The South Dakota Transportation Commission awarded 19 Bridge Improvement Grants (BIG) for a total of more than $8 million at their monthly meeting April 28 in Pierre.
The grant funding includes 14 bridge preservation projects totaling $4.079 million and five bridge replacement projects totaling $4.012 million. This is in addition to the $0.908 million for 40 preliminary engineering grants awarded by the Commission in February.
Preservation grant recipients are: Beadle County, Brookings County, Davison County, Fall River County, Hughes County, Meade County, Rapid City and Tripp County.
Tripp County’s grant will be $225,600 capped for design and construction. In addition to the capped grant, the county will also receive 80 percent reimbursement for all construction engineering costs for the project.
Bridge Replacement grant recipients are: Aberdeen, Marshall County, Moody County, Roberts County and the City of Yankton.
Grant funds are limited to a maximum of $4 million per entity over a three year period to ensure the funds are shared among as many local governments as possible. The local governments are required to pay a minimum of 20 percent matching funds and have three years to expend the grant.
One hundred applications totaling $14.4 million were received by the South Dakota Department of Transportation (SDDOT). Seven cities submitted 10 applications and 30 counties submitted a total of 90 applications.
The BIG program was created last year in Senate Bill 1. SB 1 set aside $7 million per year from funds generated by license plate fees to be used to repair and replace the aging local government bridges. The SDDOT added an additional $2 million this year, making $9 million available.
These grants are in addition to the $6 million in federal highway funding that SDDOT provides for local bridge projects for each of the years 2016-2018.
The grants are divided into three categories: preliminary engineering, preservation and replacement.
· Preservation work is done to help extend the life of the structure. Project types include bridge deck overlays, railing repairs, adding riprap for scour protection, repairing backwalls, etc.
· Bridge replacement projects are more expensive and these projects are ranked using a point system. Structure condition, detour route length, traffic counts, economic development factors, amount of wheel tax and additional financial commitment are aspects used to rank the projects.
· The preliminary engineering grants included funding for survey, hydraulic analysis and structure sizing. This project work will ensure the grant requests for replacement funds will be more accurate. After this phase is completed, some counties and cities may choose to construct the bridges on their own, without grant funding.
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