A 623-foot cargo ship headed to the international port in Falls ran aground in the Delaware River near the Benjamin Franklin Bridge by Philadelphia, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
The Algoma Verity became stuck on Wednesday night approximately a mile north of the bridge, according to a Coast Guard statement. No injuries were reported as a result of the grounding, which occurred at approximately 6:30 p.m.
As of Thursday morning, the vessel was outside the main shipping channel, it said.
“There have been no reports of pollution at this time,” according to the Coast Guard.
“The vessel was northbound with a cargo of approximately 45,000 tons of solar salt when the incident occurred.”
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A Coast Guard team and the vessel’s representatives were on board, “monitoring the situation and formulating a plan to safely move the vessel to a nearby terminal,” the statement added.
It said ship traffic is being restricted between the Benjamin Franklin Bridge and the Tioga Marine Terminal in Philadelphia.
“Vessels wishing to transit the area will need to contact the Coast Guard Command Center one hour prior to transit by radio on VHF channel 16 or by calling the command center hotline at 215-271-4807,” the statement said
.Jim Walsh is a senior reporter with the Courier-Post, Burlington County Times and The Daily Journal. Email: Jwalsh@cpsj.com.
This article originally appeared on Cherry Hill Courier-Post: Coast Guard: Algoma Verity cargo ship stuck in Delaware River