OCEAN CITY — Congress is inching closer to fully funding the replacement of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin told Maryland Association of Counties summer conference attendees Friday.
“We’re on our way to get that legislation passed,” said Cardin, a Democrat, during a town hall at the Ocean City conference. “We’re on our way to get the funding necessary.”
The Key Bridge was struck by the cargo ship Dali and collapsed in the early morning hours of March 26, killing six construction workers. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, visited Baltimore days later, promising that his administration would fully fund the construction of a replacement bridge.
To date, legislation to approve that funding has not passed in Congress.
Cardin reaffirmed Thursday that the Biden administration is committed to covering the full cost through the federal highway fund and that Maryland is ready to move forward with contracts to begin replacing the bridge and avoid further financial damage.
According to Cardin, the Senate cleared the hurdle in getting committees to sign off on providing 100% federal funding before Congress recessed for August.
“Maryland has already incurred tremendous losses from the point of view of delays getting trucks to their destinations because of detours they have to take,” he said. “The loss of revenues going through the toll facilities in our state has had a major impact on our state revenues.”
Cardin reiterated that the bill still needs to be passed, and that work must be done to appropriate funding for the project over the next four to five years — about the same amount of time he said it should take to rebuild the bridge.
He said the state is looking at “one consolidated contract” rather than multiple smaller contracts to complete the project, which should streamline the rebuilding process.
“We’ll get the bridge done — we hope — better than four years, which would be a pretty good record to get it completed within that time frame,” said Cardin.
Since Key Bridge collapse, several ships have experienced trouble in Maryland waters
Cardin is Maryland’s senior senator and the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Because he has opted not to seek re-election, Friday marked the last of his annual summer conference addresses as an elected official.
The moment was not lost on conference attendees.
Pointing to the work he did to replenish Ocean City’s beaches, Mayor Rick Meehan gave Cardin a key to the city, noting that his efforts have allowed residents and business owners to opt out of purchasing flood insurance for oceanside properties.
“That’s just one example of the many things the senator has done for us,” said Meehan, a Republican.
U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen said in an interview that he “looks forward” to continuing Cardin’s leadership style of “bringing people together” when he becomes the senior senator at the start of the new term.
“Let me just say what a joy it’s been to work with Senator Cardin,” said Van Hollen. “We’ve been great partners.”
Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, a Democrat, is running against former Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican to replace Cardin.
But Cardin’s work isn’t through.
“First of all, I am still alive for those of you that are wondering,” he said, “and we still have about four-and-a-half months left of this term of Congress, so we still have a lot of things we’ve got to get done.”
