Ohio gets $520 million in bridge funding from feds over 5 years

The American Society of Civil Engineers’ annual infrastructure report card gave Ohio a C+ in 2021 for the situation of its 44,736 bridges — the second-most bridges in any state, behind solely Texas.

The group mentioned 58% of Ohio’s bridges have been in good situation, 36% have been in passable or honest situation and 6% have been in poor situation. Of these 2,843 bridges listed in poor situation, 2,250, nearly 80%, are owned by a county or native authorities.

General, the federal infrastructure laws means $520 million in further bridge funding for Ohio over the subsequent 5 years, and DeWine’s transfer allocates $237.5 million of that for domestically maintained bridges, about triple the quantity the federal legislation requires.

“Lots of the costly repairs wanted on small, locally-owned bridges price far past what our communities can afford, which is why I’ve directed ODOT to dedicate extra money to help native bridge initiatives,” mentioned Governor DeWine. “By partnering collectively to make sure the mandatory enhancements are made, these driving over Ohio’s bridges can really feel assured that they’re protected.”

DeWine additionally introduced that small locally-owned bridges shall be eligible to use for funding as a part of ODOT’s Native Main Bridge Program, bringing the entire variety of eligible bridges from 54 to 238. This system pays for as much as 80 p.c of the development and engineering prices for main bridge initiatives, with a cap of $20 million.

County Engineers will proceed to use for state funding by means of devoted applications managed by the County Engineers Affiliation of Ohio. Native governments can apply for ODOT funding by means of the ODOT Workplace of Native Packages web site.

Ohio officers mentioned the entire state funding for bridges, of any kind, from any funding supply, is $407.5 million per 12 months.