The U.S. Department of Transportation recently issued a $175 million grant to the South Carolina Department of Transportation via the USDOT’s Bridge Investment Program to help replace aging structures on I-95 spanning Lake Marion.
[Above photo by SCDOT]
The SCDOT noted that its Lake Marion Bridge Replacement Project will replace four existing bridges that connect Clarendon and Orangeburg Counties in South Carolina on I-95; structures that carry about 38,900 vehicles daily.
The bridges do not meet current design standards with narrow shoulders and roadway approaches and will be replaced with new infrastructure over Lake Marion, the agency said. The new configuration calls for a single structure carrying three lanes in each direction of I-95 – which is a major freight corridor for the East Coast –with future capacity to expand to four lanes.
“President Trump tasked my department with a clear objective: rebuild America’s aging infrastructure,” said U.S. DOT Secretary Sean Duffy in a statement. “Within 100 days of inauguration, we’re already delivering results.”
“South Carolina appreciates the quick action by [USDOT] Secretary Duffy and the Trump administration to advance this critical grant project,” said Justin Powell, SCDOT’s secretary.
“The Lake Marion Bridge project will help ensure a bright future for the people of our state and the nation,” added Powell, who was recently named treasurer of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. “SCDOT is prepared to move forward immediately to put these dollars to work by building big, transformative infrastructure that benefits American families.”
States are also funding a variety of bridge improvement grants on their own.
For example, Kentucky recently awarded $8.2 million via the second round of funding from the state’s newly established County and City Bridge Improvement Program to 22 bridge projects.
Created in 2024, Kentucky’s County and City Bridge Improvement Program sets aside $25 million in each of the 2025 and 2026 fiscal years to address local bridges that are closed, have traffic limitations, or require repair. The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet added that, in February, it issued $10.2 million to 23 bridge projects via this program.
Meanwhile, in March, the South Dakota Transportation Commission awarded some $16.6 million to 17 bridge projects via the state’s Bridge Improvement Grant or BIG program, which is overseen by the South Dakota Department of Transportation.
Also in March, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation provided $468 million from state fuel tax revenues to help municipalities maintain local roads and bridges across the state; helping pay for things like snow removal and road repaving projects.
The agency noted that there are nearly 121,000 miles of public roads in Pennsylvania, with more than 2,500 municipalities managing approximately 78,000 miles of that roadway network as well as more than 6,600 bridges.
And in February, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey (R) issued more than $40 million in state transportation funding to cities and counties statewide to support various local-level road and bridge projects.
That funding is made available through the Alabama Transportation Rehabilitation and Improvement Program-II or “ATRIP-II,” a program created in 2019 by the Rebuild Alabama Act; an annual program that requires the Alabama Department of Transportation to set aside at least $30 million of the share of new gas tax revenue for projects of local interest on the state highway system.
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