Biden administration lays groundwork for future bridge projects

The Biden administration is continuing to build on its efforts to improve the country’s bridges, with the announcement this week of $26 million in planning grants for projects in 18 states.

“The planning grants announced today will help states and communities prepare critical bridge projects for restoration or replacement before they fall into a state of disrepair,” said Federal Highway Administrator Shailen Bhatt in a statement.

The planning money is a fraction of the $5 billion in construction grants that the Federal Highway Administration awarded last month, but Bhatt said the planning grants create a pipeline for future projects funded through the 2021 federal infrastructure law. In fact, one of the biggest projects that obtained money last month—a bridge over the Columbia River in Portland, Oregon—received a federal planning grant first.

“While the $5 billion for bridge construction obviously gets people excited, this is the critical work needed to get bridges ready to go and be eligible for construction dollars,” Bhatt said.

The awards also come as the Biden administration enters its last few months. President Joe Biden announced less than three weeks ago that he would not seek reelection, which means that either Democrat Kamala Harris or Republican Donald Trump will oversee the last few years of the infrastructure law’s roll out.

In an interview, Bhatt told Route Fifty that the rapidly changing political circumstances have not affected the FHWA’s timeline for awarding grants.

“Not at all,” he said. “Obviously, we want to get out as much as possible. But between the notices of funding opportunities and the careful review for legal sufficiency for all the applications, there’s a steady pace and a cadence. There’s some stuff we’ll get done before November. There’s some stuff that will get done after November, and, God willing, there’ll be stuff that gets done post January.”

Bhatt also said he is not worried about the possibility of the next administration revoking grants awarded under Biden’s watch. “There are laws that govern the transition we’re undergoing,” he said. “Specifically with these grants, these are going to state DOTs that have a pretty strong muscle memory around delivering these projects. We’ll get the announcements made. We’ll get the grant agreements signed. And then we’ll rely on the state DOTs to deliver these projects.”

The planning grants for bridge work will fund work on 28 projects.

Alaska will receive $1.9 million to address concerns with four bridges over the Koyukuk River that carry the Dalton Highway, a road that travels along the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and leads to the remote North Slope region of the state. The bridges face a heightened risk of flooding because of climate change, which has also undermined other parts of the highway in recent years.

The FHWA also committed $2 million to study how to rehabilitate nine bridges along the Buffalo Bayou in Houston, the flood-prone waterway through the heart of the city. Another $1.7 million grant would improve rural crossings along Interstate 85 in Georgia and South Carolina.

The Houston grants will help mitigate the effects of hurricanes when they strike, while upgraded bridges in South Carolina will help the region as it transitions from an economy dominated by textile mills to one fueled by automotive manufacturing, Bhatt said. “Their bridges can’t take the trucks that are needed to shift to those goods,” he said, “so that’s a huge economic impact.”

Other notable projects that will receive assistance include two separate grants for bridges in Oklahoma City totaling $2.2 million, $1.7 million for Hillsborough County in Florida and $2.3 million to study seven high-priority bridges in Minnesota.

The grants will help transportation agencies study alternatives, conduct environmental reviews, secure permitting and other work needed before construction can begin on the bridge projects. That type of preparation is common for road projects, but it can be more complex for bridges because they can involve federal agencies like the Coast Guard or private entities such as railroads along the same right-of-way, Bhatt said.

The successful applicants will get the federal government to cover 80% of the cost of those planning activities. “These are critical dollars for states to help advance projects that they don’t have to then provide on their own. They can just match them at 20%,” Bhatt said.

Bhatt said money from the $1.2 trillion infrastructure law has been used to fund work on 10,200 bridges across the country so far, either through money automatically distributed to states through formulas or through competitive grant programs like the ones announced this week.

The Biden administration credits the bipartisan law with helping to reduce the number of bridges in poor condition since Biden took office from about 46,100 to roughly 42,400.

“We’re really excited to drive that number down,” Bhatt said. “These announcements support the planning needs for about 305 bridges. We’re not going to knock out all 42,000 in one fell swoop, but we’re getting big chunks.”