The Biden administration on Friday launched a new effort to repair nearly 15,000 bridges across the United States using funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
The Bridge Replacement, Rehabilitation, Preservation, Protection, and Construction Program will provide $26.5 billion to state governments, including Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico over the next five years, with a separate $825 million for tribal governments in the same time frame.
State and regional governments will receive a total of $5.3 billion for bridge reconstruction and resilience in 2022; tribal governments will receive $165 million.
The funds will also come with an incentive for use in “off-system bridges” owned by local governments. While governments typically must match federal funding by up to 20% of the total, the funds from the Bridge Formula Program can be used for the entirety of the cost of repairing locally-owned bridges.
Administration officials defined “off-system bridges” as smaller bridges for smaller roads, which are not included in the federal highway system.
The funds represent “the single largest dedicated bridge investment since construction of the Interstate Highway System,” senior administration officials said.
“The Federal Highway Administration is encouraging the funding to be used toward improving the condition of existing bridges wherever possible,” officials added. “But when faced with the choice to build new bridges, we’re encouraging them to address equity, barriers to opportunity, challenges faced by individuals and underserved communities and rural areas and restoring community productivity.”
According to data from the Federal Highway Administration, there are 618,456 bridges across the United States. Of them, 45,023 bridges — or about 7.2% — are considered structurally deficient, and nearly 231,000 of them—more than a third—are in need of repair, according to a report from the American Society of Civil Engineers.
The ASCE bridge report, released as part of a 2021 Infrastructure Report Card, suggests that annual government spending to repair bridges should increase to $22.7 billion from $14.4 billion—figures taken from FHA’s 2019 Status of the Nation’s Highways, Bridges, and Transit report.
Friday marks 60 days since President Joe Biden signed the $1 trillion bill into law, which provides $550 billion over the next five years to fortify nearly every traditional aspect of U.S. Infrastructure—like roads, bridges and freeways—plus a few newer efforts, like increasing access to broadband and preparing for the effects of climate change.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is set to visit Philadelphia on Friday to discuss the “historic investments” made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure law.
“Modernizing America’s bridges will help improve safety, support economic growth, and make people’s lives better in every part of the country – across rural, suburban, urban, and tribal communities,” Buttigieg wrote in a release on Thursday.
