Delaware’s congressional delegation announced that the Delaware River & Bay Authority will receive a $22.5 million federal grant that will help protect the Delaware Memorial Bridge.
The DRBA is a two-state agency that operates the bridge and the Cape May-Lewes ferry. Bridge improvements and maintenance are financed from bridge tolls.
The Department of Transportation Better Utilizing Investment to Leverage Development (BUILD) grant. BUILD, previously known as the TIGER grants program, provides capital grants to infrastructure projects.
The grant, the largest BUILD or TIGER grant ever awarded to Delaware, will be used to install 80-foot diameter sheet pile cells at the bases of the Delaware Memorial Bridges to better protect the structural integrity of the twin spans in the event of a ship collision.
Delaware and the region got a taste of what might happen when a chemical leak at the nearby Croda plant closed the bridge for hours on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
“Last month’s emergency closure of the Delaware Memorial Bridge underscores the critical need to invest in modernizing our nation’s infrastructure. This bridge is an essential channel of interstate commerce connecting supply chains along the I-95 corridor, as well as helping Delaware’s economy grow and thrive,” said U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester. “I am proud to join our delegation in announcing this record $22 million grant which will create jobs, improve travel safety, and strengthen the structural integrity of the Delaware Memorial Bridge for many years to come.”
Requests for funds under the BUILD program far exceeds funding, a sign of an unmet need for infrastructure investments. This year, 869 applications were received, totaling $11.6 billion in BUILD grant requests, a release from the delegation stated.
