New Jersey announced it awarded a total of $44 million in grants to help counties maintain local bridges recently.
The 33 grants are part of the Local Bridges Fund grant and will be used to fund improvements for bridges in each of the state’s 21 counties.
“Keeping our infrastructure in a state of good repair is critical to the safety, reliability and capability of our transportation system,” NJDOT Commissioner Priya Jain said. “The NJDOT’s Local Bridge Fund supports the Department’s state of good repair goal, by providing counties with the resources needed to make critical bridge improvements. These investments are just one example of the Sherrill Administration’s commitment to bolstering our transportation network and its daily users.”
The Local Bridges Fund comes from the New Jersey Transportation Trust Fund (TTF). As part of the project, each county receives $1 million, with additional funding allotted based on a formula that considers the total bridge deck area in that county and the amount of deck area in the county that needs repair.
Officials said the grants focus on repair, reconstruction and replacement of bridges and prioritizes bridges in the greatest need of work. Since its creation in 2009, 637 bridges have been improved using the grant money.
Recipients included Egg Harbor in Atlantic County which will received $2.2 million to replace the Bungalow Park Bridge on Egg Harbor-Green Bank Road; Mannington Township in Salem County which will receive $1.1 million for the Mannington Creek Bridge; and Manalapan Township in Monmouth County which will receive $3 million to replace Bridge MN-45.
Grants are administered by the New Jersey Department of Transportation’s Division of Local Aid and Economic Development and are evaluated by the Division of Bridge Engineering and Infrastructure Management.