Maryland transportation officials said Thursday that they expect to replace the Francis Scott Key Bridge with a new span in just over four years.
The project to replace the span of Interstate 695 by fall of 2028 is estimated to cost between $1.7 and $1.9 billion, Maryland Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld said Thursday.
Plans to replace the 1.6-mile bridge have been in flux since the span collapsed into the Patapsco River early March 26, when a support column was struck by a massive cargo ship, killing six construction workers. Experts initially estimated it would take between two and 15 years to replace the bridge, which closed the loop of the Baltimore Beltway when it opened in 1977.
The cost estimate is preliminary, with detailed engineering specifics not confirmed, Wiedefeld said in a phone interview. A major caveat in the timeline will be going through the bidding process. The rebuild will be a “progressive design-build” project, meaning the selected contractor will hire a designer and plan steps along the way, to “get this thing open as quickly as possible,” Wiedefeld said.
“We’re going at this extremely aggressively” while still keeping in mind budget and time restraints, he said.
The new bridge is expected to be paid for either mostly or entirely with federal funds, with Maryland’s entire congressional delegation putting forth legislation to ensure the federal government covers all costs.
Democratic President Joe Biden has pledged for the federal government to pay for the entire response, committing to moving “heaven and earth to rebuild this bridge as rapidly as humanly possible” while visiting the collapse site last month. His administration has started that process by releasing an initial $60 million in emergency relief funds to Wiedefeld’s department.
The federal government, in turn, will get some relief from a $350 million payout from Chubb, the state’s insurance provider for the Key Bridge, Wiedefeld confirmed, saying that the money would be directed to the federal government as part of a condition of the Federal Highway Administration’s emergency relief program, which is funding the bulk of the bridge rebuild.
WTW North America, the state’s broker for insurance on the Key Bridge, said that it’s unclear when the payment will ultimately be made.
State and local governments are often required to have insurance on structures, and it’s not uncommon for a reputable insurance company to pay out the maximum when there’s a total loss like the bridge collapse, said Chip Merlin, an attorney specializing in representing policyholders. The state has an insurance program for eight bridges, a WTW spokesperson said, declining to provide further detail.
Claims associated with the bridge collapse are expected to meet or beat the maritime industry’s largest-ever loss. The Dali’s owner and manager filed to limit their liability before getting hit with an initial wave of lawsuits.
Chubb likely isn’t done yet, said Merlin, who was co-counsel on the class action lawsuit stemming from the Surfside Condo collapse in Florida. The insurer will likely join the litigation to recoup some of that money.
“That $350 million payment is not just going to be made and they go off into the sunset,” he said, noting there will be various, cascading insurance claims battled in and out of court over the next several years.
A spokesperson for Chubb declined to comment on the payout on Thursday.
Engineers say a cable-stayed bridge could be in Port of Baltimore’s future
A large portion of the insurance costs will be from the expense of rebuilding the bridge, as well as payments to the families of the deceased and the costs of clearing the channel, John A. Miklus, president of the American Institute of Marine Underwriters, said. It’s “extremely likely [Chubb] is going to subrogate,” or seek reimbursement, for the $350 million, most likely through litigation.
The litigation could win the government back the costs of the damage to the original bridge, Merlin said, but it’ll be more difficult to cover the full cost of a new bridge built by modern standards.
Until Thursday, most considerations on the new bridge were hypothetical, with officials largely focused on clearing the nearly 50,000 tons of steel and concrete from the path of the bridge that has blocked the Port of Baltimore to most vessel traffic. Crews were still in the water Thursday trying to clear the wreckage of the old bridge from the river and locate the last of the six construction workers who were killed in the collapse. Officials said earlier this week that they are focused on removing sections of steel off the Dali in an effort to refloat the giant freighter, which is more than three football fields long and remains stuck aground on the side of the harbor’s main channel. While alternate channels are allowing larger vessels each week, the main 50-foot channel is still expected to open around the end of this month.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski joined Congressional lawmakers in Baltimore on Thursday to discuss funding for the new bridge. House Appropriations Committee members were taken out to see the Dali and the bridge wreckage up close.
“We had the right people at the bridge,” including Appropriations chairman Rep. Tom Cole, a Republican from Oklahoma, said Rep. David Trone, a Maryland Democrat.
Trone, who is running for U.S. Senate, is a member of the committee along with two other Marylanders who were on the tour: Democrat C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger and Republican Andy Harris.
Trone said $1.9 billion “is going to probably prove to be a reasonable number. And it’s going to get done as soon as we can. I feel very confident.”
The Maryland Transportation Authority, which oversees the bridge, will be holding a virtual forum May 7 with the construction industry as the agency develops a formal request for proposals.
Until the new bridge is open, the state will continue to work on strategies to relieve traffic issues that have stemmed from the bridge collapse, such as rush hour congestion hitting the two tunnels that cross the Baltimore Harbor.
Baltimore Sun reporter Jeff Barker contributed to this article.
