Four months ago Maryland took the Key Bridge rebuild away from a single progressive design-builder. On August 25 it started proving the alternative works.
The Maryland Transportation Authority is accepting bids on the Demolition and Miscellaneous Marine Work contract, the second of four packages for reconstruction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. Scope covers removal and salvage of the steel girder spans over the Patapsco, demolition of marine and land piers, sub-aqueous demolition of marine foundations, and clean-out of 96-inch steel pipe piles. Anticipated cost is $50 million to $100 million, awarded by competitive sealed bidding, with work expected to begin late 2026.
The procurement pivot
The sequence matters. MDTA awarded Kiewit Infrastructure Co. a progressive design-build contract in summer 2024. On April 28, 2026 it announced it would off-ramp the contractor over rising costs and a lengthening schedule. On May 19 it told industry at a virtual forum that it was splitting the rebuild into four separate procurements, reported at the time as totaling more than $4 billion. It held a main-span industry forum on June 18, released the Main Span and Marine Approaches RFQ on July 21, and has now advertised the demolition package.
That is a deliberate, publicly staged rebuild of a procurement strategy, executed in about four months. Agencies that off-ramp a design-builder often go quiet for a year.
Who this opens the job to
Under the single progressive design-build structure, the demolition and marine work would have been a subcontract inside Kiewit’s scope. As a standalone $50 million to $100 million competitive sealed bid, it is reachable by mid-size marine and demolition contractors who were locked out before. Splitting a megaproject into four packages is usually described as a cost-control measure. It is also a market-access decision, and this is what it looks like.
Work already complete or underway: land demolition finished over the winter, the test pile program is done, permanent pile installation and a temporary construction trestle are underway, offsite material fabrication is running, and MDE and Coast Guard permits are issued.
What replaces it
A cable-stayed structure a little over two miles long, with a 3,300-foot main span, more than 1,600 feet between the main-span pylons, two towers above 600 feet, and 230 feet of minimum vertical clearance over the federal channel. That clearance is roughly double the old bridge’s, which is the direct answer to the failure that put this project on the calendar. Reopening target remains 2030.
The cost range and the late-2026 start are MDTA’s own figures, and the “more than $4 billion” total for all four contracts traces to May reporting on the agency’s industry forum rather than to this month’s release.
Delivery method on a long-span crossing is a genuine choice, not a formality. San Francisco went the other way on the Golden Gate Bridge seismic retrofit, keeping two large CMGC packages with preconstruction-led pricing precisely because the unknowns sit inside 1937 steel that no bidder can price cold.
Sources: Maryland Transportation Authority and the MDTA project site.