Maryland officials select firm to rebuild collapse bridge in Baltimore

Maryland transportation officials on Thursday chose a Nebraska-based firm to begin rebuilding the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.

The Maryland Transportation Authority awarded the $73 million contract to Kiewit Infrastructure Co., which earlier reports pegged as the front-runner in the bidding process despite its offer being more expensive than its competitors.

“For this critical project, the MDTA is using a Progressive Design-Build process, which brings on board a project delivery team under one entity and a single contract to provide both design and construction services,” the agency said in a press release.

Officials said the first phase of the bridge’s reconstruction is expected to take a year once work gets underway in 2025. The new Key Bridge is expected to be completed in Fall 2028.

What the new bridge will look like is still being hashed out.

Potential designs shared by MDTA earlier this month suggest the rebuilt span could be a cable-stayed structure rather than the steel truss-style bridge that was previously sported by the 47-year-old Key Bridge.

Officials are also considering making the new bridge taller to provide greater clearance for large ships.

President Biden said this spring that the federal government would cover the total cost of the rebuild, but Maryland Matters reported that the state could be on the hook for at least 10% of the funding depending on how the financing shakes out.

The Key Bridge was toppled early March 26, when the cargo ship Dali lost power and crashed into a support beam.

Eight members of a roadwork crew were filling potholes on the span when the Sri Lanka-bound freighter — which is about the same size as the Eiffel Tower — collided with the bridge.

Six men died in the structure’s collapse. Two workers were pulled from the wreckage by rescue divers soon after the bridge went down.

Bridge remnants clogged up the Patapsco River’s main shipping channel to the Port of Baltimore, shutting off the harbor city’s key economic engine for months.

Salvage teams were finally able to clear the twisted metal from the channel in June.

That same month, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration provided an update to its ongoing investigation into what caused the ship to go haywire.

NHTSA said two electrical breakers unexpectedly opened as the Dali was approaching the bridge. The incident caused the ship to temporarily lose power and affected the crew’s ability to veer away from the span.