A maritime traffic jam of close to 500 vessels is now on the move though the Suez Canal following the freeing of the 400-meter-long "Ever Given" container ship.

As of Tuesday more than 100 vessels were navigating the canal in both directions. The Suez Canal Authority said the backlog was 422 ships.

The jam should be cleared within the next three to four days, authority chairperson Osama Rabie said Tuesday.

The "Ever Given" - leased by Taiwan-based shipping company Evergreen Marine Corp.- was jammed diagonally across a section of the canal March 23. The ship was forced off course by strong winds. This cut all traffic along the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia - costing shipping companies millions of dollars in losses each day. Vessels trapped included container ships, oil tankers, liquefied natural gas vessels and bulk carriers.  

An estimated 15% of the world's shipping traffic passes through the canal. According to the authority the blockage cost it around $15 million a day.

Evergreen will inspect the ship in Great Bitter Lake. The company said there appeared to be no significant damage and all containers were safe.

The authority and Dutch company Smit Salvage worked for days to free the ship. Early Tuesday workers partially refloated the ship and towed it out.

"The time pressure to complete this operation was evident and unprecedented," Smit Salvage's chief executive officer Peter Berdowski said.

Smit Salvage had to move approximately 30,000 cubic meters of sand to free the vessel. Workers used 13 tugs to pull the 224,000-ton container ship free.