Key Bridge Rebuild Will Cost More Than Twice Original Estimate, State Says

BALTIMORE, MD — The Francis Scott Key Bridge will take two years longer to rebuild than initially projected and cost more than twice the preliminary estimate, state officials disclosed Monday.

The bridge, which was destroyed in March 2024 after the cargo ship Dali lost power and crashed into it, killing six road workers, was previously forecast to open in fall 2028 and cost as much as $1.9 billion. Monday’s estimate put the price at between $4.3 billion and $5.2 billion, with an expected opening in late 2030.

“Preliminary cost and project time estimates were made less than two weeks after the initial crash and before any engineering or design studies were conducted,” Gov. Wes Moore said in a prepared statement Monday.

“Since then, national economic conditions have deteriorated and material costs have increased. At the same time, elevated costs have resulted from federal design and resilience standards — not discretionary state choices.

“Just as families across the country are dealing with the reality of increased costs, so is Maryland. 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.”

The new bridge will have a main span of 1,665 feet and a deck height of 230 feet, an increase in size to accommodate modern marine traffic and comply with guidelines from the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, according to the Maryland Transportation Authority.

“The size and cost of the pier protection, the extent of which was not accounted for in the preliminary estimate, adds a significant cost to the project,” the authority said in a news release.

Former president Joe Biden signed a law ensuring the federal government would pay for the entire rebuild, although the state has and will continue to contribute to the project by advancing upfront construction costs and giving hundreds of millions of dollars in insurance proceeds toward the effort, according to the authority. Maryland is also continuing to pursue Dali’s owner and manager for damages.

Pre-construction work for the bridge started earlier this year.