After years of wrangling, the Department of Transportation has funds to improve some of the nation’s most important bridges. On Wednesday, the Biden administration announced it will allocate $2.1 billion to improve bridges in four locales.
President Joe Biden is visiting Kentucky on Wednesday to make the announcement. He will stand near the entrance to the Brent Spence Bridge, which connects northern Kentucky to Cincinnati. The bridge carries $400 billion in cargo a year, the administration projects.
It is also prone to bottlenecks as two major interstates merge traffic onto the bridge.
The federal government is expected to spend nearly $1.4 billion to expand the bridge.
The administration also plans to allocate $400 million to replace, retrofit and install critical structural elements on California’s Golden Gate Bridge.
Funds will also be used to rehabilitate the Gold Star Memorial Bridge in Connecticut and four different bridges in Chicago.
"Safe, modern bridges ensure that first responders can get to calls more quickly, shipments reach businesses on time, and drivers can get to where they need to go,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “The Biden-Harris Administration is proud to award this historic funding to modernize large bridges that are not only pillars of our economy, but also iconic symbols of their states’ past and future.”