Key Bridge Replacement Costs Soar As High As $5.2 Billion, Opening Delayed To 2030

By Steve Crane, Maryland Matters

November 18, 2025

The cost to replace the Francis Scott Key Bridge has ballooned to between $4.3 billion and $5.2 billion, more than double the original estimates of just under $2 billion, the Maryland Transportation Authority announced Monday evening.

The agency also said the bridge is not likely to open to traffic before late 2030, two years after the original goal of 2028.

The original estimates were made in the weeks after the March 2024 crash of the container ship Dali into the bridge sent it tumbling into the Patapsco River, killing six workers who were on the bridge at the time.

From the beginning, officials planned for a new bridge that was higher, with a wider shipping channel to accommodate new, larger ships in and out of the Port of Baltimore. The MdTA said the new numbers are based on significantly higher material costs and on federal demands for upgraded protection of the piers that will carry the new span across the Patapsco River, to prevent another accident like the one that destroyed the bridge.

As design work on the bridge progressed, “it became clear that material costs for all aspects of the project have increased drastically since the preliminary estimates were prepared less than two weeks after the initial tragedy,” Acting Transportation Secretary Samantha J. Biddle said in the MdTA statement.

Key Bridge rebuild progresses with first piles driven into the Patapsco riverbed

“The updated cost range and schedule are directly correlated to increased material costs and to a robust pier protection system designed to protect the new Key Bridge and reduce the likelihood of a future ship strike to the bridge’s foundational piers,” said Biddle, who also serves as chair of the MdTA.

Within hours of the bridge’s collapse, then-President Joe Biden promised that the federal government would cover 100% of the cost of replacement. That pledge was later codified into law by Congress.

But President Donald Trump (R) has repeatedly hinted that he does not feel bound by that agreement. In an online spat with Gov. Wes Moore (D) in August, whcn Moore slammed Trump’s suggestion that he might send National Guard troops into Baltimore, the president ended a lengthy social media post by saying he “gave Wes Moore a lot of money to fix his demolished bridge. I will now have to rethink that decision???”

And U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, while pledging that the federal government is committed to working with the state to deliver a new Key Bridge, has pressed the state for updates on costs and the timeline for the reconstruction.

“Congress granted the Secretary of Transportation important authorities to conduct critical oversight to ensure that Federal highway funds are properly managed, and I take this authority seriously,” Duffy said in a September letter to state officials. “It is my role to guarantee that federally funded projects benefit the entire Nation through every dollar spent.”

In that letter, Duffy also warned that the state’s “reliance on race- or sex-conscious factors in contracting decisions” could threaten the project. It was a reference to the state Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program, which aims to use state contracts to bolster minority- and women-owned businesses.

Kiewit, the contractor overseeing the bridge project, has committed to a goal of using 26% “disadvantaged business enterprises,” including companies that are at least 51% owned and controlled by one or more minority individuals.

In a statement Monday night, Moore said the state will “continue to work with the Trump Administration to find ways to reduce costs and rebuild faster.” The higher costs and longer timeline are the result of outside factors, “not discretionary state choices,” he said.

“Just as families across the country are dealing with the reality of increased costs, so is Maryland,” Moore’s statement said. “Trade policies out of Washington, D.C., have raised prices on everything — including essential materials we need in order to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge.”

Moore and Biddle stressed that the state continues to seek legal damages from the owners of the Dali, and that any awards will be used to offset the costs of construction. The state will be “advancing upfront construction costs and contributing hundreds of millions of dollars in insurance proceeds toward the rebuilding effort,” the MdTA statement said.

When the Key Bridge collapsed, it shut down the shipping channel to the Port of Baltimore for weeks. It also severed a major roadway used by commuters and by long-haul truckers skirting downtown Baltimore. The bridge, which carried Interstate 695 over the Patapsco, linked Dundalk and Baltimore and served more than 30,000 vehicles a day, generating $56 million in tolls a year.

The new bridge will still follow the same route as the old one, and will still carry two lanes in each direction, although the shoulders are expected to be wider.

But the bridge itself will be much higher – 230 feet above the river at its highest point, compared to 185 feet before. The main span of the bridge will be 1,665 feet, compared to the previous piers that were 1,200 feet apart. The higher and wider span is designed to allow for larger cargo ships now serving the port.

MdTA said its latest estimates show that the “towers needed to accommodate both the length and 230-foot height of the bridge deck add a significantly higher cost than initial assumptions.”

In addition to accommodating “today’s larger marine traffic,” the larger size of the replacement bridge is needed “to comply with current guidelines from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials for new bridges.”

Another increased cost is the protective “fenders” that will be built around the towers to prevent a future crash like the one that brought the bridge down last year. Each of the new protective fenders are larger than a football field,” said the MDTA statement, which said the extent of the “size and cost of the pier protection … was not accounted for in the preliminary estimate” on the bridge project.

Despite the challenges, state officials said they remain committed to replacing the bridge as quickly as possible.

“We remain committed to rebuilding as safely, quickly, and efficiently as possible,” Moore said. “While the timeline has shifted and is not what we initially hoped for, I have full confidence in our team.”