Key Bridge deconstruction continues as officials eye initial effort for a new span

by Bryan P. Sears, Maryland Matters
July 30, 2025

Demolition of the remaining structures that were once part of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge is in full swing as transportation officials prepare to lay the foundation for a new, taller replacement.

Gov. Wes Moore (D) led a delegation of federal, state, and local officials on a tour of the bridge site Wednesday as workers stripped slabs of decking from the steel skeleton.

“The things that we are seeing right now, when you’re looking at the speed that has happened, some of the comps that have been laid out, whether it’s the Gordie Howe bridge in Detroit, which took years just to get the permitting done,” Moore said following a tour of the demolition site. “This is a team that has now gotten the permitting done in a matter of months. That’s been able to really keep us on track to deliver something that’s going to be powerful and a true project that the people of the state can be proud of.”

In March 2024, the Dali, a 948-foot container ship, allided with the support structure on the 47-year-old bridge over the Patapsco River, causing the center section to collapse. Six workers on a road crew that was working on the bridge died in the accident.

Workers are methodically peeling away the decking from what remains of the span. Each slab weighs between 5 and 7 tons. Onlookers could feel the remaining bridge shake as heavy construction equipment moved chunks of the decking.

Officials said bringing the bridge down piece by piece rather than using controlled demolition is environmentally sound and eliminates the need to remove debris from the channel.

It will take nine months to remove the chunks of decking over the channel.

Demolition work including removing the steel structure will continue this year. Later this year, possibly in September, initial work will begin on the new structure.

Officials said the new span will be 230 feet above the water line — about 45 feet taller than the original bridge. The new alignment will run parallel to the old structure but will be about 260 feet to the east.

Brian Wolfe, director of project management at the Maryland Transportation Authority, said the move was necessary to avoid debris and a riverbed he described as “almost like soup.”

“It’s very, very loose,” Wolfe said. “It’s upwards of what 60, 70 feet, almost of very loose material to get to a hard layer that we can actually put our foundations into. There was also some debris on the far side, by the north end, that we thought we could miss as we were starting the original design. But as we progressed, we realized that it was going to be in conflict, which was going to potentially have a delay to the project. So, by shifting or moving the alignment to the current location, to the east, it got us away from that potential conflict.”

The new span will also be longer — 1,665 feet between the two piers over the Patapsco River shipping channel compared to 1,200 feet for the original bridge.

The initial phase of that new construction includes a series of test piles — 2-inch-thick steel rolled into cylinders 8-feet in diameter. Those will be driven into the riverbed and tested with “millions of pounds…in order to verify the foundation design our engineers are currently working on,” Wolfe said.

“Once we verify that it can carry the loads that we anticipate, that confirms the design and lets us finalize the details, lets us move ahead with procuring more materials and progressing the design and getting into construction,” he said.

Plans for the four-lane project also include inside and outside shoulders in each direction. The original bridge did not have shoulders in either direction.

Initial estimates place the cost of the bridge at about $2 billion but those costs are not finalized.

“We’re discovering a lot of things as we go along,” Maryland Transportation Authority Executive Director Bruce Gartner told reporters. “Later this year, we hope to be out with more information, but we really want to get farther along before we do that update, to know exactly where we stand with cost and schedule.”

Factors including inflation, supply chain issues and tariffs could affect the final costs of the project, Gartner said.

Hours after the bridge collapsed, then President Joseph Biden (D) promised full federal funding for a replacement span.

Still, concerns persist that the federal government might renege on the agreement.

Republican President Donald Trump continues to follow through on campaign promises to reduce federal spending. Included in that effort are agency budget cuts or eliminations, employee reductions and cuts in aid to state and local governments.

Trump has shown a willingness to disregard funding earmarked by federal lawmakers and to take those battles to court.

U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D) expressed confidence in the federal reimbursement.

“The federal funds are secure,” Van Hollen said.

“We put the funds earmarked essentially in what’s called the Emergency Relief Fund, and we increased the Federal Emergency Relief Fund to $8 billion so those funds are set in stone,” he said. “They’re set in statute.”

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: editor@marylandmatters.org.