DUNDALK, Md. — On a rainy Tuesday afternoon at CCBC in Dundalk, folks in Baltimore County had the chance to comment on the project to rebuild the Francis Scott Key Bridge, as Maryland state agencies aim to move forward with demolishing what's left of the bridge and constructing a new one.
The Maryland Transportation Authority applied for a water quality certification and submitted a joint permit application to build a new bridge. Hearing from neighbors is part of the process.
"We just want to make sure these communities are heard," Meredith Chaiken, representing Greater Baybrook Alliance, told WMAR.
Chaiken attended in hopes the Curtis Bay and Brooklyn areas, on the southwest base of the bridge, would be taken into account in the rebuild process. Chaiken estimates twice or three times as much truck traffic since the bridge went down.
"We have several truck routes in our community, and since the bridge has collapsed, those truck routes have been used way beyond the capacity that was planned," Chaiken explained.
"I just think there's opportunities now to mitigate the impact of truck traffic on residential and small business areas," Chaiken added.
Posters at the Tuesday meeting showed potential impacted zones and environmental effects.
According to MDTA, the proposed new bridge will be higher than the original to accommodate larger ships.
"The permits are, essentially, the impacts that the Key Bridge rebuild will have to the wetlands, both from construction and permanent impacts from the new bridge," Jim Harkness, chief engineer for MDTA, told reporters.
The exact outline of the new bridge is not fully ironed out; three weeks ago, the state chose who will design the new bridge.
READ MORE: Kiewit Corporation chosen to build Key Bridge replacement
“Because we’ve gone into this process early and without any concept for the bridge, we’ve just had to make some assumptions about the impacts. A little bit of elbows out in order to make something that’s easy and workable for the contractor when they start to design and build the bridge. So we really don’t have a concept that we’re working from at this point; we’re just working from a square footage of impact," Harkness said.
In a water quality certification request document, MDE said the rebuild's environmental impacts will be both temporary and permanent, but the project will minimize effects on wetlands and waterways where they can.
"The impacts will essentially be the locations in the Patapstco River where we'll have new pylons, new pier foundations, so that'll be the impacts there, and on the approach roadways where we're impacting the non-tidal wetlands, the tidal wetlands," Harkness elaborated.
The project will likely take about three or four years, the request said, with construction expected to begin in January 2025 and the new bridge open to traffic in fall 2028.
Comments will be accepted until October 1. If you wish to comment, you can send an email to matthew.wallach@maryland.gov or send a letter to:
Maryland Department of the Environment
Tidal Wetlands Division
Attn: Matt Wallach
1800 Washington Blvd, Suite 430
Baltimore, MD 21230-1708
