Buttigieg will present $500 million grant in Harrisburg for I-83 South Bridge repairs

The I-83 South Bridge in Harrisburg (PennDOT photo)

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg will be in Harrisburg on Wednesday to announce a $500 million Large Bridge Project grant to PennDOT for repairs to the I-83 South Bridge that spans the Susquehanna River. It’s part of the Federal Highway Administration’s Bridge Investment Program, which will provide a total of $5 billion in grants to fund reconstruction, repair and restoration of 13 “nationally significant bridges” in 16 states.  

“Finding the funds needed to repair the most significant bridges in America has been a challenge that escaped past administrations of both parties, and that’s why President Biden created this dedicated program to deal with it,” Buttigieg said on a call with reporters Tuesday. He pointed to the I-83 bridge, which was built in 1960 and widened in 1982, and carries more than 125,000 vehicles daily, according to the transportation department.

“It’s in poor condition, and it creates bottlenecks that make drivers less safe,” Buttigieg said. “It costs people time. It makes it more expensive to ship goods through this critical corridor, so rewarding $500 million to build a new I-83 South Bridge, is expected to lead to 117 fewer crashes per year and to save automobile drivers 538 million hours, save truck drivers 66 million hours over the lifetime of that bridge.”

The grants range from a minimum of $50 million up to 50% of the total project’s cost, and are available for bridge projects that cost more than $100 million.  

Buttigieg will appear with Gov. Josh Shapiro at the site of the bridge on Wednesday morning, part of the launch of the Biden administration’s fifth Investing in America tour, where White House and cabinet officials will visit 30 states to highlight the administration’s investments in infrastructure, job creation, and manufacturing.

“Under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s Bridge Investment Program, we are reinvesting in our infrastructure and ensuring vital connections for Americans who need to get to a job, a class, or a doctor,” Federal Highway Administrator Shailen Bhatt said. “These grants are helping to advance critical bridge projects across the nation that will improve overall quality of life and ensure this country’s infrastructure works for everyone.”

PennDOT has slated the I-83 South Bridge for replacement and upgrade, a project that is estimated to cost more than $1 billion and take six to eight years to complete. A plan to fund the project and eight other bridges by tolling them was scrapped in 2022 following a lawsuit and Commonwealth Court ruling. 

PennDOT plans to begin work on the I-83 South Bridge in 2026. 

Another of the bridge projects that will receive funding under the program is the 119-year-old Market Street Bridge in East Steubenville, West Virginia, near Follansbee, that spans the Ohio River and connects to Steubenville, Ohio. That bridge, which closed to vehicle and pedestrian traffic in 2023, will be replaced.

Several other Biden administration officials will visit Pennsylvania over the course of the Investing in America tour this week, the White House said, including Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and White House Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs Tom Perez.

The White House also launched two new online tools to highlight the administration’s investments in rural communities and a “savings explorer” interactive site that lets users calculate how the administration’s policies in areas like health, clean energy, student loans and junk fees could help the user save money. 

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