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By David A. Lieb

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Federal highway officials announced $635 million Thursday to repair or replace numerous old and outdated bridges from Alaska to Maine, including a few in popular national parks.

The grants to more than 70 small and medium-sized bridges in 19 states are the latest injection of a $1.2 trillion infrastructure law signed by President Joe Biden in 2021. The measure dedicated $40 billion dollars to bridges over five years, the largest investment dedicated to bridges. in decades.

Maine will receive the most money from the latest grants — nearly $133 million for a dozen bridges along Interstate 95 and Interstate 395. At least one of the bridges over I-95 is in poor condition, the others are at risk of rapid deterioration, and none are capable of allowing very tall vehicles to pass beneath them, the Federal Highway Administration said.

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In Alaska, more than $13 million will help replace the Ghiglione Bridge in Denali National Park and Preserve. The existing bridge is not built to current seismic standards and is located near a location where a long-standing landslide, made worse by climate change, has forced park officials to restrict access to the public on the road.

In Wyoming, $23 million will help repair an 85-year-old, 200-foot-high bridge that carries vehicles — and sometimes herds of buffalo — over the Gardner River in Yellowstone National Park. Without preservation, the bridge could have to close within five years, the Federal Highway Administration said. Rehabilitation efforts are expected to extend its lifespan by about 30 years, Wyoming’s congressional delegation said last year in a letter urging federal officials to approve the project.

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The latest grants come after the Biden administration announced $5 billion for major bridge projects in July.

That’s still well below the $400 billion the American Road & Transportation Builders Association estimates it would cost to make all the necessary repairs to bridges nationwide.

About 42,000 U.S. bridges are in poor condition, about four-fifths of which have problems with the substructures that support them or the superstructures that carry their load, according to an Associated Press analysis of the most recent federal data. The AP earlier this year identified more than 15,000 bridges in poor condition that were also listed in poor condition a decade ago.

One of the bridges currently rated in poor condition is the nearly mile-long US 49 structure over the Mississippi River, which carries traffic between Helena, Arkansas, and Lula, Mississippi. A nearly $44 million grant will help extend its lifespan by a few decades, while transportation officials plan to build a new bridge better designed for the region’s seismic risk.

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Other poor bridges receiving subsidy include a century-old Nicollet Avenue bridge in Minneapolis and a bridge in Trenton, New Jersey, that carries vehicles on an Amtrak rail line.

Some grants will fund groups of bridges, such as more than $67 million awarded to replace 13 bridges in central Mississippi and nearly $40 million for nine bridges in Kansas City, Missouri.

Other grants will fund transition projects in Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Texas.

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Associated Press data journalist Christopher L. Keller contributed to this report.

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