How long will it take to rebuild the Baltimore's Key Bridge following its collapse?

“Moving heaven and earth to rebuild, I think, is essential,” Ferguson said. “Even if we have federal support for a rebuild, all of these other costs and collateral impacts of this incident are probably not going to go for days, weeks, months, years.”

Ferguson said there will be an investigation into how the collision occurred, followed by salvaging efforts. Rebuilding can’t start until after that.

“I think when we rebuild, we should rebuild for the 22nd century,” Ferguson said. “This was a 50-year-old bridge. We should assume that when we rebuild, it’s rebuilding for the next 50 to 75 years.”

Natalie M. Scala, an associate professor at Towson University who directs the graduate program in supply chain management, said any “prudent bridge discussion” should include thinking about how the world will change over the next century, especially concerning how sea level rise could affect the port.

“If we are smart about this, we are going to ask, ‘How does this bridge withstand climate change?'” Scala said. “When [the Key Bridge] was built, ships were not this large. What kind of engineering can be done to support the kind of shipping we do now? If we take blueprints from previous bridges and open them up, we’re not really solving the question of how we got here in the first place.”

Abieyuwa Aghayere, an engineering professor at Drexel University who teaches a course dedicated to finding out why certain structures fail, said safety, cost and sustainability are major factors considered in the construction of bridges, adding that rebuilds must aim to “remove the vulnerability that may have been there.”

“You don’t want to repeat the same mistakes,” he said.

But even with safety top of mind, Aghayere thinks the rebuild could be accomplished quickly, especially if promised federal funds come through.

“Because of the importance of 695 … I can see it being done within one to two years,” Aghayere said, adding that it can be difficult to estimate. “If all hands are on deck, I think it can be done.”

Cable-stayed bridges are now popular and a style that might work in the area where the Key Bridge collapsed, Aghayere said, adding that having bridge supports spaced farther away from each other would allow for a wider opening for ships to navigate.

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