Posted on January 29, 2024
President Biden announced $5 billion in funding for major transportation projects during a visit Thursday to Superior, Wisconsin — part of an effort to tout his administration’s investments in long-overdue infrastructure projects.
Why it matters: With an all-but-certain rematch between Biden and former President Trump in the November election, the president is eager to demonstrate his commitment to fixing America’s crumbling roads and bridges — something that Trump promised but didn’t deliver.
- The infrastructure funding law, passed in November 2021, is one of Biden’s signature accomplishments, along with the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act.
Driving the news: The largest project is a $1 billion effort to replace the Blatnik Bridge, a major connection between Superior, Wisconsin, and Duluth, Minnesota.
- The current bridge is weight-restricted and can’t carry heavy trucks, forcing drivers to take lengthy detours.
- The replacement bridge will increase capacity and create a new shared-use path for pedestrians and bicyclists.
Other major funding that was announced includes:
- $600 million to replace the I-5 Bridge between Vancouver, Washington, and Portland, Oregon, with an earthquake-resistant, multimodal bridge.
- $427 million to establish the first offshore wind terminal on the West Coast, off California.
- $372 million to replace Cape Cod’s nearly 90-year-old Sagamore Bridge.
- $300 million for a new container terminal for the Port of New Orleans.
- $95 million to widen a 10-mile section of I-10 through the Gila River Indian Community and Pinal County in Arizona.
- $142 million to fix the I-376 corridor in Pittsburgh, including an area infamously known as “the bathtub” due to its regular flooding.
- $150 million to reconnect communities divided by the Cross Bronx Expressway in New York when it was built in the mid-1900s.
By the numbers: To date, the Biden administration has announced more than $400 billion in infrastructure law funding for more than 40,000 projects.
Flashback: “Instead of infrastructure week, we’re going to have an infrastructure decade,” Biden said when he visited the Blatnik Bridge two years ago to promote passage of the law.
