U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) recently met with community and business leaders in Cincinnati to discuss the Bridge Investment Act.
Brown introduced the bill in January. It would establish a competitive grant program for the repair, rehabilitation, improvement or replacement of bridges to improve their efficiency, reliability or safety.
The bill also would bundle medium and small projects into a single application to cut down on red tape and create an evaluation process for proposed projects. Additionally, the bill could eliminate the national bridge repair backlog if added to a bipartisan infrastructure package.
There is a $123 billion nationwide bridge repair backlog, according to U.S. Department of Transportation estimates. Ohio is currently in need of more than $27 billion of repairs.
“It’s a disgrace that we have allowed the transportation system our parents and grandparents left us to fall into disrepair,” Brown said. “But this problem is also an opportunity we need to seize, to put Ohioans to work across our state.”
In Ohio, approximately 4,700 bridges are classified as functionally obsolete, and 1,650 are classified as structurally deficient.
The bill, cosponsored by Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Ron Wyden (D-OR), is currently under consideration in the Committee on Environment and Public Works.