Demolition of the remaining structures that were once part of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore is in full swing as transportation officials prepare to lay the foundation for a new, taller replacement.
Gov. Wes Moore led a delegation of federal, state and local officials on a tour of the bridge site July 30, 2025, as workers stripped slabs of decking from the steel skeleton.
Afterwards, Moore told reporters that the speed of the demolition work has been impressive and compared its progress to that of the building of Detroit's Gordie Howe International Bridge, which he said, "took years just to get the permitting done."
"This is a team that has now gotten the permitting done in a matter of months," he said. "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-ft. container ship, collided with a support structure on the 47-year-old bridge over the Patapsco River as it was leaving Baltimore's harbor, causing the span's center section to collapse. Six people on a road crew working on the bridge died as a result of the accident.
Demolition crews are now methodically peeling away the decking from what remains of the bridge. Each slab weighs between five and seven tons. Onlookers at the site on July 30 could feel the remaining structure shake as heavy equipment moved large chunks of the decking, according to Maryland Matters.
State officials said that bringing the bridge down piece by piece rather than using controlled demolition is environmentally sound and eliminates the need to remove debris from the river channel. The process to clear the road surface from the steel structure is expected to take nine months.
The demolition, including removing the steel structure itself, will continue throughout 2025, the online news site noted. Initial work is set to begin on the new bridge in late 2025, possibly as early as September.
Maryland state transportation executives have noted that the new span will be 230 ft. above the water line — about 45 ft. higher than the original bridge. The new alignment will run parallel to the old structure but will be approximately 260 ft. to the east.
Brian Wolfe, the director of project management at the Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA), told Maryland Matters that re-siting the new bridge was necessary to avoid debris and a riverbed he described as "almost like soup."
"It's upwards of 60 to 70 feet of very loose material [on top of] a hard layer that we can actually put our foundations into," he said. "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 [cause] a delay in the project."
By shifting or moving the bridge alignment to the current location, he said, the designers were able to avoid that potential conflict.
The new span will be more than 400 ft. longer than the original bridge, with a length of 1,665 ft. between the two piers over the Patapsco River shipping channel.
Bridge's Cost, Schedule Still in Flux
The initial phase of the new Key Bridge construction includes a series of test piles, or 2-in.-thick steel rolled into cylinders 8 ft. in diameter.
According to Wolfe, they will be driven into the riverbed and tested with millions of lbs. of force "in order to verify the foundation design our engineers are currently working on. 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, progressing the design and getting into construction."
Plans for the four-lane highway bridge project also include inside and outside shoulders in each direction, something the original Key Bridge did not have, according to Maryland Matters.
Initial estimates place the cost of the bridge reconstruction at about $2 billion, although its price tag has not yet been finalized.
"We're discovering a lot of things as we go along," Bruce Gartner, MDTA executive director, told reporters at the demolition site. "Later this year, we hope to be out with more information, but we really want to get farther along before we do that update [so we] know exactly where we stand with cost and schedule."
He noted that among the factors being examined are how inflation, supply chain issues and tariffs could affect the final project costs.
Promised Federal Funding Could Be in Jeopardy
Hours after the bridge collapsed last year, then-President Joe Biden promised full federal funding for a replacement span.
Today, however, concerns persist that the federal government might renege on the earlier agreement.
President Donald Trump continues to follow through on campaign promises to reduce federal spending. Included in that effort are cuts in aid to state and local governments. He also has shown a willingness to disregard funding earmarked by federal lawmakers and to take those battles to court.
Despite that, Maryland U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen has expressed confidence in the federal reimbursement.
"The federal funds are secure," he said. "We put the funds earmarked essentially in what's called the Emergency Relief Fund, and we increased [it] to $8 billion, so those funds are set in stone."
