told ENR during a tour of the operation. “Our core team, bolstered by all of our federal and state agency partners, has been able to present a well-thought-out plan that is continually refined and improved by the nation’s top rescue experts.”
Throughout the ongoing effort to restore the deep-draft canal, which was fully completed just 76 days after the incident, the team remained aware of the far-reaching economic impacts of the incident, as well as the fate of the six construction workers who had been working. on the bridge at the time of the collapse. “Not a day goes by that we don’t think about all of us,” Pinchasin said after recovering the remains of the last victim. “That kept us going.”
The end of the mission coincided with the end of Pinchasin’s scheduled tenure as Baltimore district commander and a transition to a new role as director of logistics for the National Security Agency. Praise for his work included a tribute from Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), published in The Congress Record.
In addition to citing Pinchasin’s many other accomplishments during his tenure in the corps, Hollen praised his “leadership and operational expertise” as “instrumental in executing recovery operations, which were instrumental in clearing the debris and restore access to the Fort McHenry Canal. Their effective use of mobilized resources facilitated a rapid and efficient response that provided the Unified Command with the technical expertise necessary to ensure success.”
