Marylanders are feeling iffy about the time it will take the state to rebuild and open the Francis Scott Key Bridge, according to a new poll from the University of Maryland Baltimore County.
Nearly 70% of the people surveyed feel that the bridge will take five years or longer to complete. The current timeline from the Maryland Transportation Authority has the bridge finished in 2030.
According to the survey, 25% said the bridge would be finished in less than five years, 54% thought it would be done in five to 10 years, 12% thought 11 to 20 years and 3% thought more than 20 years.
Director of the UMBC Institute of Politics Mileah Kromer says expectations have soured compared to a similar study of only Baltimore residents.
“They were much more enthusiastic a few years ago about the timeline,” Kromer said. “And what I mean by that is a lot more of them Baltimore city residents at the time, right after the Key Bridge collapse, thought that it would be rebuilt in five years.”
MDTA held a townhall meeting with residents on Tuesday night to answer questions and update the community about the bridge progress.
“Last month, after advancing design to 70% the MDTA updated the estimated cost range to between $4.3 billion and $5.2 billion with the anticipated open to traffic date of late, 2030, I really want to emphasize that the initial cost estimate for the rebuild was made less than two weeks after the collapse,” said Bruce Gartner. “In order to obtain federal funding, we needed to provide the best estimate we could given the information we had at that time, since the design was at 0% no engineering studies had been done yet, and we did not have clarity as to what kind of bridge it would be.”
Acting Transportation Secretary and MDTA Chair Samantha J. Biddle said the cost increases are directly correlated to increased material costs and to a robust pier protection system designed to protect the bridge from future ship strikes.
“The new Francis Scott Key Bridge isn’t just a local infrastructure project — it’s vital to our nation’s economy and will connect the Baltimore region to economies throughout the United States and the world,” Biddle said. “Although rebuilding will take longer than initially forecasted and cost more, we remain committed to rebuilding as safely, quickly and cost effectively as possible.”
According to the Federal Highway Administration, highway construction costs have increased by 72% in the last five years. Inflation and labor costs also factored into the cost increase.
The American Relief Act authorized more than $8 billion of federal reimbursement for the Key Bridge rebuild and cleanup.
MDTA will be conducting a test pile program at the bridge site over the next few months to ensure the soil can hold the weight of the bridge and settle properly.
Six piles over 200 feet long have already been installed. A load frame will be attached to the piles to ensure the soil is solid enough and that it can hold the weight of the bridge. More piles will be installed in other parts of the river as well for the same test.
“We are testing these to ten million pounds. This is the support for the new bridge,” said Jim Harkness, MDTA’s chief engineer. “It’s a very large bridge. We need to make sure we have confident foundations.”
The state is using the two largest cranes on the East Coast to move the piles and help hammer in the piles.
MDTA started the partial demolition of what was remaining of the bridge in July, moving 10,000 tons of debris out of the area, according to Jason Stolicny deputy director of private development at MDTA.
“We’ve now taken off the deck on the north and south part of the bridge,” Stolicny said.
The structural steel will be removed from 13 spans of the south side of the bridge next. Each span has seven girders weighing 50,000 pounds. Four spans have been completed so far. A similar operation will start on the north side of the bridge after that and then piers that are connected to land.
Those activities will run into early 2026.
