SC’s worst bridges to get $270M+ from infrastructure package. How the cash can be spent
The Biden administration plans to send South Carolina almost $55 million this year, out of more than $200 million over the next five years, to fix hundreds of the state’s worst bridges.
The money is coming from the $1.2 trillion federal infrastructure bill signed last year by President Joe Biden, and is carved out to help fix bridges in the state that are in poor condition, according to the Federal Highway Administration.
In South Carolina, the additional money will go toward accelerating the state Department of Transportation’s 10-year plan put in place after lawmakers passed a phased-in gas tax increase in 2017. The last 2-cent increase is scheduled for July of this year, bringing the gas tax to 28 cents per gallon.
“The Infrastructure, Investment and Jobs Act helps us build upon the momentum we have already going with roads and bridges in this state and can certainly help us close some gaps that we’ve had in the past,” said Justin Powell, state DOT’s deputy secretary for finance and administration.
The 10-year plan included fixing or replacing 465 closed, structurally deficient or load-restricted bridges. More than 215 bridges have been completed or under construction already from the 10-year plan.
“It’s an area we were already working on,” Powell said.
Among the projects the state’s DOT will be able to carry out with money from the state roads bill and federal infrastructure bill, are replacing the U.S. 76 bridge over U.S. 601 and the U.S. 601 bridge over Colonel’s Creek, both in Richland County, over the next two to three years.
The entire federal infrastructure package gives an additional $250 million a year for roads and bridges, on top of the $733 million in federal money the DOT already received a year.
A White House official said that the new money is the largest effort to fix bridges since the Interstate Highway System was built in 1956.
“Communities are impacted, businesses are impacted when bridges fall into poor condition, and lives are impacted from these delays and detours becoming a real cost,” a senior Biden administration official told reporters. “And now we have the resources that we can share with our states to address those costs by investing in our communities and their bridges.”
The money is designed primarily to fix bridges rather than build new ones, White House officials say, though it can be used to make bridges more accessible to bicyclists or pedestrians. The dollars also can be used on locally-owned bridges, with the federal government picking up all of the cost.
“This is not just a today, or next week, or next year investment,” said a senior administration official. “It’s really five years of funding that we know will be invested over many years.”
The president and members of Congress have hailed the infrastructure investment, passed by bipartisan coalition of lawmakers, as a badly needed source of funding to rebuild the country’s dilapidated physical infrastructure, after previous presidents and lawmakers had tried — and failed — for years to pass similar legislation.
In addition to bridges, the law is designed to rebuild roads, upgrade the electrical grid, expand broadband internet access and replace old water pipes, among other initiatives.
This story was originally published January 14, 2022 at 9:41 AM.
