During a Senate Environment Committee hearing in July, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) asked Deputy Secretary of the Maryland Department of Transportation Samantha Biddle about the reconstruction of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Maryland.
00:00Thank you. We've been joined by the chairman of the full committee, Senator Capito, and I'm going to turn to her now for her questions.
00:09Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank the ranking member and thank all of you for being here, for being our guests.
00:15As I know, Senator Cramer has said that we are marching to, hopefully, a reauthorization of the surface transportation bill in a timely fashion, timely being September 2026.
00:26And we're working well together as a committee, and my history here on Capitol Hill has been that transportation and infrastructure is something that we all have.
00:39We have our different needs, but we all have need for.
00:41So I think flexibility, Senator Lummis, I think, asked the first question I was going to ask of Mr. Orrin on the flexibilities that you get by having the formula fundings.
00:54I mean, we're not going to build highways in West Virginia the same way that you build them in North Dakota or Maryland or other places.
01:00They're just different needs.
01:02So I'll leave that question because I think you answered that.
01:05But I think one of the things that is important as well is permitting reform.
01:11I think if we can get bipartisan permitting reform, all of these dollars will go a lot faster and a lot more efficiently than they have in the past.
01:21Does any, do you, Mr. Orrin or Ms. Jones or Ms. Biddle have any comment on permitting reform?
01:33Thank you, Chairman.
01:34I believe that permitting reform is certainly something that we look forward to supporting both at the federal level as well as at the state level.
01:41Because, as you know, the permitting landscape is not exclusive just to that that we navigate with all of our federal partners.
01:49The state of Maryland, we have robust state permitting as well.
01:53So coordinating both, you know, the sequence of permits on both levels can be extremely challenging.
02:00And to Mr. Orrin's experience of, I don't share in the extremely limited construction season that he does.
02:06But I know that even in, you know, in the state of Maryland, looking at things like when we can do work in and around streams and things like that.
02:13We really want to make sure that we are taking advantage of every available window.
02:17And oftentimes it can be things like permits that can cause us to perhaps lose a moment of opportunity.
02:22So certainly agree with you in that sense.
02:25Let me follow up with you on another question.
02:28Our member, Senator Cardin, who was on this committee for a very, very long time, when the Francis Scott Key Bridge was hit and destroyed and lost lives, very tragic event,
02:41he pushed really, really hard to up the federal share of rebuilding that facility 100%.
02:47And I talked to the governor a couple of times, and the sheer will of Senator Cardin got that done.
02:53And so it was a big lift for him.
02:58But could you update me on the status of the reconstruction of the bill and tell us the current cost estimate for that bridge?
03:07Of course.
03:08And thank you as well for your support and partnership as we navigated what was truly a catastrophic event that we are still working through.
03:16So we're so immensely grateful for the federal support.
03:18This is a critical national freight and supply chain asset, and we pledge to remain transparent with this committee in providing updates as well as in our efforts to seek reimbursement to the responsible party for that bridge elision.
03:33To date, the Francis Scott Key Bridge rebuild has been environmentally cleared, and we have a progressive design build contractor in place, and pre-construction and demolition activities are currently underway.
03:45We appreciate the strong continued partnership with the Federal Highway Administration as well as our progressive design build contractor, Kiewit.
03:51And we do remain on track to deliver a new bridge as quickly and cost-effectively as possible.
03:56However, due to the progressive design build process that we're working through, we are currently still tracking the initial cost estimate from earlier on in the bridge rebuild process.
04:09Do you recall what the initial estimate of that project was?
04:11Yes, $1.7 to $1.9 billion.
04:13Right, and what is it now?
04:15We have not updated that cost estimate yet.
04:17We're working closely with our progressive design builder as we work past 50% design and look forward to progressing.
04:24When you say progressive, is that the name of the company?
04:26No, ma'am.
04:27That is the type of procurement and construction delivery method.
04:31So we brought on a contractor that also has the designer with them.
04:37So we are working hand-in-hand on the design while we execute some early works packages.
04:42So a design build?
04:43Design build, but the cost was not negotiated up front.
04:47So as we work through the design process, we will then get to the point at which we will negotiate the final cost of the bridge.
04:56Yeah, so I could just kind of add a little spice to the meeting here.
05:00I can say this was one of the reasons that the cost share by the state, many of us thought the state should still contribute in the usual,
05:10whether it was either 90-10 or 80-20, because really there's no incentive for the state now to contain the cost, because there's no cost to the state.
05:22And it's all federally funded.
05:25And you're going to have to get more funding than what you have initially.
05:27So I'm just going to use that as an example of why the cost share by states is an essential part of highway building.
05:39You've got to have some skin in the game.
05:40Understanding that this was an exceptional case, which is why we made the exception for that.
05:46The last thing I would say, because I'm sitting next to Senator Lummis, is truck parking.
05:53Have you talked about it yet?
05:54No.
05:54No.
05:55No, she hasn't talked about truck parking.
05:58No.
05:59I think all of us realize that this is a real problem.
06:02I mean, you can see them stacking up on the exit and entry lanes as you're getting onto an interstate highway.
06:11So I support her in realizing that this is a real issue, although our state just got some truck parking dollars that were just allotted by the U.S. DOT.
06:20So hopefully we will be increasing our truck parking.
06:23And when you park in West Virginia, you might as well, you know, ride the Rapids and everything else that you can do while you're there.
06:29Just putting a little bit into a tourist trap.
06:31Anyway, thank you, Mr. Chairman, for having me.
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