Wisconsin to get $45M for bridge projects this year from infrastructure bill

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Wisconsin stands to receive $45 million this year for bridge projects as part of money set aside for bridge construction in the $1.2 trillion federal infrastructure bill approved last fall.

The bridge money will come from $27 billion set aside in the infrastructure bill for repairing 15,000 highway bridges throughout the U.S. The federal government plans to spend $5.5 billion this fiscal year on bridge-replacement projects in the states, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia and tribal territories.

The U.S. Department of Transportation announced its bridge plans on Friday as the Biden administration works to draw attention to its accomplishments. The bridge money coming to Wisconsin for highway bridge projects is being distributed using a federal funding formula.

Beyond that, Wisconsin stands to receive more than $1 billion from the infrastructure bill in additional funding for highways over the next five years, according to an analysis of the bill by the state’s nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau. The same legislation will provide the state with $78.7 million for electric-vehicle infrastructure, $158 million for transit and as much as $1 billion for broadband over next five years. Still other parts of the bill will put money toward cleaning up environmental contamination.

Wisconsin could stand to gain $320.2 million through the Clean Water Fund, an amount that the state would have to match with $52.8 million. The federal safe-drinking-water loan program could also provide Wisconsin with about $68 million in grants to combat PFAS contamination.

Wisconsin further stands to get $255 million over five years to pay for the replacement of lead service lines. The Legislative Fiscal Bureau has estimated it would cost about $1.1 billion to replace the 219,000 lead service lines Wisconsin was estimated to have had in 2019.

Wisconsin could also benefit from programs meant to clean up waterways. The infrastructure bill puts $1 billion into the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, $800 million into dam safety and $700 million into flood-resiliency projects nationwide.