Jim Justice announces fed funding for W.Va. bridge work

Dec. 15—West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice is planning to use $548 million in federal infrastructure dollars to build, rehabilitate and preserve bridges in the Mountain State.

The Republican governor announced Wednesday that West Virginia will receive $548,083,740 in federal funding for bridge work over the next five years through the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that was approved by Congress in late 2021.

Justice said the federal funding will help with maintaining the state's approximately 7,000 bridges, including about 150 which are owned by municipalities and not the state Department of Transportation.

"More and more good stuff continues to come," Justice said in a prepared statement. "How'd this happen? It's because the Department of Transportation and Secretary Jimmy Wristen are pushing the envelope and working in every way they possibly can. This is just more good stuff to make life better for West Virginians everyday."

Justice also talked about the federal funding bridge award during a virtual briefing Wednesday.

"Can you imagine just how many bridges are in ill repair and how much our public depends on those bridges and everything," Justice said during the virtual briefing. "All the different opportunities we can to make those bridges safer and better for our people. I could really go on and on, but it's really great stuff."

What Justice didn't announce or confirm Wednesday is what bridges in which counties will be replaced or rehabilitated.

Wriston also spoke during the virtual session, and suggested a list of bridges and the scope of project contracts would be distributed soon.

"You are going to start seeing a lot of bridge work in West Virginia," Wriston said in the virtual session. "A lot of bridge work in West Virginia."

A message left Wednesday by the Daily Telegraph with the governor's office seeking a list of bridges targeted for replacement or repair was not immediately returned.

West Virginia's portion of funding for the bridge program works out to about $110 million a year for the next five years, according to the news release from the governor's office. That's on top of the existing $167 million the state currently spends each year on bridge projects. The Department of Transportation intends to increase bridge funding in 2024 to $217 million, meaning between regular funding and the federal infrastructure bridge program the state will have about $227 million a year available just for bridge projects.

"Of all the new programs included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, this is the one that I can most get behind," Wriston said. "This gives West Virginia a robust bridge program that will have an impact for decades. Furthermore, it will allow us to assist municipalities with their non-state-owned bridges without requiring a match."

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act bridge program allows 100 percent of federal funding for certain off-system bridges, which typically require a 20 percent local match. Even for municipal bridges that would still require matching funds, the infrastructure act funding allows the WVDOT room to work with municipalities to structure the matching money, Wriston said.

Furthermore, a provision of the federal bridge program allows the state to spend at least 15 percent of the total allocation to off-system bridges, which may include city bridges or other spans not owned by the WVDOT, a press release from the governor's office said.

While no specific bridge projects were identified, the governor's press release did indicate that the WVDOT was looking at 75 municipal bridge projects that are eligible for 100 percent funding through the federal infrastructure bill. It said the WVDOT intends to work with municipalities to find matching funds for 39 more.

— Contact Charles Owens at cowens@bdtonline.com

— Contact Charles Owens at cowens@bdtonline.com. Follow him @BDTOwens