The Patapsco River is expected to hum with activity in the coming years as trucks on trestles, workers on barges and crews operating cranes demolish vestiges of the old Francis Scott Key Bridge and rebuild a new, taller span.

Also joining the bridge-building roster is the top-earning lobbyist in Maryland.

Kiewit, the state-selected construction firm tasked with the bridge rebuild, recently tapped a Maryland power couple — Lisa Harris Jones and Sean Malone — to lobby on its behalf beginning Nov. 20 and lasting until next October, according to lobbying registration documents. The description of the Harris Jones & Malone firm’s work simply states: “Any and all matters concerning the Key Bridge.”

Harris Jones and Malone, who have been married since 2013 when Baltimore’s then-Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake officiated their ceremony, are each influential lobbyists. Malone was recently selected to the National Institute for Lobbying & Ethics’ list of “Top Lobbyists” for 2024 and Harris Jones was the top-earning lobbyist in the state of Maryland from Nov. 1, 2023, to April 30, billing $2.7 million during those six months. She became the first woman and the first person of color to be the state’s highest-earning lobbyist.

Malone said via email that the law firm “is excited about being a small part of the Francis Scott Key Bridge reconstruction,” referring questions to Kiewit. In an emailed statement, Kiewit said that, as it has in “other markets in which our company has been selected to deliver complex projects, we partner with local firms to help us ensure the full, effective execution of our contracts.”

“We expect this firm to provide valuable counsel, including helping us identify and hire strong disadvantaged business enterprises to deliver this important project in the region,” spokesperson Bob Kula said Monday.

Deploying lobbyists for a major project such as the Key Bridge construction is not surprising, experts say. Although the transportation authority already awarded a contract this summer to Kiewit over two other applicants — during a period when the company did not retain lobbyists — much remains undecided before the bridge, expected to cost between $1.7 billion and $1.9 billion and to open by Fall 2028, is completed.

There are plenty of “unknowns” and lobbyists can “try and make those unknowns known,” said Roger Hartley, dean of the University of Baltimore’s College of Public Affairs.

“Building something the size of the Key Bridge, you can imagine that the first decision — ‘We’ll build it and for this much’ — is only the beginning. Lots of things can cause it to go faster or go slower or get derailed,” said Hartley, who called hiring lobbyists “extremely smart.”

Changes to the scope of the project, or the cost of labor, or even whether President-elect Donald Trump enacts tariffs on imported goods, are all potential situations a lobbyist could help a builder navigate. Plus, experts say, lobbyists can provide public relations help — such as petitioning lawmakers to not complain if the timeline is delayed, for example.

James Thurber, a professor emeritus at American University who teaches a course on lobbying, said: “Half of lobbying, sometimes, in my opinion, is just monitoring what’s going on.”

That monitoring can be essential when it comes to the bottom line. Identifying how much Kiewit receives for its work — and how much it has to pay to complete the project to the authority’s standards — will likely be a focus of lobbying efforts, experts say.

“They want to make a good profit on this, and in order to do that, they need to monitor what’s happening in their political environment,” Thurber said.

The authority has provided an estimate for the cost of the bridge, which is expected to be two-towered and cable-stayed, but the final dollar amount is far from etched in stone.

The authority has agreed to pay $73 million (about 4% of the expected total) to Kiewit for the first phase of the project, but the cost of the much more substantial second phase has not yet been specified.

“The contract value will be determined once our design has progressed sufficiently, and we have negotiated a guaranteed maximum price with Kiewit,” authority spokesperson Bradley Tanner said in a statement Monday.

That maximum is expected to be identified in 2025, and construction is also slated to begin next year, Tanner said.

Although Maryland has a contract with Kiewit, the federal government will ultimately pay the bulk of the effort. It will fund at least 90% of the project, which is the default for rebuilding an interstate, but the federal government could foot 100% of the bill, pending Congressional action.

Kiewit was selected as the Key Bridge builder despite recent controversy in Connecticut. The company is working on the State Pier project — an effort to redevelop pier structures into a port facility used for wind turbine assembly — that has ballooned in cost.

A 2023 Connecticut state audit flagged Kiewit for self-performing, or selecting itself for, several subcontracting projects totaling more than $87 million, The Connecticut Mirror reported. That could have enabled the builder to “gain an unfair competitive advantage over other firms,” the audit said.

Kiewit has countered that it did not behave inappropriately. In a statement, the company said, “Our contract clearly defined that Kiewit was allowed to self-perform work.”

Also part of that project, Kiewit is being sued by a contractor, which said in a complaint that although it has “fully and substantially performed its obligations under the Subcontract, Kiewit has failed and refused to pay” more than $800,000.

Kiewit declined to comment on the active litigation but noted, “Of the more than 60 trade contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, vendors and other firms we worked with on the Connecticut State Pier project, this is the only litigation filed by a subcontractor.”

Asked if it was aware of the Connecticut State Pier project issues when it selected Kiewit, the authority said applicants for the bridge contract were asked to share any legal liabilities and that the authority “found Kiewit’s responses satisfactory.”

“Kiewit met the State of Maryland’s procurement requirements and was awarded the contract on the basis of the quality of their proposal,” the authority said.