The White House infrastructure bill includes $40 billion dollars for bridge repairs, which the Biden administration says is the biggest investment of its type since the construction of the interstate highway system. The American Road and Transportation Builders Association says Alabama has a lot of work that needs to be done.
The group’s National Bridge Inventory says Alabama has 620 bridges that are structurally deficient. That’s nearly four percent of the state’s total. Nearly two dozen of these bridges are considered highly traveled, and part of the Interstate Highway system. The list includes Jefferson County’s bridge on I-59/20 over Aaron Aronov road that see close to forty two thousand motorists a day, Mobile County’s McGregor Avenue over Eslava Creek with over thirty four thousand cars daily, and Tuscaloosa County’s bridge in Highway 82 over Hargrove Mill Creek Road with over thirty one thousand trips per day.
The infrastructure bill would provide a total of $110 billion to repair the nation’s aging highways, bridges, and roads. The White House says 173,000 total miles of America’s highways and major roads are in poor condition.
The plan also includes $7.5 billion dollars for electric vehicle charging stations to help encourage the popularity of battery powered vehicles. APR news has covered plans for an automobile battery factory in Birmingham connected to Alabama’s Mercedes Benz production facility. The state is also reportedly in the running to be the home of a similar the Mazda-Toyota plant near Huntsville.