Harris to announce $300M in funds for nine bridge projects, including one in DC

The Biden administration on Thursday announced nearly $300 million in funding for nine different bridge projects around the country, including one in Washington, D.C., that connects the District with Virginia.

Vice President Harris will announce the grants during an event at the Arland D. Williams Jr. Memorial Bridge, which spans the Potomac River and connects Washington, D.C., with Arlington, Va.

Other bridges that will benefit from Thursday’s announcement include the Palm Avenue/Interstate 805 Bridge in San Diego, Calif.; the Lafayette Bascule Bridge in Michigan; the Castleton-on-Hudson Bridge in Albany County, N.Y.; the Burgard Bridge in Portland, Ore.; the John Nolen Drive Bridges in Madison, Wis.; the US-59 San Antonio River Bridge in Texas; and multiple rural bridges in South Carolina and Oklahoma.

Combined, the bridges serve more than 230,000 vehicles each day.

The funds are being made available through the bipartisan infrastructure law that President Biden signed in 2021.

“When bridges have to close for repairs—or worse, begin to fail—it can cut off access to an entire community, adding hours to commutes, costing money for local businesses, and delaying first responders from getting to an emergency,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “The grant awards we’re announcing today are helping communities of all sizes modernize their bridges so that school buses, delivery trucks, ambulances, and commuters can get where they need to go quickly and safely.”

The bridge funding announcement caps off a three-week travel blitz by the White House to highlight economic investments.

While Harris is in Washington, D.C., Buttigieg will be in New York and White House infrastructure coordinator Mitch Landrieu will be in Madison, Wis.