Pell Bridge Receives $82.5 Million in Federal Funding for Rehabilitation

Pell Bridge Receives $82.5 Million in Federal Funding for Rehabilitation

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg on Thursday announced that the Biden-Harris Administration has awarded $82.5 million to the Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority from the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) competitive grant program. 

INFRA supports highway, multimodal freight and rail projects that will "make the nation's transportation systems safer and more resilient, eliminate supply chain bottlenecks, and improve critical freight movements."

"Today we are announcing transformative investments in our nation’s roads, bridges, ports, and rail to improve the way Americans get around and help lower the costs of shipping goods,” said Buttigieg. “Using funding from President Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we are able to support more excellent community-led projects this year than ever before." 

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About Rehab

The Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority's award will support the rehabilitation of the Newport Pell Bridge, the 4-lane suspension bridge that carries Route 138 over Narragansett Bay, connecting Jamestown and Newport. 

Components include a partial-depth reconstruction of the bridge deck and the west approach spans, installation of a dehumidification system to the main cables and anchorages, and repairs to the tower elevators. The project also includes an acoustic monitoring system and intelligent transportation system (ITS) enhancements.

The Newport Pell Bridge is in a designated Critical Urban Freight Corridor connecting mainland Rhode Island to Newport, a major tourism destination. The rehabilitated bridge will preserve the important multimodal route -- which is used by approximately 300,000 Rhode Island Public Transit Authority bus travelers per year.

 

About INFRA

In addition to prioritizing projects that will deliver national or regional economic benefits, INFRA projects were also evaluated "based on safety, how they supported freight movement and job creation, their efforts to address climate change and resiliency, impacts on equity and quality of life, how they applied innovative technology, their cost effectiveness, and demonstrated project readiness."

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law also expanded INFRA eligibility to include, for example, wildlife crossing projects, marine highway corridor projects, and surface transportation projects located within or functionally connected to an international border crossing.

The full list of awards can be found on the Department of Transportation’s website: https://www.transportation.gov/grants/infra-2022-fact-sheets

More information can be found on the Department’s INFRA site located at: https://www.transportation.gov/grants/infra-grants-program