Officials in Maryland said Tuesday that estimates provided by a contractor to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge were too high and that the state will reopen the bidding process for the next phase of the project.
The announcement comes as Maryland has faced criticism from the Trump administration and congressional Republicans for soaring estimates to rebuild the collapsed bridge in Baltimore, which was struck by a container ship in March 2024.
On Tuesday, Katie Thomson, secretary of the Maryland Department of Transportation, told POLITICO that the estimate from the contractor, Nebraska-based Kiewit Corp., was “substantially higher than we believe the reasonable cost should be.” She added that the state is “going back into the competitive market to seek new bids.”
In the wake of the collapse, Democratic Gov. Wes Moore told Congress that rebuilding the span would cost as much as $1.9 billion. That figure has since ballooned to a range of $4.3 billion to $5.2 billion. Thomson said that range “remains what we believe is the appropriate cost for the bridge” and that the new estimate offered by Kiewit “far exceeds that.”
