Crumbling Rhode Island Bridges Finally Getting Repaired

PROVIDENCE, RI — About 15,000 bridges in poor condition, including 148 in Rhode Island, are targeted for repair and improvement under a five-year, $27 billion program announced Friday by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The administration is releasing nearly $5.5 billion to states, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia and tribes this fiscal year to fund the program, which the administration said is “the single largest dedicated bridge investment” since the interstate highway system was authorized in the 1950s.

Rhode Island will receive a total of $47.1 million in the current fiscal year and $235.5 million over five years.

Some of the bridges in Rhode Island listed in poor condition include many highway overpasses in downtown Providence, all of which were built in the 1950s and 1960s.

The funds earmarked by the Transportation Department cover only about a third of the 45,000 bridges nationwide identified as in poor condition in the $1 trillion infrastructure plan President Joe Biden signed into law in November. It authorized nearly $40 billion for repairs and upgrades.

Nancy Singer, a spokeswoman from the Federal Highway Commission, told Patch the $27 billion is authorized under the dedicated Bridge Formula Program to replace or repair highway bridges. It is not the only pot of money available to states to fix bridges.

States receive the money according to a needs-based formula, and state transportation departments will decide how the money is used, whether for major highway bridges that are part of the federal highway system or bridges under local jurisdictions, Singer said.

The states are being notified how much they’ll receive over five years for planning purposes, the report said.

The funding in the infrastructure plan promised to reach almost every corner of the country with money earmarked for bridges, ports, rail transit, safe water, the power grid, broadband internet and other critical infrastructure.

The White House issued a fact sheet Friday detailing how the administration is distributing infrastructure funds 60 days after the plan was approved.