BALTIMORE — Slicing apart 10-inch-thick slabs of concrete from what was left standing after the Key Bridge collapse will take months, but even the unique vantage point perched atop the bridge had an impact on Governor Wes Moore.
WATCH: Destined for demolition
“Seeing it from this perspective is breathtaking, because we have been to this area on countless occasions via boat, but understanding what happened that night, understanding what it was like in the moments for six… the last moments of the six individuals that were lost, seeing the height that this bridge is at and the enormity of this bridge,” said Moore.
Just as demolition crews faced challenges removing the collapsed portion of the bridge from the waters of the Patapsco, this phase comes with its own difficulties.
Workers must dissect the bridge’s surface and its supports from 135 feet in the air and the sheer amount of material may eclipse that, which fell into the water when the bridge collapsed.
“Those three spans were about 1,200 feet, but this bridge 1.7… 1.9 miles long,” said MDTA Project Brian Wolfe, “Development Director so the tonnage just on the approaches is probably as much or more as just the truss portion that fell and the two or three adjacent spans that fell with it.”
While initial projections over when work would begin to remove the bridge’s remaining sections were pushed back for months, the governor is defending the pace of the project.
“This was a bridge that when it was first constructed, it took nearly five years just for the permitting and design to get done,” said Moore, “and so to now be here at a time where… a little over a year after this horrific tragedy that we are now just not in the demo phase, but planning on the construction phase starting later on this year.”
Some have questioned whether Maryland’s dicey relationship with President Trump and his administration could somehow jeopardize future funding for the bridge’s removal and, ultimately, its replacement, but Maryland’s senior U.S. senator says that is not the case.
“Those funds are set in stone,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, “They’re set in statute, and I’m glad they also give this project and everybody involved the certainty that those monies with be there as they need them.”
