Maryland drops Kiewit from Key Bridge rebuild phase 2 contract

Maryland pushed Kiewit Infrastructure Co. out of the next phase of the Francis Scott Key Bridge rebuild after state officials said the company’s price and schedule for Phase 2 were far above the state’s own estimates.

The Maryland Transportation Authority informed Kiewit on April 28 that it would not be retained for Phase 2 of the project. MDTA said the company’s proposal was unacceptable, and that the gap between the bid and the state’s independent cost expectations was too wide to justify moving ahead. Gov. Wes Moore said he would not accept an arrangement that failed the test of serving the public’s best interest.

The decision does not stop work at the site. MDTA said Kiewit will finish Phase 1, including driving foundation piles and building a temporary trestle, and that work is expected to continue at least through the end of 2026. Kiewit was approved for the $73 million Phase 1 contract on Aug. 29, 2024.

Officials described the contractor removal as a standard off-ramp provision in progressive design-build contracts, used when the state and a contractor cannot agree on a final price. Still, the move adds another layer of uncertainty to a rebuild that already has seen its cost and timeline swell sharply.

Early estimates after the bridge collapsed were below $2 billion. By November 2025, MDTA updated the projected cost range to $4.3 billion to $5.2 billion and said the bridge was expected to reopen to traffic in late 2030. The higher figure reflected federally mandated safety upgrades, including robust pier protection and taller towers for a longer main span.

The Key Bridge fell into the Patapsco River on March 26, 2024, after the Singapore-flagged Dali struck a support pier around 1:30 a.m. Six construction workers died and two others were injured. The collapse shut down the Port of Baltimore’s main channel and rattled a logistics network that state officials say supports more than 273,000 jobs and generates more than $70 billion in annual economic impact.

Since then, Maryland has tried to restore both the channel and the confidence of shippers, truckers and port-dependent employers that need a reliable timeline to plan around. State officials said the Unified Command removed more than 50,000 tons of debris in 78 days to reopen the Fort McHenry Federal Channel, and MDTA unveiled a new bridge design concept in February 2025.

The latest contractor shake-up does not change the fact that the bridge will be rebuilt. It does, however, show how much remains unsettled about who will finish the job, how much it will cost, and whether Maryland can keep the project under tighter control from here.