Transportation Authority poised to award contract to rebuild Key Bridge

The Maryland Transportation Authority is poised Thursday to award a contract to replace the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge. File photo from the Maryland Department of Transportation Flickr account.

A Nebraska-based company is the frontrunner for a contract to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

Kiewit Infrastructure topped the list of three qualified bidders despite submitting a projected cost that is nearly 3.5% higher than its competitors. But the state’s request for proposals on the project allowed for technical rankings to outweigh price, and Kiewit ranked first in technical experience among the bidders.

Officials at the Maryland Transportation Authority will make a final recommendation during a board meeting Thursday. A spokesperson for the transportation authority, which manages the state’s toll facilities, declined to comment Tuesday on the pending contract award.

The decision this week comes less than six months after the Dali, a 984-foot container ship, lost power and struck a support of the bridge. The ensuing collapse of the bridge killed six workers who were on the bridge doing overnight road repairs.

The cause of the power failure and resulting collapse remain under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Maryland transportation authority officials plan to rebuild the bridge in two phases designed to mitigate risk and streamline construction. The initial project development phase is projected to cost no more than $73 million.

Key Bridge focus continues its steady shift from removal to rebuilding

President Joseph Biden announced in March that the federal government would cover 100% of the cost of the bridge replacement. That promise is mired in political wrangling in an election year. Without a resolution, the state could have to come up with at least 10% of the costs.

A final design has not been chosen but officials earlier this month laid out some details of what the new span over the Patapsco River might look like.

Included in those details is a plan to replace the steel truss style bridge that collapsed with a cable-stayed bridge. The new bridge would also likely be more than 50-feet higher and nearly a mile longer. A wider space between supports for the center of the span could allow for larger ships to bring cargo to and from the Port of Baltimore.

Kiewit was one of three bidders including Flatiron Helmar Dragados Joint Ventures and Maryland Key Connectors that qualified for the project, according to transportation authority documents.

Transportation officials disqualified a bid from a fourth company — Archer Western/Traylor Brothers Joint Venture — after determining that its bid did not comply with contractual requirements. Archer Western/Traylor Brothers Joint Venture appealed the decision, but the transportation authority denied the appeal on Aug. 7.

Kiewit’s bid of more than $1.2 billion was the most expensive of the three accepted bids.

The company is already involved in one major project in Maryland.

In February, Amtrak awarded a more than $1 billion contract to Kiewit and its joint venture partner J.F. Shea Construction, of Walnut, California, to construct the Frederick Douglass Tunnel.

The project, which is expected to ultimately cost $6 billion, will replace the 150-year-old Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel. The nearly 2-mile-long tunnel through Baltimore is currently a significant bottleneck for rail traffic in the area.

Gov. Wes Moore (D) and President Joseph Biden (D) announced federal funding for the project in January 2023. The state is expected to contribute $450 million to the project.