Maryland officials say the rebuilding of the Francis Scott Key Bridge will take two years longer than initially thought and will cost more than twice the initial price tag.
The Monday announcement comes just a day before the National Transportation Safety Board is set to meet regarding the cause of the 2024 bridge collapse that left six people dead. Monday’s new projections say the project won’t be completed until 2030, and it will cost up to $5.2 billion, authorities told The Washington Post.
“Estimating is difficult on these larger projects,” Jim Harkness, chief engineer at the Maryland Transportation Authority, told the outlet. “The market factors, that all comes into play.”
MDTS officials told the outlet the initial projections of roughly $1.9 billion were based on hasty calculations made to ensure the state would secure federal funding for the project.
That sentiment lines up with predictions from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy earlier this year. He argued in August that the final bill would likely be “double plus” the initial estimate.
“It’s like if you go to dinner, and someone else is buying, you might order the finest, most expensive steak on the menu, versus if you’re buying, you might go, ‘I might get a little cheaper cut,’” Duffy said at the time.
Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, also noted in a statement to the Post that material costs have risen since the initial prediction last year.
President Donald Trump’s administration pushed back on Moore’s rebuilding plans in September, with Duffy writing a letter to the governor thanking him for working with USDOT on the project but expressing concern that Annapolis may “intend to award contracts for the FSK Bridge project in a manner that relies on race and sex of contractors.”
He warned the governor of the potential legal ramifications of doing so, citing the Civil Rights Act.
On the day it collapsed, then-President Joe Biden separately promised the federal government would cover the entire estimated $1.8 billion cost to make Interstate 695 a full circle once more, while Duffy instead referenced the state – as the MDTA controlled the FSK Bridge when it collapsed.
