Wes Moore loves going fast. Government doesn’t.

Weeks before Wes Moore was sworn into office in December 2022, the then-governor-elect made a bold promise: His administration would not only revive the $900 million Baltimore Red Line project his predecessor killed, but complete it while Moore was in office.

“We are going to get it done in our term. It is not a compromise,” Moore told Bloomberg News.

Moore has eight months left in his first term, and the Red Line is no closer to being built now than it was in 2022 — largely because officials can’t decide what mode of transportation to use.

As with the Red Line, Moore’s confident claims about rebuilding the Francis Scott Key Bridge — part of his political persona as an outsider who can get big things done — seem to be slipping from his grasp.

“The Dali struck the Key Bridge during my tenure, yet I plan on being the governor who cuts the ribbon to reopen the Francis Scott Key Bridge,” he said on March 26, the two-year anniversary of the disaster.

On Tuesday, Moore’s office pulled the state out of its contract with construction and engineering firm Kiewit to rebuild the bridge, citing cost concerns. The state will have to find another builder, which means the new bridge will likely be delayed beyond the 2030 timeline announced last fall when officials also said the cost would more than double — potentially reaching $5.2 billion.

Moore had initially promised a fall 2028 opening, an ambitious timeline that would have aligned with a speculated White House run. Now, if he wins a second term as governor, he probably still won’t see the project through.

Tuesday’s setback is Moore’s latest reminder that government does not always work at the speed he wants, especially when it comes to undertakings like massive infrastructure projects.

Both the Red Line and the Key Bridge have components outside of the governor’s control. They require extensive federal funding from an administration often at odds with Democratic-led states; they are subject to fluctuating labor and material costs; and community feedback must be considered. Other roadblocks, like litigation or overly cumbersome regulatory reviews, have popped up to derail projects all across America.

That hasn’t always been the case. As the cliché goes, America used to build things.

Robert Moses erected bridges, parkways and housing projects throughout the New York region, often at breakneck speed. The Robert F. Kennedy Bridge (formerly known as the Triborough), with its three spans connecting three boroughs, two islands and crossing two bodies of water, was built in just seven years, including a pause for the Great Depression.

Moses, of course, often forced his projects through at the expense of everyday New Yorkers and to the benefit of the well-connected few. It wasn’t until decades later that their true toll became clear.

The modern American regulatory framework was largely intended to be a guardrail against corruption and excess while protecting the public. Instead, it has become a mushy middle ground that can enable ill-intentioned opposition to halt or delay projects, said Beth Osborne, CEO of Smart Growth America and a transportation official in the Obama administration.

China is often lauded for its ability to complete mega-projects at breakneck pace, but its leaders don’t have the same guardrails or an electorate to answer to.

“There is a real and meaningful tension between efficiency and democracy,” wrote Samantha Silverberg, a former adviser to President Joe Biden and current undersecretary of transportation policy at the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, in a 2025 piece for Harvard Kennedy School.

Moore has sought to find speed through innovation. Maryland opted to rebuild the Key Bridge with what’s called a “progressive design-build,” a streamlined process where one company — Kiewit — is on board for the entire project, rather than hiring a designer and builder in separate stages. But those efficiencies are largely lost if the contractor isn’t retained for the project’s duration.

“Repackaging in one or multiple projects could take longer, and it is difficult to anticipate how the design and construction market will react,” said Keith Molenaar, dean of the University of Colorado-Boulder’s College of Engineering & Applied Science.

Moore on Tuesday emphasized that moving on from Kiewit would not slow down the bridge project, writing online that it would be rebuilt “QUICKLY.”

His political brand is built in part on being the person who can deliver bold action, having remarked in speeches around the country this past year that Democrats must become the party of “yes and now” instead of “no and slow.”

“At a time when too many people wonder whether building big and great things is still possible in our country, Maryland once again is going to lead the way and show what is possible,” Moore said last month on the bridge collapse anniversary.

The Key Bridge was supposed to be that. Can it still be? It all depends on how fast Moore can go.

Banner reporter Danny Zawodny contributed to this story.