Pete Buttigieg, U.S. Transportation Secretary, said the U.S. Department of Transportation is moving forward on repairing or rebuilding 18 of the country’s most economically significant bridges – nearly twice the federal government’s original goal.
Buttigieg said a new report from the USDOT detailed the progress being made on the 18 bridges, part of more than 11,400 bridges across the country receiving funding to improve safety, shorten commutes and strengthen the supply chain.
“For commuters, for truck drivers, for anyone who uses America’s interstate highways, our bridges are essential to keep people and goods moving—and the Biden-Harris Administration has taken unprecedented steps to repair and rebuild these critical structures,” Buttigieg said during a news conference at the River Raisin Bridge in Monroe, MI. “We’ve made good on our promise to address our country’s most economically significant bridges—and are now going beyond our initial goal of ten bridge megaprojects—while also delivering much-needed repairs to thousands of other bridges nationwide to make driving safer and supply chains stronger.”
In 2021, President Joe Biden said his goal was for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to fix up to 10 of the country’s most economically significant bridges. Monday’s announcement outlined 18 bridges that were awarded grants of $100 million or more to go toward an estimated project cost of more than $250 million. Collectively, these bridges are crossed by more than 1.2 million vehicles a day, and an estimated 57.2 million trucks annually.
Funding for these projects comes from the Bridge Investment Program, the Bridge Formula Program, the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) Grant program, and the National Infrastructure Project Assistance (MEGA) Program.
The projects include $196 million in INFRA funding to replace the River Raisin Bridge along I-75. That project would add a new crossing to accommodate future traffic, updates to replace six existing structures including two bridges over Class I railroad lines, and the reconstruction of more than two miles or roadway along the U.S.-Canada trade corridor.
Other projects included the I-10 Mobile River Bridge and Bayway Multimodal Project in Alabama, and the Brent Spence Bridge Corridor Project in Ohio and Kentucky.
To date, since the signing of the BIL in November 2021, the legislation has provided nearly $570 billion in funding for more than 66,000 projects in every state in the country, as well as Washington, D.C., and the U.S. territories.