California Construction News staff writer
The U.S. Department of Transportation will fund $400 million for a project to replace, retrofit and install critical structural elements on the Golden Gate Bridge to increase resiliency against earthquakes.
“Safe, modern bridges ensure that first responders can get to calls more quickly, shipments reach businesses on time, and drivers can get to where they need to go,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “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.”
The grant to the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District will fund improvements to the Golden Gate Bridge to ensure the structural integrity of a vital transportation link allowing for the movement of people and freight along the California Coast.
Structural retrofits are needed to ensure the Golden Gate Bridge can continue to carry critical freight and commuter traffic. The grant is part of historic investments to repair or rebuild ten of the most economically significant bridges in the country along with thousands of bridges across the country.
“These first Large Bridge grants will improve bridges that serve as vital connections for millions of Americans to jobs, education, health care and medical care and help move goods from our farms and factories,” said Deputy Transportation Secretary Polly Trottenberg. “And over the next four years we will be able to fund construction for the pipeline of shovel ready projects we are creating through Bridge Planning Grants.”
Large Bridge Project Grants under the Bridge Investment Program are available for bridges with total eligible project costs over $100 million, with minimum grant awards of $50 million, and maximum grant awards of 50 percent of the total eligible project costs. As part of the selection process for this first round of grants, priority consideration was given to projects ready to proceed to construction, as well as those that require pre-construction funding and would benefit from a multi-year grant agreement.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is the largest dedicated investment in highway bridges – nearly $40 billion over five years – since the construction of the Interstate highway system with nearly $2.4 billion available in Fiscal Year 2022 from the Bridge Investment Program which complements $5.3 billion announced earlier this year for states under the Bridge Formula program.
