WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Monday announced $5.4 billion available for major bridge projects in a funding program that Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says will be relieved of Biden-era approval requirements.
The new funding opportunity, administered by the Federal Highway Administration, includes $4.9 billion for major bridge projects through FHWA’s Bridge Investment Program and up to $500 million to repair or replace bridges in rural areas through the agency’s Competitive Highway Bridge Program.
The money will help improve approximately 42,000 bridges across the country “that are in dire need of repair,” according to the administration.
“The previous administration handcuffed critical infrastructure funding requirements to woke DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] and Green New Scam initiatives that diverted resources from the Department’s core mission,” Duffy said in a press release announcing the funding. “Under the Trump Administration, America is building again.”
Applicants – which include state and local governments and metropolitan planning organizations – will no longer have to explain how a project will consider climate change and environmental justice in the planning stage and in project delivery.
Under the Biden administration, applicants had to show, for example, how the project would reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector and the extent to which the project avoided adverse environmental impacts to air or water quality and to endangered species. They were also expected to address negative impacts on disadvantaged communities.
In addition, under the previous administration’s DEI and workforce requirements, applicants had to include an equity assessment evaluating whether a project “would create proportional impacts and remove transportation related disparities to all populations in a project area,” the U.S. Department of Transportation noted.
Applications for the Bridge Investment Program must be submitted by Aug. 1.
Those eligible for the $500 million in rural bridge grants under the Competitive Highway Bridge Program include the state departments of transportation for Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
Applications for that program must be submitted by Aug. 4.
