Clearing up a huge bridge that collapsed this week in Baltimore, US, will begin on Saturday, a process expected to be long and difficult, local authorities announced, AFP reported.

A huge crane has to lift the first piece of the structure, which has already been cut by emergency workers.

“This is the first step of many, many more,” Paul Wiedefeld, Maryland’s secretary of transportation, said at a news conference. “But this is an important step as we begin this process.”

A US Coast Guard representative, Shannon Gilreath, explained that a crane capable of lifting more than a hundred tons would be involved in moving the split section. He was unable to provide the dimensions of the item in question.

Maryland Governor Wes Moore said it was not part of the structure that fell on the Dali container ship, which is still in place.

The ship crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in the middle of the night earlier this week due to engine problems.

The governor explained that the goal was to clear the entire stretch of the bridge to open a “temporary channel” to allow more boats to participate in the operations, but that the process would take “days.”

Freeing the bridge and freeing the container port is a priority for local authorities, who are aware of the economic impact of the blockade at the Port of Baltimore.

“At least 8,000 workers on the docks have jobs directly affected,” the governor noted.

He also began the press conference by thinking about the victims of the tragedy.

Six workers who were on the bridge at the time of the accident probably died.

The bodies of two of them were recovered. Recovery operations for other bodies are still on hold as authorities now deem it too dangerous for divers to work at the wreck site.