In the wake of the Francis Scott Key Bridge disaster, Maryland transportation officials are taking steps to protect the Chesapeake Bay Bridge from similar ship collisions.
The Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA) on Feb. 2 began soliciting bids from contractors for a $177 million project to install collision-blunting structures around the bridge’s main support piers.
The work will be done on both spans of the bridge, which carries traffic on U.S. Routes 50/301 between Annapolis and Kent Island. The two-lane eastbound span dates to 1952, and the three-lane westbound span opened in 1973.
It is the only roadway spanning the Bay in Maryland and one of just two overall, along with the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel at the estuary’s mouth in Virginia.
The existing pier protection on the Bay Bridge meets federal safety standards, MDTA officials said. But the agency now wants the bridge to incorporate the latest safety measures approved by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, adding an extra layer of protection to the aging spans.
“The MDTA remains serious about safety and is committed to infrastructure improvements at our toll facilities,” MDTA executive director Bruce Gartner said in a statement.
Construction is slated to begin in spring 2027.
The precautions come after Maryland was thrust into the center of a national debate over whether bridges have adequate protection from the latest generation of large cargo ships. In March 2024, the Francis Scott Key Bridge, part of the city’s Interstate 695 beltway around Baltimore, collapsed after it was struck by a container ship, killing six construction workers.
The bridge had concrete structures, known as dolphins, designed to prevent just such an incident. But they weren’t enough to stop the ship.
The Bay Bridge project will include the addition of 16 dolphins to the four-mile span.
What a waste of tax payer dollars