![]() Up to $26.5 billion in federal funding is being made available for bridge construction and upgrade projects across the country. The U.S. Department of Transportation has announced the launching of the new Bridge Replacement, Rehabilitation, Preservation, Protection, and Construction Program which will make available funding for the next 5 years. The program also includes $165 million for bridge projects located specifically on Tribal lands. Altogether, the funding is the largest federal investment in bridge construction since the passage of the Federal Highway Act of 1956. In announcing the funding, Stephanie Pollack, deputy administrator with the Federal Highway Administration, noted that “every state has bridges in poor condition and in need of repair, including bridges with weight restrictions that may force lengthy detours for travelers, school buses, first responders, or trucks carrying freight.” Pollack added that the funding, authorized through the recently passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, will particularly help to “modernize bridges to withstand the effects of climate change and to make them safer for all users, including cyclists and pedestrians.” The funding program will be managed under the auspices of the Federal Highway Administration, and will require states and localities to come up with 20% of the funding for any given project. It is thought that easily up to 15,000 highway bridge structures, out of a national total of 231,000 bridges, are in need of repair and upgrading. In some cases, say federal transportation officials, the bridges have so declined as to make it imperative to outright replace them. A report issued last year by the American Society of Civil Engineers noted that 42% of all of the nation’s bridges are at least 50 years old. The report additionally noted that more than 5% of all bridges in Colorado and New Mexico are regarded as “structurally deficient.” The worst numbers were reported in Rhode Island, where 22% of all bridges in in bad shape, and West Virginia, with 21.%. Arizona, Nevada, and Texas all scored before 2%. By Garry Boulard
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