Dive Brief:

• The U.S. Department of Transportation announced Wednesday the city of Chicago and transportation entities in California, Connecticut and Kentucky will each receive over $100 million in federal funds to make major bridge improvements.
• The four projects will be covered through the first tranche of funding for large bridge projects through the bipartisan infrastructure law that passed in 2021. The four awards total $2.1 billion through fiscal 2022 funding.   
• The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet received the largest amount: $1.3 billion to rehabilitate and reconfigure the existing Brent Spence Bridge that crosses over the Ohio River, connecting the state to Ohio. 

Dive Insight:

Cities, states and transportation departments have competed for a historically large influx of funding through the bipartisan infrastructure law over the past year. That includes new funding for road and bridge projects, street safety, rail and electric vehicle charging infrastructure, among other infrastructure needs. DOT awarded $1.5 billion in funding in December for transportation projects that improve safety and equity or have significant local or regional impact and are historically hard to fund through the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity discretionary grant program, known as RAISE. 

President Joe Biden, with several Republican and Democratic leaders, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, announced the first round of large bridge grants through the infrastructure law’s Bridge Investment Program during a visit to the bridge in Covington, Kentucky, on Wednesday.

The funding is part of the nearly $40 billion that will be distributed over five years to help repair or rebuild thousands of bridges throughout the country, DOT said Wednesday. It is considered the largest dedicated investment in highway bridges since the construction of the interstate highway system, the agency stated. The Federal Highway Administration had previously announced nearly $11 billion in Bridge Formula Program allocations through the infrastructure law in fiscal years 2022 and 2023. 

The four projects will address safety issues for drivers who cross those bridges and delays in the movement of freight, the agency stated. The funding will “modernize large bridges that are not only pillars of our economy, but also iconic symbols of their states’ past and future,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in a press release. 

Other recipients of large bridge grants include:

• $400 million to the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District in California, to replace, retrofit and install structural elements on the Golden Gate Bridge that are needed to increase resiliency against earthquakes. 
• $158 million to the Connecticut Department of Transportation to rehabilitate the northbound structure of the Gold Star Memorial Bridge, crossing I-95 over the Thames River in the state. 
• $144 million to the city of Chicago to rehabilitate four bridges over the Calumet River in the southside of the city.