WASHINGTON — In his new $2.25 trillion infrastructure and jobs proposal, President Joe Biden promises to fix the 10 most "economically significant" bridges in need of reconstruction and repair 10,000 additional smaller bridges.
But the American Jobs Plan doesn't identify which of the nation's 618,000 bridges would receive the work.
Instead, Biden's plan would create a competitive grant program for a state to make the case to the Department of Transportation that one of its large bridges is deserving of a reconstruction or replacement.
Think of it as a competition, of sorts, for states to showcase their most dilapidated or outdated bridges based on condition or inability to manage increasing traffic volumes.