Up to $40 billion in funding is expected to be made available through the Federal Highway Administration for the repair and rebuilding of some of the nation’s largest bridges.
“Safe, modern bridges ensure that first responders can get to calls more quickly, shipments reach businesses on time, and drivers can get to where they need to go,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in announcing the funding.
Early efforts are seeing $1.3 billion going to the rehabilitation of the Brent Space Bridge in Kentucky, which crosses the Ohio River; $400 million for structural elements work on the famous Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco; $158 million to rehabilitate the Gold Star Memorial Bridge that crosses the Thames River in Connecticut; and $144 million for the upgrading of four separate bridges on the southside of Chicago.
The funding is more specifically coming through the Department of Transportation’s Large Bridge Project Grants program. That program is available for any bridge project with a total price tag of $100 million or more, with minimum grant awards set at $50 million.
A separate program provided funding for bridge planning projects has seen $421,000 awarded to Maricopa County in Arizona for the planning of a new bridge over the Gila River; and $750,000 to the City of Colorado Springs for planning and environmental studies related to a bridge over Monument Creek and the Pikes Peak Greenway Trail bridge.
Regarding the funding of the larger bridge projects, Buttigieg added that such structures are “not only pillars of our economy, but also iconic symbols of their states’ past and future.”
By Garry Boulard
