Maryland OKs $50.3M contract for removal of bridge collapse debris
ANNAPOLIS, Maryland — A Maryland council led by Gov. Wes Moore on Wednesday approved a $50.3 million emergency contract to pay a Swedish construction company that is clearing debris from the March collapse from the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
While work to remove debris from the federal channel in the Patapsco River was being conducted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Maryland entered into an emergency contract with Skanska USA Civil Southeast Inc. in April to remove debris from other channels so the debris could be used by salvage and commercial vessels after the collapse.
Skanska was chosen because, according to state records, it had successfully demolished the existing Nice/Middleton Bridge over the Potomac River. The company was considered qualified and equipped to perform similar operations that were quickly needed when the bridge collapsed.
Marshall Brown, speaking on behalf of the Laborers-Employers Cooperation and Education Trust of the Mid-Atlantic Region, spoke out against the contract Wednesday at a meeting of the Board of Public Works. He said Maryland had time to look at the many available contractors who could have been mobilized to do the work. He said the emergency contract without a bid went against a state procurement process that is designed to be fair, competitive and transparent.
“This no-bid contract does not meet the standards,” Brown said. “For those reasons, we are firmly opposed to the approval of this contract.”
Maryland Transportation Authority Director Bruce Gartner said the state’s engineers used their best professional judgment in an emergency situation and selected a company that was already doing work in the state.
“They were someone who was available nearby and we knew they could comply with state procurement law and respond to the situation,” said Gartner, who noted that the bridge collapse was “one of the most significant emergencies we’ve ever had.”
According to administrative documents, clearing the rubble through a public tender would have been delayed by at least eight months.
During the board meeting, Moore said there is still much work to be done to rebuild the bridge, which he described as critical to the economy of Maryland and the rest of the country.
“We need to rebuild it,” Moore said. “The Port of Baltimore is a vital artery for economic flows, economic activity across the country, and to put it simply, our focus on getting this done is not about nostalgia, it’s about necessity.”
The governor, a Democrat, thanked President Joe Biden’s administration for including 100 percent federal cost sharing for reconstruction in a supplemental budget to Congress last week. Moore said he has been working to build a bipartisan coalition for reconstruction.
Maryland has the costs estimated of a new bridge costing between $1.7 billion and $1.9 billion. The state plans to build a new span by the fall of 2028.
Shortly after leaving Baltimore Harbor on March 26, the ship lost power and propulsion and struck one of the bridge’s support pillars, causing the bridge to collapse and killing six construction workers.