Buttigieg presents $500 million grant in Harrisburg for I-83 South Bridge repairs

Interstate 83 John Harris Memorial (South) Bridge (Commonwealth Media Service photo)

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was in Harrisburg Wednesday to announce a $500 million Large Bridge Project grant to PennDOT for repairs to the I-83 South Bridge that spans the Susquehanna River. It’s part of the Federal Highway Administration’s Bridge Investment Program, which will provide a total of $5 billion in grants to fund reconstruction, repair and restoration of 13 “nationally significant bridges” in 16 states.

“Finding the funds needed to repair the most significant bridges in America has been a challenge that escaped past administrations of both parties, and that’s why President Biden created this dedicated program to deal with it,” Buttigieg said on a call with reporters Tuesday. He pointed to the I-83 bridge, which was built in 1960 and widened in 1982, and carries more than 125,000 vehicles daily, according to the transportation department.

“It’s in poor condition, and it creates bottlenecks that make drivers less safe,” Buttigieg said. “It costs people time. It makes it more expensive to ship goods through this critical corridor, so awarding $500 million to build a new I-83 South Bridge, is expected to lead to 117 fewer crashes per year and to save automobile drivers 538 million hours, save truck drivers 66 million hours over the lifetime of that bridge.”

The grants range from a minimum of $50 million up to 50% of the total project’s cost, and are available for bridge projects that cost more than $100 million.

Buttigieg appeared with Gov. Josh Shapiro and U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) at the site of the bridge on Wednesday morning. “I really want to begin with a public apology to Secretary Buttigieg and and also to President Biden, because I have been a royal pain in their ass for the last year and a half talking about this I-83 bridge,” Shapiro joked. “Replacing this aging bridge will be transformational for this region and for all Pennsylvania. I-83, as you all know, is a vital artery here in south central Pennsylvania, that not only connects our communities on both sides of the river, it’s also a critical route for commerce and supply chains up and down the East Coast of the United States.”

Casey, who led a bipartisan letter from Pennsylvania’s Congressional delegation in April urging the Biden administration to provide federal discretionary funding for the bridge project, applauded the collaborative work it took to bring the funding to Pennsylvania; every member of the state’s House delegation signed the letter . “I’m not sure that has happened on one project in Pennsylvania history, if not American history, to have every member of the delegation, no matter whether they represented northwestern Pennsylvania or North Central Pennsylvania or Philadelphia or Pittsburgh or anywhere in between, to get all of our voices coming together to support this project was essential,” Casey said Wednesday.

“Once you get a bill done, as you all know, it doesn’t execute or implement itself,” he added. “You have to have a strong commitment by the administration. You have to have a strong Secretary of Transportation to get those dollars out the door, and then you have to have a bipartisan effort here in Pennsylvania to get it done.”

Buttigieg said when the Biden administration took office, Pennsylvania was an example of the need for bridge repairs that had built up over decades.

“Visiting Pittsburgh in one of my first trips, I remember seeing the netting installed under the McKees Rocks Bridge in Pittsburgh to catch the pieces of concrete that would fall off of it from time to time, and that was something that was just tolerated in this country for far too long,” he said. He pointed to the 2022 collapse of the Fern Hollow Bridge in Pittsburgh , rebuilt in less than a year, and the collapse of a bridge on I-95 in Philadelphia last year, where — as Shapiro is famous for noting — the structure was reopened in 12 days .

“I could keep going with examples from across the state, but the bottom line is, despite the progress that was made, there was a clear need for bridge repairs to overcome the decades of underinvestment from Washington and nowhere is that need greater than the I-83 South Bridge right here in Harrisburg,” Buttigieg said Wednesday.

Buttigieg’s visit was part of the launch of the Biden administration’s fifth Investing in America tour, where White House and cabinet officials will visit 30 states to highlight the administration’s investments in infrastructure, job creation, and manufacturing.

“Under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s Bridge Investment Program, we are reinvesting in our infrastructure and ensuring vital connections for Americans who need to get to a job, a class, or a doctor,” Federal Highway Administrator Shailen Bhatt said. “These grants are helping to advance critical bridge projects across the nation that will improve overall quality of life and ensure this country’s infrastructure works for everyone.”

PennDOT has slated the I-83 South Bridge for replacement and upgrade, a project that is estimated to cost more than $1 billion and take six to eight years to complete. A plan to fund the project and eight other bridges by tolling them was scrapped in 2022 following a lawsuit and Commonwealth Court ruling

“I want to be crystal clear on this, that this bridge … will not be tolled,” Shapiro said Wednesday. “I made that clear during my campaign. I was against tolling these bridges, and I continue to be against tolling these bridges, and thanks to this federal investment and the work that’s going to be done here, this will be a bridge that connects families, connects leaders, connects people going to work without having to pay a toll.”

PennDOT plans to begin work on the I-83 South Bridge in 2026.

Another of the bridge projects that will receive funding under the program is the 119-year-old Market Street Bridge in East Steubenville, West Virginia, near Follansbee, that spans the Ohio River and connects to Steubenville, Ohio. That bridge, which closed to vehicle and pedestrian traffic in 2023 , will be replaced.

Several other Biden administration officials will visit Pennsylvania over the course of the Investing in America tour this week, the White House said, including Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and White House Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs Tom Perez.

The White House also launched two new online tools to highlight the administration’s investments in rural communities and a “ savings explorer ” interactive site that lets users calculate how the administration’s policies in areas like health, clean energy, student loans and junk fees could help the user save money.

Update: This article was updated at 12:45 p.m. July 17, 2024 with remarks from the press conference with Casey, Buttigieg and Shapiro.

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