The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) said it has awarded more than $407 million in funding to repair 119 rural bridges across the country.
Part of the FHWA’s Competitive Highway Bridge Program (CHBP), the funding will address 119 bridges in 12 states from Alaska to West Virginia. To be eligible for the funding, rural communities must have fewer than 115 individuals per square mile. The CHBP approach bundles small projects into a single award as a way to save time and tax payer money.
“These bridges will ensure smaller communities have the reliable bridges they need to fuel our economy and connect American families to schools, offices, and hospitals,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy said.
Iowa, Maine, South Dakota, and West Virginia will each receive $65 million to be used on projects in their states.
The awards fund Iowa’s Better Bridges Brighter Opportunity and Bridges to Prosperity projects, as well as Maine’s Critical Connections: Preserving Mobility for Rural Communities and the Interstate 95 Decks in Distress projects. Funding will also go to South Dakota’s SD 44 Platte-Winner Bridge Replacements project to link communities across the Missouri River, and to West Virginia’s West Kanawha County Bridge Bundle Project that includes the Dunbar Toll Bridge and the Kanawha Turnpike I-64 Overpass over the Kanawha River.
“The Trump Administration is investing in rural America again,” FHWA Administrator Sean McMaster said. “Funding for these projects will build and repair 119 bridges—saving time, money, and revitalizing key routes for the movement of commerce.”