The costly effort to rebuild Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge will begin this month, about nine months after a massive cargo ship crashed into the structure when it lost power on the Patapsco River, destroying the span and killing six people.

Work crews are scheduled to start conducting underwater surveys and taking soil samples at the site of the collapsed bridge on Jan. 7, the earliest stages of a full-scale rebuild effort that is expected to take years, according to the Maryland Transportation Authority. Demolition of what remains of the site is scheduled to begin in the spring of 2025.

Also this month, a design build team will begin inspections of about 1,100 homes and businesses in the communities surrounding what will be the Key Bridge rebuild area, the authority said. The inspections are voluntary and free to the property owners — meant as a safety measure to guard against potential structural damage during the rebuild process.

The estimated $1.7 billion cost of the rebuild will be fully funded by the federal government after Congress passed a spending bill in mid-December that included that provision. Maryland lawmakers and Gov. Wes Moore (D) had spent months lobbying in Congress and securing support from President Joe Biden, who had promised that the federal government would cover the cost shortly after the collapse. The bipartisan efforts were critical to the state as Moore and the General Assembly grapple with a budget deficit.

“This action affirms the central importance of rebuilding the bridge not just to Maryland, but the nation,” Moore said in a statement about the inclusion of full federal funding in the spending bill. “This bipartisan agreement is a win for port workers, truckers, small businesses, service me​mbers and working families throughout Maryland and across America. And while the tragic collapse of the Key Bridge happened during our time in office, we will rebuild it on our watch.”

When the Dali container ship crashed into the Key Bridge on March 26, experts estimated the tragedy could be the costliest maritime disaster in modern history. Apart from the bridge’s total destruction, there was extensive damage to the cargo carrier, the economic loss of having to temporarily close the Port of Baltimore and liability payouts to those harmed by the collapse, including the families of those who were killed.

The Dali’s owner, Grace Ocean Private Ltd., and operator, Synergy Marine Pte Ltd., have already agreed to pay $103 million in funds to federal agencies affected by the collapse, a figure that came through settlement negotiations after the federal government sued them.

The Justice Department’s lawsuit alleged that the Dali, a 984-foot Singapore-flagged cargo vessel, experienced mechanical, electrical and crew-related failures in the four minutes before it plowed into the bridge — breakdowns that federal officials said could have been prevented had Grace Ocean and Synergy Marine not cut corners on known safety issues and hired an ill-trained staff.

That $103 million figure far exceeds the $43.6 million cap the companies had sought on the liabilities they could be made to pay — and signals the possibility of many more payouts on the horizon. The state of Maryland, which owned and operated the Key Bridge, and dozens of other affected parties are pursuing separate damages from Grace Ocean and Synergy Marine.

The federal judge overseeing the litigation in U.S. District Court in Maryland has scheduled the first trial in the sprawling case for June 2026. That trial will determine whether the ship’s owner and operator can cap their financial liability in the disaster.

If the judge rules in favor of Grace Ocean and Synergy Marine, the dozens of pending lawsuits against them could be short-lived. But if the judge decides the entities cannot limit their financial liability, then those suits will move forward on their individual merits.

The FBI has separately been pursuing a criminal investigation related to the bridge’s collapse, looking at least in part at whether the crew left the port knowing the vessel had serious system problems, officials familiar with the probe have said.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which launched its own investigation into the crash has yet to release its final report analyzing the cause of the Dali’s outages.