Federal highway officials on Thursday announced $635 million to repair or replace scores of old and aging bridges ranging from Alaska to Maine, including some in popular national parks.
The grants for more than 70 small and medium-sized bridges in 19 states mark the latest infusion of… a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill signed by President Joe Biden in 2021. The measure spent $40 billion on bridges over five years, the largest dedicated bridge investment in decades.
Maine will receive the most money from the latest grants: nearly $133 million for a dozen bridges along Interstate 95 and Interstate 395. At least one of the bridges over I-95 is in poor condition, the rest are likely to deteriorate rapidly, and none can allow extra-tall vehicles to pass underneath, according to the Federal Highway Administration.
In Alaska, more than $13 million will help replace the Ghiglione Bridge in Denali National Park and Preserve. The existing bridge was not built to current earthquake standards and is not far away a long, difficult landslideexacerbated by climate change, has forced park officials to limit public access to the road.
In Wyoming, $23 million will help repair an 85-year-old, 200-foot bridge that carries vehicles — and sometimes herds of buffalo — across the Gardner River in Yellowstone National Park. Without preservation, the bridge would have to close within five years, according to the Federal Highway Administration. The rehabilitation efforts should extend its life by about 30 years, Wyoming’s congressional delegation said in a letter last year urging federal officials to approve the project.
The latest subsidies come after the Biden administration announced $5 billion for major bridge projects in July.
That’s still a far cry from the $400 billion generated by the American Road & Transportation Builders Association estimates it would cost to make all the needed bridge repairs nationwide.
About 42,000 U.S. bridges are in poor condition, with about four-fifths having problems with the substructure that holds them up or the superstructure that supports their loads, according to an Associated Press analysis of the latest federal data. The AP earlier this year identified more than 15,000 poor bridges that were also listed in poor condition a decade ago.
One bridge currently in poor condition is the nearly mile-long US 49 structure over the Mississippi River, which carries traffic between Helena, Arkansas, and Lula, Mississippi. A grant of nearly $44 million will extend its life by a few decades, while transportation officials plan for a new bridge better designed for the area’s earthquake risk.
Other poor bridges receiving subsidies include a century-old Nicollet Avenue bridge in Minneapolis and a bridge in Trenton, New Jersey, that carries vehicles over an Amtrak rail line.
Some grants will fund groups of bridges, such as more than $67 million awarded to replace 13 bridges in central Mississippi and nearly $40 million for nine bridges in Kansas City, Missouri.
Other grants will fund bridge projects in Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Texas.
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Associated Press data journalist Christopher L. Keller contributed to this report.