U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is proposing a bill to allow states the authority to use more federal funds for local bridge improvement projects.
Gillibrand, a Democrat, announced legislation on June 2 that would allow states greater flexibility to invest in bridge repair or improvement projects that are under local jurisdiction by making them eligible for federal funding through the National Highway Performance Program.
She said half of the 17,000 bridges across New York are locally owned and federal policy currently limits the amount of transportation funds that states can use to repair those structures. The New York Department of Transportation identifies 2,016 bridges in the Empire State as structurally deficient and 4,735 functionally obsolete.
"More than a third of our state's bridges are in need of repair but bureaucratic federal policy prevents our local governments from investing in their repair," said Gillibrand in a statement. "My amendment will finally give most states the flexibility to spend federal transportation dollars where they're needed most, including thousands of locally-owned bridges across the state."
