Yahoo Finance Biden administration announces new infrastructure grants for America’s largest bridges
President Biden and his top lieutenants fanned out across the country Wednesday to visit bridges that are set to be repaired with new infrastructure money.
The president stopped Wednesday afternoon at the Brent Spence Bridge, which crosses the Ohio River connecting Kentucky and Ohio and had fallen on hard times in recent years. The event touting an infusion of repair money is also notable because Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) was also in attendance.
The focus from the White House and Senate GOP leadership on areas of bipartisan cooperation is a marked contrast to the chaos in the House of Representatives which, in its second day of GOP control, is still struggling to elect a Speaker.
"I wanted to start off the new year at this historic project here in Ohio and Kentucky with a bipartisan group of officials because I believe it sends an important message to the entire country: We can work together," Biden said Wednesday during his remarks.
"This bridge symbolizes the coming together of both sides," McConnell added during his remarks, saying he was proud to be there. In addition to the GOP leader, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), just-retired Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), and the governors of both Ohio and Kentucky also appeared with President Biden.
$40 billion for bridges
The 2021 infrastructure law puts aside $110 billion for roads and bridges over the coming years as part of the $550 billion in total new spending on issues like airports, rural broadband, ports, and other items.
This week's visits coincided with the announcement that approximately $2.1 billion of that money will be set aside for repairs in the “Large Bridge” program, which includes the Brent Spence Bridge and three others that the administration describes as some of America’s most economically significant spans.
On Wednesday, Vice President Kamala Harris visited four drawbridges in the South Side of Chicago near Illinois’s International Port, while Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg visited the Gold Star Memorial Bridge in New London, Conn.
White House Infrastructure Coordinator Mitch Landrieu and House Speaker emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) are scheduled on Thursday to visit one of the most famous bridges — the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
“The Biden-Harris Administration is proud to award this historic funding to modernize large bridges that are not only pillars of our economy, but also iconic symbols of their states’ past and future,” Buttigieg said in a statement.
Biden and other officials also lauded the economic importance of repairing the bridges for the businesses community — especially after a year of supply chain issues. Truck traffic on the Brent Spence Bridge carries "$2 billion of freight per day between Florida and Canada," Biden noted.
The bridge currently carries a daily load of truckers, commuters, and other vehicles that far exceeds the traffic it was designed to handle.
In total, the infrastructure law puts aside $40 billion for bridges with the Department of Transportation’s Bridge Formula Program for fiscal year 2023 (which began in November) set to spend $5.5 billion on repairs. That allotment matches FY2022 funding levels, but represents a 391% jump when compared with 2021 before the law went into effect.
Biden’s bridge focus
Biden has made several previous bridge visits during his time in office, including spans in Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, providing a visual reminder of the infrastructure money at work and the economic consequences if the disrepair had continued.
"I'm coming back to walk over this sucker," Biden promised recently during a visit to a collapsed bridge in Pennsylvania that was in the process of being rebuilt.
Our Administration is in the business of building bridges. pic.twitter.com/H40d6YPXau
— President Biden (@POTUS) January 4, 2023
A 2021 infrastructure report card from the American Society of Civil Engineers put a spotlight on the overall problem: Of the more than 617,000 bridges in the U.S., 46,154 of them — or 7.5% — are classified as structurally deficient. Nonetheless, these “structurally deficient” bridges are crossed 178 million times every day.
The question remains how much the current efforts will resolve the overall problem. Civil engineers estimate that $125 billion is needed for America's bridge repair backlog, underscoring that additional investment will likely be needed in the years ahead beyond the infrastructure law.
This post has been updated.
Ben Werschkul is a Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.
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