White House officials say salvage operations to reopen the Fort McHenry Federal Channel cost about $100 million, but returning Baltimore to normal will incur more costs and require more construction and clean up.
Unified Command, a collection of federal, state and local agencies, declared the 700-foot wide and 50-foot deep channel fully open to ship traffic on Monday after about 11 weeks of being either fully or partially closed due to the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in March.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said invoices for operations are totaling about $75 million, while the U.S. Coast Guard’s efforts cost about $24 million.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the federal government will foot that bill.
The state of Maryland separately used the $60 million federal emergency relief funds to clear other pathways to the port outside of the federal McHenry Channel after the Dali, a nearly 1,000-foot cargo ship, rammed into the Key Bridge on March 26.
“Emergency relief funding is structured on a reimbursement basis and we have quick release ability to get those first dollars flowing,” he said Tuesday during a call with reporters.
“But we know that those additional bills will come in,” he said.
Salvage operations will continue for pieces of the bridge that are below the channel’s 50-foot float line, where ships hulls do not reach.
The Unified Command removed 50,000 tons of debris from the Patapsco River to reopen the channel to shipping, according to Army Corps of Engineers Major Gen. Butch Graham
“That works out to something equivalent of 3,800 fully loaded dump trucks worth of concrete and steel,” Graham said. “How do you eat an elephant? You eat it one bite at a time. And this is the process that we went through in less than 100 days.”
What’s next
The costs don’t stop with the salvage operations. Maryland and the federal government both want to rebuild the Key Bridge as soon as possible. The 1.7-mile bridge is a main artery for people driving in the south of Baltimore.
State officials previously estimated that the project could cost between $1.7 and $1.9 billion.
Earlier this month, the Maryland Transportation Authority released its first request for proposals to find a firm to spearhead the project.
MDTA is using a progressive design-build model that allows the plan to evolve with the needs of the project instead of locking into one design right away.
“We aren't focused on the pricing and the design of the bridge at this point,” said Bruce Gardner, MDTA’s executive director. “We really want to land with a partner that has demonstrated experience and qualifications on this type of bridge.”
Once Maryland selects a firm, it will move forward with procurement packages that build the bridge piece by piece.
“It can lead to savings in time and money, but it also means that there will be revisions to that [monetary] figure going forward,” Buttigieg said.
Buttigieg said the federal government wants to foot the whole bill for the Key Bridge, but Congress must cooperate to appropriate the funds.
MDTA wants the cable-stayed bridge to be open to traffic by fall 2028.
Court battles continue
Baltimore city and county are in the process of taking legal action against Grace Ocean Private, the owner of the Dali, and ship manager, Synergy Marine Group, for damages and economic impact, according to court filings.
The families of the six construction workers who were killed while on the bridge are also suing in the United States District Court of Maryland Northern Division.
Those legal fights must first overcome the company’s bid for limited liability. The company has asked the U.S. District Court of Maryland to cap its liability at $43.7 million.Baltimore city and county asked the court to throw out that request. They must prove to the court that the vessel was unseaworthy or that the company was negligent.
Baltimore says it is due payment for the costs associated with replacing the bridge, obstructing the river, lost tax revenue, the cleanup effort, and the harm suffered by city residents.
“The Port of Baltimore was no stranger to large freighters like the Dali,” the lawyers representing Baltimore wrote in a court filing. “For more than four decades, cargo ships made thousands of trips every year under the Key Bridge without incident. There was nothing about March 26, 2024 that should have changed that. But Petitioners, Grace Ocean Private Limited and Synergy Marine Pte Ltd saw fit to put a clearly unseaworthy vessel into the water.”
An investigation released last month by the National Transportation Safety Board found the Dali had electrical problems when it left the port.
However, there are still unanswered questions, and the FBI and Coast Guard are still conducting their investigations.
Meanwhile, local businesses are still adjusting to fallout from the partial port closure and bridge collapse.
To date, about 3,000 businesses have filed for emergency disaster loans, according to the Small Business Administration. About $5 million has been dispersed, and $24 million in loans have been approved.
