Blatnik Bridge funding released amid finger-pointing

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The U.S. Department of Transportation released $1.05 billion that had been set aside by the Biden administration for the long-awaited Blatnik Bridge project. 

The Blatnik Bridge replacement project won the $1.05 billion federal grant in January 2024 from the USDOT's Nationally Significant Multimodal Freight and Highway Projects program, also known as INFRA.

The bridge — a vital link between Superior, Wisconsin, and Duluth, Minnesota — carries approximately 33,000 vehicles across the Saint Louis River daily. 

The 63-year-old bridge has had a weight limit of 40 tons in recent years, and can no longer support overweight freight loads. Officials have warned the bridge would need to be shut down by 2030 for safety reasons if construction doesn't begin on a replacement.

The project, which is estimated to cost $1.8 billion, will include state bonds as well as federal funding. Wisconsin and Minnesota are each chipping in $400 million.

In its 2023-25 biennial budget, Wisconsin authorized $47.2 million in funding and $352.8 million in transportation fund-supported, general obligation bonding authority.

Minnesota has committed $200 million from its capital highway improvement program and $200 million from trunk highway bonds authorized in the 2023 legislative session.   

On March 4, the Minnesota and Wisconsin departments of transportation released a joint statement that said the states received bipartisan support for the $1.05 billion federal grant, "but the U.S. Department of Transportation has not acted on executing the amendment that will release the grant funding."

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in releasing the grant funding last week, "This department inherited an unprecedented Biden-Buttigieg backlog of 3,200 grants that were announced to much fanfare but never actually delivered," and the DOT said in a statement, "the Biden-Buttigieg DOT failed to do the necessary work to obligate these critical dollars."

Pippi Mayfield, deputy director of the Minnesota DOT's Office of Communications and Public Engagement, when asked who was responsible for the delay, pointed to the department's March 4 statement.

Inflation would have raised costs an estimated $80 million per year of delay, according to the departments, and that estimate doesn't account for rework and rescheduling costs.

"This is a major win for Minnesota and the Twin Ports," Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said in a statement upon the release of the funding. "Replacing the Blatnik Bridge will improve safety, strengthen our economy, and support thousands of good-paying jobs. This investment, signed into law by President Biden, should never have been put in jeopardy."

Spokespeople for Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers did not respond to questions by press time. But Evers sent a letter to Duffy on March 10 requesting immediate action on the project, pointing out that Duffy himself used to represent the region around the bridge as a Congressman.  

His letter followed up on a March 3 letter from Sens. Tammy Baldwin, Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith voicing concern over the bridge project in light of Trump administration funding cuts for infrastructure projects in blue states and its recent threat to bar the opening of a bridge between Michigan and Ontario, Canada.