The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) recently announced the first round of grants from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s competitive Bridge Investment Program. These early planning grants, going to 23 projects in 23 states, will help fund early phases of project development to create a pipeline of bridge construction projects, one of many ways in which the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will help build, repair, and replace tens of thousands of bridges in communities across the country.
In total, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s Bridge Investment Program will make the single largest dedicated investment in bridges – $12.5 billion over five years, with nearly $2.4 billion available in Fiscal Year 2022 – since the construction of the Interstate highway system.
Planning grants under the Bridge Investment Program are available for projects in the early phases of project development, where eligible activities include planning, feasibility analysis, and revenue forecasting. By providing planning grants in addition to construction grants, US DOT can aid in the development stage of a project – whether owned by a state, a city, or a local community – that could then later be eligible to apply for a construction grant through a range of competitive grant programs where bridge projects are eligible, including the Bridge Investment Program, MEGA, INFRA, and RURAL, based on criteria outlined in the Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO).
FY 2022 Bridge Planning Grant Recipients
| Grant Recipient | State | Project Description | Grant Award |
| Kodiak Island Borough | AK | The Kodiak Island Borough in Alaska will receive $1.28 million for the Kodiak Sargent Creek and Russian River Bridges Planning Study and other activities necessary to replace two bridges in this rural area. | $1,288,000 |
| Maricopa County | AZ | Maricopa County in Arizona will receive $421,600 to plan for a new bridge over the Gila River and preserve the historic integrity of the current bridge for pedestrian and bike use. The new bridge will become the first component of a planned 39-mile long regional high-capacity roadway called the Hidden Waters. | $421,600 |
| Tehama County | CA | Tehama County in California will receive $320,000 for a feasibility study to determine if the Woodson Bridge over the Sacramento River in Tehama County can be rehabilitated or if a new bridge must be constructed. The project will include life cycle cost analysis for both alternatives. | $320,000 |
| City of Colorado Springs | CO | City of Colorado Springs in Colorado will receive $750,000 for a planning and environmental linkages study for two bridges on Fillmore Street over Monument Creek and Pikes Peak Greenway Trail and Union Pacific Railroad. | $750,000 |
| Connecticut DOT | CT | The Connecticut Department of Transportation will receive $1 million for a study to develop and examine preliminary alternatives for replacing the I-95 bridge near exits 7-9 through the City of Stamford. | $1,000,000 |
| Athens-Clarke County | GA | Athens-Clarke County in Georgia will receive $772,000 for a planning and feasibility study to rehabilitate six bridges within the county. | $772,000 |
| City of Iowa City | IA | The City of Iowa City will receive $300,000 to plan for bridge improvements over the Iowa River in downtown Iowa City. The plan would replace two existing bridges on Burlington Street and State Highway 1 with a single structure. | $300,000 |
| Gallatin County | IL | Gallatin County in Illinois will receive $48,000 for a planning study to replace the Peabody Road Bridge over the Saline River in Bowlesville Township in Gallatin County. | $48,000 |
| Lafourche Parish | LA | Lafourche Parish in Louisiana will receive $60,000 for planning, feasibility analysis, and revenue forecasting for development of a plan to replace a bridge (Old LA182) over Lafourche Bayou in Lafourche Parish. | $60,000 |
| Prince Georges County | MD | Prince Georges County in Maryland will receive $560,000 for a planning project to evaluate replacement of two bridges in poor condition: the Cherry Hill Road Bridge over Little Paint Branch and Campus Drive Bridge over Northeast Branch. The replacement project would bundle the bridges in a future construction project. | $560,000 |
| City of Excelsior | MN | The City of Excelsior in partnership with the City of Greenwood in Minnesota will receive $269,600 to plan for improvements to the Minnetonka Boulevard Bridge over St. Alban’s Bay of Lake Minnetonka. | $269,600 |
| Flathead County | MT | Flathead County in Montana will receive $240,000 for initial planning activities for 4 county bridges, including Dry Creek Bridge, Swift Creek Bridge, Baker Avenue Bridge, and Whitefish Stage Bridge. | $240,000 |
| City of Bellevue | NE | The City of Bellevue, Nebraska, will receive $440,000 for a Planning and Environment Linkage (PEL) Study of Fort Crook Road Bridge over Papillion Creek, Keystone Trail, Offutt Airforce Base (Offutt) levee system, and the Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) mainline track. | $440,000 |
| Cape May County Bridge Commission | NJ | The Cape May County Bridge Commission will receive $1.98 million to determine preliminary preferred alternatives to replace 4 bridges (Townsend Inlet, Corson’s Inlet, Grassy Sound, and Great Channel). Two would be bundled into one large project and the remaining two would be advanced as individual bridge projects. | $1,980,000 |
| City of New York | NY | The City of New York will receive $1.6 million for planning and development of a 30-year capital construction program for four iconic East River Bridges: Brooklyn Bridge, Manhattan Bridge, Williamsburg Bridge and Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge. | $1,600,000 |
| Oklahoma DOT | OK | The Oklahoma Department of Transportation will receive $957,300 for planning activities to support the bridge improvement of the Roosevelt Memorial Bridge (US-70) over Lake Texoma in Bryan and Marshall Counties. | $957,300 |
| Oregon DOT | OR | The Oregon Department of Transportation will receive $1 million for the Hayden Island Ground Improvement Study for seismic analysis to support future project preliminary engineering work to replace the Interstate 5 Bridge over the Columbia River between Oregon and Washington State. | $1,000,000 |
| City of Philadelphia | PA | The City of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania will receive $1.56 million for a planning and feasibility study to rehabilitate 18 bridges located over electrified rail lines primarily operated by Amtrak and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority (SEPTA). | $1,560,000 |
| South Carolina DOT | SC | The South Carolina Department of Transportation will receive $720,000 to determine how to replace 12 rural bridges over the Great Pee Dee River floodplain, including various creeks and swamps, located in the northeast corner of South Carolina. | $720,000 |
| Hickman County | TN | Hickman County, Tennessee, will receive $120,000 for a county wide planning program to perform feasibility analysis of 213 bridges throughout the county and determine which would be most in need of work. | $120,000 |
| City of Waco | TX | The City of Waco, Texas, will receive $800,000 to model and develop alternatives for channel and bridge crossings for seven flood prone bridges over Primrose Creek in the City of Waco. | $800,000 |
| Utah DOT | UT | The Utah Department of Transportation will receive $800,000 for a feasibility study to inspect and identify treatment needs for 40 bridges along a 31-mile stretch of I-84 in rural Utah. | $800,000 |
| City of Seattle | WA | The City of Seattle will receive $2.4 million to plan for the replacement of the 4th Street Bridge over the Argo Railyard in the City of Seattle, following a previous seismic retrofit that identified costs were such that replacement was the best option. | $2,400,000 |
| Total | $18,406,500 |
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provides a total of $20 million in FY 2022 funding for Bridge Planning grants. FHWA will reserve the remaining $1.6 million to award to projects identified under the upcoming Large Bridge Project grant awards that may be better suited for a planning grant than a construction grant.
For more information on the Bridge Investment Program, please visit https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/bridge/bip/.
