Probable cause in Baltimore's Key Bridge collapse could be determined at public NTSB meeting
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) will release its exhaustive investigation into the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse and the probable cause of the tragedy during a public meeting on Tuesday, November 18, in Washington, D.C.
The meeting will be at 9:30 a.m. at the NTSB Boardroom and Conference Center, at 429 L'Enfant Plaza, SW, in Washington, DC. It will be livestreamed, unless the government shutdown continues. If that's the case, the meeting will be recorded and posted on ntsb.gov.
A complete final report will be made public in several weeks, according to the NTSB.
This report comes as the state is racing to meet a 2028 deadline to complete a new bridge and stay within the $1.8 billion cost estimate.
"During the meeting, the NTSB's board will vote on the findings, probable cause, and safety recommendations as well as any changes to the draft final report," the National Transportation Safety Board wrote.
You can see their initial findings here.
6 construction workers killed in Key Bridge collapse
At approximately 1:30 a.m. on March 26, 2024, the cargo ship Dali collided with the bridge, causing it to collapse, killing six construction workers who fell into the Patapsco River.
The NTSB investigation revealed that the cargo lost electrical power and propulsion before striking the central truss spans of the Key Bridge.
The collapse caused the Port of Baltimore to close for nearly three months and blocked the main shipping channel. The closure prompted shipping delays and a host of concerns from businesses across the region.
Billions of dollars in lawsuits were filed as a result of the collision with the Key Bridge.
Lasting Impact
The morning the Key Bridge collapsed is etched in the minds of many Marylanders, and for the past 20 months, federal investigators have been working to get to the bottom of why it happened.
"These safety recommendations and probable causes that the NTSB is looking to put forward are absolutely important and significant," said Congressman Kweisi Mfume, who represents communities that continue to feel the impact. "They're important because we don't have them, and they're significant because they would mark a course in the road that we don't want to repeat again."
NTSB was at the scene within hours of the collapse.
NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy will lead the public disclosure of the findings, which will include the federal review of the Key Bridge's safety protections and Dali's electrical system.
NTSB investigates Key Bridge collapse
NTSB has been investigating the bridge's collapse and has shared several reports and interviews since March 2024.
In a preliminary report published in May 2024, the agency detailed how the ship lost power four times in the 12 hours before the collision.
That preliminary report also shared a summary of the information that NTSB collected during the on-scene phase of its investigation and detailed the contents of some of the 4,680 containers found on board the ship. According to the report, 56 of the containers contained hazardous material.
At next week's public meeting, NTSB is expected to share findings that identify the cause of the Key Bridge collapse.
WJZ Investigates was the first to report that Grace Ocean, the Dali's owner, is suing Hyundai Heavy Industries, alleging they designed a "dangerous" vessel, with a label positioned too close to the end of a critical cable that detached and caused a circuit breaker to open.
Hyundai Heavy Industries, Grace Ocean, the ship's operator, Synergy Marine, along with the state of Maryland and other critical parties, willingly participated in the investigation.
"It's very, very important now that we will be armed with some new information, that we all take advantage of it," Congressman Mfume said. "We've all suffered in this area a great deal as a result of this collapse. We can't endanger the lives of people again going forward once we get this information."
Bridge concerns detailed in NTSB report
The NTSB previously criticized the state for failing to assess the Key Bridge's vulnerability based on larger vessels traveling in the Patapsco, saying it was 30 times higher than the acceptable risk threshold.
NTSB said the assessment would have helped identify structural risks on the bridge before the collision.
If the state had conducted the assessments based on recent ship traffic, it would have been able to reduce the risk of collapse and loss of life, according to the NTSB report.
"Nobody anticipated a cargo ship three football fields long running into the structure, and therein I think lies the problem, because you can't predict the future, but you ought to at least prepare for it—particularly when you're doing risk assessments," Mfume said.
The MDTA maintained that the bridge collapse was the sole fault of the Dali ship and was caused by the negligence of the ship's owners.
"The Key Bridge, like other bridges in America, was approved and permitted by the federal government and in compliance with those permits," MDTA said in response to the report.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore argued that there is not a bridge in the country that could have withstood a strike from the Dali, deflecting blame from the MDTA and saying the Dali's operators were at fault.
The report also directed the owners of 68 bridges across the U.S. to conduct vulnerability assessments to determine the risk they face from vessel collisions.
Trump administration criticism
Recently, the Trump administration blasted the state for its DEI policies and expressed doubts that Maryland can complete the project on time and on budget.
"I am particularly interested in how the State of Maryland plans to achieve key delivery metrics for the FSK Bridge replacement project, including MDOT's estimates of a $1.8 billion project cost and the 2028 expected completion date," Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wrote.
"Congress granted the Secretary of Transportation important authorities to conduct critical oversight to ensure that federal highway funds are properly managed, and I take this authority seriously," Duffy wrote. "It is my role to guarantee that federally funded projects benefit the entire nation through every dollar spent. When a state partners with DOT on major infrastructure projects like the FSK Bridge, it partners with the American people."
Mfume is hopeful the federal government will remain committed to the full scope of the project.
"We have an administration, as we all know, that can be temperamental, and that's from day to day," Mfume said. "How things stand today, I'm assuming there will not be an effort to take back money or to imperil the bridge that we're trying to get back up. But having said that, I also have to say that's contingent on whether this particular president has an issue with something that's going on in the state and continues with a war of words."
Mfume continued, "We are probably not going to benefit if that's the case. So, right now, and I've talked with members of the Republican Party who worked hard with all of us to get this funding in place, we all believe that it's going to go forward as was scheduled, and as was promised and set out in law, but trying to predict the future in this administration is a little difficult sometimes."
Key Bridge reconstruction process
The Key Bridge rebuild is expected to be completed by the fall of 2028. The Maryland Transportation Authority (MDTA) says the timeline remains on schedule.
During a recent tour of the Key Bridge construction site, MDTA told reporters that everyone involved is working at "breakneck" speed — advancing multiple aspects of the rebuild, on top of finalizing the design — to ensure the fall 2028 goal is met.
Last month, Maryland released new design renderings of what the replacement bridge will look like.
MDTA Chief Engineer Jim Harkness said the design is nearly 70% complete, and it's expected to be done by the end of the month.
Crews have been working on the demolition phase by knocking down the remaining spans of the collapsed bridge.
The process started in July, with the removal of deck sections on the north and south portions of the bridge.
Some of the material taken from the bridge will be reutilized in the new bridge.
Crews worked to place large tubes, or piles, carefully into the Patapsco River. It's all a part of the test pile program to build the necessary support for a strong foundation.
The piles are driven deep into the river bottom. Once the piles are leveled, the aim is to run load tests on them in a few weeks. These tests will determine if the piles can handle 10 million pounds.
These load tests are done to make sure the piles can handle the weight of the new bridge, as well as ensure the foundation design works in the riverbed.
Legal battles
A tangled web of lawsuits is winding its way through the federal court system, with Grace Ocean trying to limit its liability to the value of the ship and its contents.
Crew members have petitioned to seal their depositions.
"We've said since the beginning that this is going to be a long and meandering process through the courts. The Dali and its owners, I'm sure, are going to fight it any way that they can," Mfume said.
Confidential settlement negotiations for one of the victims who died in the collapse took place earlier this month.
Several parties have since filed to voluntarily dismiss their claims, meaning a settlement may have been reached. But it is up to the parties to disclose that, and so far, there has been no public announcement.