BALTIMORE — Months after Maryland abandoned its original contracting plan for rebuilding the Francis Scott Key Bridge, the project remains on the same multibillion-dollar budget and late-2030 timeline — even as the state is still months away from hiring the contractor that will build the bridge’s centerpiece.

The Maryland Transportation Authority continues to estimate the replacement bridge will cost between $4.3 billion and $5.2 billion and open to traffic by the end of 2030, Chief Engineer Jim Harkness said on Wednesday.

Those projections have not changed since the state announced them in November, when the estimated cost more than doubled and the expected opening was pushed back two years.

What has changed is how Maryland intends to get there.

State officials announced in April that they were parting ways with Kiewit Infrastructure, the original design-build contractor, after the company and the state could not agree on a price for the next phase of construction. Kiewit’s proposal was substantially higher than the state’s estimate, Transportation Secretary Katie Thomson said at the time.

Maryland subsequently divided the remaining work among four contracts, saying greater competition could help control costs and accelerate the work. The largest — construction of the main span, marine approaches and vessel collision protection system — is expected to cost between $3.5 billion and $4 billion.

Kiewit remains on the job for now.

Its crews are still installing permanent pile foundations for the two main piers of the future cable-stayed bridge and driving piles for temporary work platforms, or trestles.

Though much of the foundational work underway now is occurring underwater, it’s critical to completing the bridge and opening it to traffic, Harkness said.

“It sets the table for when we bring our new contractor onboard,” he said. “It allows them to get right onto the most critical work immediately.”

Mike Baker, the environmental construction manager for the MDTA’s Key Bridge rebuild team, said from one end of the bridge to the other, about 1,000 piles will need to be installed. However, the piles being driven now are the largest and most difficult ones of the project.

“If you’re building your new house, you don’t start with the deck — you build the house first, and you do the deck a little later,” Baker said. “Same thing out here: Where we need to start are the pylon piers on the north and south side of the shipping channel, and that’s exactly what we’re doing here.”

Opening the bids

Whether Maryland can maintain its current price and schedule may become clearer as bids arrive for the four new contracts.

The state issued a request for qualifications last month for the main-span contract, beginning a two-step process to select a design-build team. Statements of qualifications were due last week. Harkness declined to say how many firms responded.

The contract is expected to be awarded by late spring 2027, with construction of the main span expected to begin that summer.

The state took another step Tuesday, opening bidding for a $50 million-to-$100 million contract to demolish remaining portions of the old bridge and perform other marine work. That contract includes removing steel spans over the Patapsco River, demolishing marine and land piers and underwater foundations and cleaning out steel pipe piles. MDTA expects that work to begin late this year.

Contracts for the bridge’s north and south land approaches have not yet been advertised. MDTA said this week it expects to advertise the south approach contract in late 2026 and the north approach contract in early 2027.

________

©2026 The Baltimore Sun. Visit at baltimoresun.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.