Washington, DC – Today, Rep. Lois Frankel (FL-21) released the following statement in response to President Biden and the Department of Transportation opening the application process for the new competitive Bridge Investment Program from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The program includes nearly $2.4 billion to help plan, replace, rehabilitate, protect, and preserve bridges in Fiscal Year 2022.

“Bridges are connectors. They link us to jobs, doctors’ appointments, and educational opportunities,” said Rep. Frankel. “State and local governments can now apply for new federal funding to make sure the bridges we rely on are safe and functional, while creating good-paying union jobs.”

The funding application can be found here.

Florida currently has 408 bridges in poor condition, per the Department of Transportation. Broken bridges can be dangerous, inconvenient, and cause economic harm, like the George Bush Boulevard Bridge in Delray Beach that was stuck open for two months.

The program will provide $12.5 billion over five years to fund both large and smaller bridge projects. This competitive grant program comes on top of more than $27 billion in direct funding to the state that the U.S. Department of Transportation announced earlier this year.

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