$75M Engineering Contract Awarded for Rebuild of Baltimore's Key Bridge

Pre-construction activities to replace the bridge, which collapsed when struck by a cargo ship, will begin this month.

machineryasia machineryasia
Jan 24, 2025 - 12:15
0
$75M Engineering Contract Awarded for Rebuild of Baltimore's Key Bridge

Rebuilding the Francis Scott Key Bridge is one step closer to reality as the Maryland Transportation Authority has awarded the project’s General Engineering Consultant services contract.

The contract went to Bridging Maryland Partnership, a group made up of WSP; Rummel, Klepper & Kahl and Johnson, Mirmiran & Thompson, which will handle planning, engineering, construction management and program support services. WSP has already been operating as a salvage contract manager for the Key Bridge since its collapse after being struck by a cargo ship in March.

BMP will also manage the Progressive Design-Builder, Kiewit Infrastructure Co. – which won the $73 million Phase 1 contract for the Baltimore bridge replacement in mid-2024 – by auditing their processes, reviewing submittals and confirming the design criteria is met.

Once Phase 1 of the project is completed, Kiewit will receive exclusive negotiating rights for the Phase 2 contract, which includes project final design/engineering and construction. The new structure will be in the former bridge’s right-of-way and have a four-lane capacity.

The open-ended, task-order-based general engineering consultant contract will not exceed five years.

Pre-construction activities on the Key Bridge, both on land and on the water, will begin this month to provide data points for supporting design and construction decisions. These activities include topographic surveys, drilling for soil samples and mapping subsurface waterways. More pre-construction work is expected to begin in the spring.

Last month, President Joe Biden, in a letter to Congress requesting $100 billion in emergency disaster relief funding, asked for U.S. Department of Transportation funds to finance 100% of the Francis Scott Key Bridge rebuild.

Read More