The effort to build a replacement for the Francis Scott Key Bridge is likely to run up against a major challenge: a nationwide shortage of skilled laborers.

The Community College of Baltimore County is launching an initiative to help fill the gap. According to CCBC President Sandra Kurtinitis, the school plans to establish a new welder training program at its Dundalk campus, just five miles from where the bridge stood and where preliminary construction activities on its cable-stayed, taller replacement are underway.

Welders will play a crucial role in building a new bridge, including assembling its steel frame, constructing guardrails and pedestrian walkways, and ensuring that it can endure traffic loads, environmental stresses and seismic activity. Some of the work will occur underwater.

But the nation’s welding workforce is aging, and not enough new workers are entering the field to replace them.

CCBC’s new program seeks to address that void, creating a local pipeline of available welders before the bridge’s construction activities ramp up.

“One of our strong commitments is that we help meet the workforce needs of the region, and if there has ever been any acute need, it is in terms of rebuilding that bridge,” Kurtinitis said. “We feel we’re well positioned, and we’re more than happy to be part of the solution.”

In a statement, the Maryland Transportation Authority applauded plans to expand training opportunities.

“Trade programs in schools and apprenticeships are beneficial in growing the engineering and construction workforce and MDTA supports those efforts,” the statement said.

CCBC already offers hands-on welder training through a partnership with Earlbeck Gases and Technologies, a local trade school and welding supply store. In 2024, Earlbeck trained 125 CCBC students at its Rosedale facility.

The new program expands the collaboration to a second location in Dundalk, where CCBC plans to construct a trade building that will prepare students for careers in underwater and topside welding.

“It’ll be state of the art,” Kurtinitis said. “It’s going to be exactly what it needs to be to assist the many businesses, builders, construction workers and so forth that they’re going to need [for the bridge.]”

This spring, Kurtinitis plans to seek approval from CCBC’s board of trustees to allocate $2 million to $3 million from the school’s strategic initiative fund for the new building. Construction is expected to begin this summer, with the first class of students enrolling by December.

Currently, 85% of CCBC students attend tuition-free, and Kurtinitis anticipates many in the new welding program will take advantage of that benefit.

The Dundalk site will be able to train an additional 100 to 125 CCBC welding students a year, according to Allison Earlbeck, the third-generation CEO of Earlbeck Gases and Technology. Students can achieve the necessary certifications to work on projects like the bridge within three to five months of training, much of which is hands on.

“Welding is all about hand-eye coordination and just getting underneath the hood and getting a chance to practice and try it,” Earlbeck said.

The reconstructed Key Bridge is expected to open in 2028, five years after a massive container ship struck the original, collapsing it into the Patapsco River and killing six construction workers. Officials unveiled designs for the new span earlier this month.

Crews have begun collecting soil samples and mapping waterways in advance of construction. The remnants of the old bridge on both sides of the Patapsco are expected to be demolished in the coming months.

The welder shortage was plaguing the construction industry long before the multiyear, $2 billion endeavor to replace the bridge got underway. The American Welding Society projects a need for more than 320,000 additional welders in the next four years, primarily due to retirements and other forms of attrition in an aging workforce.

Meanwhile, younger generations have been less inclined to pursue skilled trades, opting instead for college degrees. Even those who are interested in careers like welding now have fewer pathways for training. Earlbeck Gases and Technologies is the only welding education program in Maryland certified by the American Welding Society.

Welders earn an average of $32 a hour in Maryland, or more than $67,000 a year, though starting wages are lower, according to the Economic Research Institute.

The Key Bridge replacement project has cast fresh attention on a long-standing issue, Earlbeck said.

“Truth be told, bridge or no bridge, this was a problem that needed to be solved,” she said of the welder shortage. “The bridge brought people’s attention to the issue, but the issue was there the whole time. And now we actually have the resources to be able to go after and make a solution for it since people are aware that it’s a problem.”

Kurtinitis said that as the costs of traditional four-year colleges have soared and left graduates saddled with debt, she has observed students giving greater consideration to other career paths, including skilled trades that in the years ahead will leave a lasting impact on the community.

“We’ve got over 300 different programs and certifications here, and many of them grow in the area of need,” Kurtinitis said. “When the bridge fell, our instinct immediately was to move right in to assist where we could.”