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State officials announced this week that they plan to split the work on the Francis Scott Key Bridge into four separate contracts going forward, in hopes of increasing competition and lowering costs.
Tuesday鈥檚 announcement came three weeks after the Maryland Transportation Authority announced it was parting ways with the current contractor, Kiewit Infrastructure, because of an 鈥渦nacceptably high鈥� bid on the second phase of what is now, officially at least, projected to be about a $5 billion project.
Officials never said what price Kiewit was proposing for the second phase of the project, only that after weeks of discussions the state 鈥渄ecided that their bid was unacceptably high,鈥� Maryland Transportation Secretary Kathryn Thomson said at the time.
It was then that they decided to 鈥渙ff-ramp鈥� Kiewit and look for new contractors for phase two, Thomson said.
Under the plan unveiled Tuesday, the work will be broken into four contracts:
- Demolition of remaining bridge structures in the Patapsco and on land. State officials estimate the bids will be between $50 million and $100 million when the job is put out to bid this summer, with work possibly starting this fall.
- Construction of the southern highway approach to the bridge, including highway and 3,ooo feet of bridge, grading, wetlands work and tolling systems, lighting and the like. That is expected to cost $300 million to $400 million and be advertised this fall or winter, with work starting in the spring.
- Construction of a similar northern approach, with s shorter bridge section and longer at-grade roadway, expected to cost $200 million to $300 million and be advertised this with construction next spring.
- The largest piece, the construction of the bridge itself and protection for the bridge piers against a future boat strike. Requests for contractor qualifications will go out this summer, with possibly starting next summer. The cost of that work is expected to be between $3.5 billion and $4 billion.
All told that work would range between just over $4 billion to $4.8 billion. That鈥檚 on top of the roughly $700 million that Kiewit is expected to get for the first phase of the project, which included design, some demolition and installation of pilings that will eventually support the new bridge.
Thomson said last month that the state has been 鈥渧ery pleased with the quality of the work and the timeliness of the work鈥� by Kiewit. State officials said work on the bridge would continue uninterrupted, as Kiewit is expected to work through the end of this year on its share of the project as new contracts are awarded.
The four-lane Key Bridge was destroyed early on the morning of March 26, 2024, when a fully loaded container ship leaving the Port of Baltimore lost power and struck one of the bridge鈥檚 piers. In seconds, the bridge collapsed into the river, pinning the ship, killing six members of a road crew that was working on bridge and blocking ship traffic in and out of the port.
President Joe Biden promised, and Congress later affirmed, that the federal government would pay the full cost of bridge replacement 鈥� which at the time was estimated to be about $1.9 billion for a project that officials hoped to have finished by 2028.
The project is currently expected to cost a total of $4.3 billion to $5.2 billion, and be completed by the end of 2030. The escalating costs have led to threats by the Trump administration that it might not pay the full share of replacement, but state officials and member of the state鈥檚 congressional delegation have so far been able to keep funding on track.
