LaHood introduces bipartisan bill to invest $20B in nation’s failing bridges

U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood (R-IL) on Feb. 3 offered the bipartisan Bridge Investment Act of 2020, which would establish a $20 billion competitive grant program to repair, improve, rehabilitate, or replace almost 50,000 of America’s bridges.

“Investing in our local infrastructure is critical to growing our economy, and our bipartisan bill does just that,” Rep. LaHood said. “I am proud to join my colleagues in introducing this legislation to ensure our bridge infrastructure gets much-needed funding for repairs and upgrades.”

Rep. LaHood is an original cosponsor of H.R. 5745 with bill sponsor U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) to specifically invest $20 billion over five years in bridge repairs that would be leveraged by state and local contributions, resulting in up to $40 billion of projects, according to a bill summary provided by Rep. LaHood’s office.

If enacted, the bill also would authorize the new competitive grant program to rehabilitate, improve or replace all sizes of bridges, including local and rural bridges located off the National Highway System, according to the summary.

“Illinois ranks number four in the nation for the most structurally deficient bridges and Illinois’ 18th District has over 400 structurally deficient bridges,” said Rep. LaHood.

H.R. 5745 also would supplement new federal formula funding in an infrastructure package with the $20 billion to address the bridge repair backlog; establish a standardized evaluation process for proposed projects; streamline repairs of medium and small projects by bundling them into a single application; and permit large projects to receive multi-year grant agreements, among other provisions.

“Together, we will reinvest billions into repairing bridges and create good-paying, meaningful jobs across America,” said Rep. Maloney.

The legislation is supported by the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the International Union of Operating Engineers, the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, and the Associated General Contractors of America.

Bipartisan companion legislation was included in the America’s Transportation Infrastructure Act of 2019, S. 2302, which the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved in July 2019.