House T&I Committee Democrats Introduce Bill to Fund Bridge Repairs

Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV), ranking member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, joined Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WS) to introduce a bill this week that would provide $5.5 billion for state transportation departments to address the 150,000 or so structurally deficient bridges across the nation. H.R. 2428, or the SAFE Bridges Act, would authorize $2.75 billion in both FY 2013 and FY 2014 for states to either replace or rehabilitate their structurally deficient, functionally obsolete, and/or fracture-critical bridges. Funding would be distributed to states through a "needs-based" formula, determined by each state's share of deficient bridges. The funding would not be allowed to be diverted elsewhere and could only be used for bridge repair. Funding would be provided from a General Fund transfer.