It might be a year until Maryland even hires new Key Bridge builders

It remains unclear when the new Francis Scott Key Bridge will be completed, but one timeline element is now known: Maryland officials want to have new builders on board by summer 2027.

Maryland ditched its original builder, Kiewit, last month — a move that federal and state officials said was in the best interest of taxpayer dollars. Now, Maryland is taking a fresh approach. Instead of one massive contract, it will divide the project into four segments.

But searching for new builders could delay the entire project timeline.

Shortly after the span was knocked down by a cargo ship in March 2024, state officials projected it would be rebuilt in 2028, but that schedule was later pushed to the end of 2030.

Kiewit designed the new bridge and had been the intended builder, but the contractor and Maryland could not agree on the cost. Since November, the state has projected that the bridge will cost between $4.3 and $5.2 billion, while Kiewit proposed a price tag of billions more.

Constructing the over-water portion of the bridge, including the cable-stayed elements, will be the largest contract by far, likely fetching $3.5 or $4 billion, according to state estimates made public Tuesday.

There will be three other contracts: over-land portions on the bridge’s south side, which the state projects will cost $300 million to $400 million; over-land portions on the north side, projected to cost $200 million to $300 million; and demolishing remnants of the old structure for $50 million to $100 million.

Each of those three contracts is less technical than building a huge span over water, and could be performed by a number of firms. The goal of multiple contracts is to introduce more competition.

“This separation is going to give us more opportunities for bidders,” Brian Wolfe, the Maryland Transportation Authority’s director of project development, said during an online industry forum Tuesday.

The bridge rebuild was already a political battleground between Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, and President Donald Trump, a Republican, but scrutiny on the project intensified when Maryland switched from Kiewit.

The state will advertise the over-water segment this summer and then shortlist firms this fall before selecting one next summer.

Handling several contracts is nothing new, the authority’s chief engineer, Jim Harkness, said in an interview Tuesday, noting that for a single 6-mile stretch of Interstate 95, the state has managed 27 contracts.

“We often find that managing one big contract actually becomes a lot more work for us than managing individual contractors,” he said.

Still, the move is a pivot from the original plan — to pay Kiewit to design and build the whole enchilada. Instead, its designs will be used by the soon-to-be hired firms.

Hiring a single contractor is often more streamlined, experts say, because it can be cumbersome for different firms to coordinate. For example, the Key Bridge’s land-side builders will need to finish their work by a certain time so the over-water contractor can connect the whole span.

But taking a multi-contract approach is common and often gives a project owner — in this case, Maryland — more control.

“The key factor is whether the work can be separated cleanly,” Becky Blankenship, a Seattle-based construction consultant who specializes in alternate project delivery methods, said in an email.

“Multiple contracts can provide flexibility in procurement, sequencing, funding, and risk allocation, but they also require the owner to manage more interfaces between contractors.”

As the state seeks new builders, Kiewit will finish work it has begun through at least the end of the year, including installing foundational piles into the riverbed and constructing wooden trestles to eventually be used as part of the construction process.

In a press release Tuesday, the authority said it “remains confident” in the project’s previously announced cost estimate of roughly $5 billion. It did not, however, commit to the 2030 timeline.

“A final schedule for construction will not be known until these competitive procurements have been completed and contracts are awarded,” the release stated.