These aging bridges will be updated, replaced with the help of $5 billion in federal funding
Dozens of aging bridges across the United States are about to get a face-lift.
President Joe Biden’s administration announced on Wednesday that $5 billion in federal grants will go toward replacing or improving bridges in 16 states.
The projects range from coast to coast, with the largest providing an additional $1.4 billion to help replace two vertical lift bridges over the Columbia River that carry Interstate 5 traffic between Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington. The bridges, which also received $600 million in December, are "the worst trucking bottleneck" in the region, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said.
The new bridges will be seismically resilient and multimodal, with room for vehicles, pedestrians, bicycles and transit.
FILE - An aerial view of the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge (right) over the Cape Fear River and the downtown area (left) on Feb. 26, 2016 in Wilmington, North Carolina. (Lance King/Getty Images)
Which bridges are getting replaced/upgraded?
The grants come from a $1.2 trillion infrastructure law signed by Biden in 2021 that directed $40 billion to bridges over five years — the largest dedicated bridge investment in decades.
About 42,400 bridges are in poor condition nationwide, yet they carry about 167 million vehicles each day, according to the federal government. Four-fifths of those bridges have problems with the substructures that hold them up or the superstructures that support their load. And more than 15,800 of the poor bridges also were listed in poor shape a decade ago, according to an Associated Press analysis.
The nation's poor bridges are on average 70 years old.
"These bridges affect whole regions and ultimately impact the entire U.S. economy," Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said. "Their condition means they need major urgent investment to help keep people safe and to keep our supply chains running smoothly."
The Associated Press contributed to this report. This story was reported from Los Angeles.