April 9, 2020
Local Agencies are ready to deliver bridge projects when and if additional federal HBP funding becomes available. The following bullets summarize a survey of HBP needs that local agencies recently completed.
- Currently 49 HBP projects are ready to advertise for construction totaling approximately $209 million (“shovel ready” or “ready to list”). HBP can only fund 30 of these projects (approximately $89 million) right now; the rest of the projects have been pushed out to future years because of inadequate funding. An additional $110 million (19 projects) of HBP bridge construction could be funded right now if additional funding was available.
- Within 6-months, 27 more projects will be ready to advertise for construction totaling $264 million of bridge construction. In summary, within 6-months the local HBP will potentially have 46 unfunded projects that are ready for construction needing an additional $374 million.
- Currently local agencies are financing approximately $338 million of active construction on 12 larger “high cost” bridge construction projects. Agencies are using local funds to pay for construction while they wait until federal funds are available for reimbursement. Additional federal funding could help pay for this “high cost” bridge funding backlog which could free up local funding for other “shovel ready” local transportation priorities and reduce the overall HBP project backlog from 19-years to a more reasonable time frame.
California Local Highway Bridge Program 