U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Alex Padilla (D-CA) sent a letter on April 25 to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg urging the U.S. Department of Transportation to revise its criteria under the Bridge Investment Program for evaluating seismic retrofit projects.
The program received $12.5 billion from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 for the replacement, rehabilitation, preservation, or protection of highway bridges. The senators expressed concern that the agency was neglecting to ensure fair distribution of funds for projects and was using a benefit-cost analysis methodology for evaluating seismic retrofit projects versus projects where the threat is from another natural disaster or structural risk.
The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, which carries up to 40 million vehicles annually, is disadvantaged when applying for funding under the program because its main threat comes from earthquakes, the senators said.
“The Golden Gate Bridge, Highway, and Transportation District has designed the retrofit project in strict accordance with applicable design specifications so that it may withstand a ‘maximum credible event,’ including a catastrophic earthquake, which available science unfortunately assesses is overdue,” the letter said. “However, despite requiring these important design standards, the department penalizes these projects and refuses funding because seismic events are rare in any single year despite their destructive nature and likelihood over several years.”