Bridges in Yellowstone and Denali parks are among dozens getting federally funded upgrades
FILE - An agricultural airplane flies near the Highway 49 bridge over the Mississippi River near Helena, Ark., on June 10, 2004. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston, File)
Federal highway officials on Thursday announced $635 million to repair or replace numerous old and outdated bridges ranging from Alaska to Maine, including a couple located in popular national parks.
The grants for more than 70 small- and medium-size bridges in 19 states mark the latest infusion from a $1.2 trillion infrastructure law signed by President Joe Biden in 2021. The measure directed $40 billion to 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 rapidly deteriorate, and none are able to allow extra-tall vehicles to pass underneath them, the Federal Highway Administration said.
In Alaska, more than $13 million will help replace the Ghiglione Bridge in Denali National Park and Preserve. The existing bridge isn’t built to current earthquake standards, and it’s located not far from where a long-troublesome landslide, worsened by climate change, has forced park officials to restrict public access to the road.
In Wyoming, $23 million will help repair an 85-year-old, 200-foot-high bridge that carries vehicles — and, sometimes, herds of buffalo — over the Gardner River in Yellowstone National Park. Without preservation, the bridge could have to close within five years, the Federal Highway Administration said. The rehabilitation efforts should extend its lifespan by about 30 years, Wyoming’s congressional delegation said in a letter last year urging federal officials to approve the project.
The latest grants come after Biden’s administration announced $5 billion for large bridge projects in July.
That’s still well shy of the $400 billion that 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, about four-fifths of which have problems with the substructures that hold them up or the superstructures that support their load, according to an Associated Press analysis of the most recent federal data. The AP earlier this year identified more than 15,000 poor bridges that also were listed in poor shape a decade ago.
One bridge currently rated in poor shape is the nearly milelong U.S. 49 structure over the Mississippi River, which carries traffic between Helena, Arkansas, and Lula, Mississippi. A nearly $44 million grant will help extend its life by a couple of decades while transportation officials plan for a new bridge better designed for the area’s earthquake risk.
Other poor bridges getting grant funding include a century-old Nicollet Avenue bridge in Minneapolis and a Trenton, New Jersey, bridge 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.