All funding options ‘on the table’ for Baltimore bridge rebuild

Maryland Governor Wes Moore said all options — including private partnership and tapping capital markets — are under consideration to finance the rebuild of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore if the federal government is unable to cover the costs as originally promised.    

“I think that all options should be on the table, and all options are on the table,” Moore said Thursday in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Surveillance.” “I understand the role of the public sector, the private sector, that philanthropy is also going to play in this.”

Maryland is on track to clear the Baltimore channel and restore full service at the crucial East Coast port by the end of May, Moore said.

President Joe Biden has pressed Congress to quickly approve funds to rebuild the more than 1.5-mile (2.4-kilometer) bridge which collapsed late last month after it was struck by a container ship. “I call on Congress to authorize this effort as soon as possible,” Biden said April 5 while visiting the disaster site. 

The president’s demand that the federal government handle the costs of rebuilding the bridge adds yet another urgent item for Congress, which is already deadlocked over aid for Ukraine, Israel and the US-Mexico border. 

“I’m glad we are building a bipartisan support structure around what it’s going to take and around what that can look like,” Moore said. 

The rebuild is estimated to cost billions of dollars but Moore did not say how much his state would need.