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Q&A
Utilization of federal funding for bridge improvements and maintenance
1:48:23
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170 sec
Council Member Brooks-Powers inquires about how DOT will use federal funding to improve and maintain bridges. DOT officials explain their approach to bridge maintenance and rehabilitation.
- Most federal funding for bridges has been allocated to capital projects
- DOT uses grants to rebuild and rehabilitate bridges, such as the Grant Street Bridge
- The department considers full rehabilitation or component rehabilitation based on the bridge's condition
- Some projects, like the Cross Bronx Expressway, fall under a different category and may involve collaboration with state DOT
Selvena Brooks-Powers
1:48:23
Okay.
1:48:24
How will DOT utilize federal funding to improve and maintain their bridges?
Paul Ochoa
1:48:30
Yeah.
1:48:31
Most of the federal funding that we've received have been on the capital side, meaning we've asked for a lot of funding for, our capital projects, in our Bridges division.
1:48:44
That's how we've used the grants because that's how the notice of funding opportunities have come out.
1:48:50
Your question is about, like, improving the way we maintain our bridges.
1:48:55
I mean, we improve them by rebuilding them, so I would I would say that's how we were using the grants.
Selvena Brooks-Powers
1:49:05
Well, when I say that, how do how do you plan to utilize federal funding to improve it?
1:49:10
Like, for example, is it, to your point, rebuilding a particular part of a bridge?
1:49:16
I know in council member Padilla's district when we did our transportation infrastructure tour.
1:49:21
And there's a lot of opportunity there to kinda cap off some of, the overpasses there and those type of dynamics.
1:49:29
So I'm trying to see how DOT is envisioning leveraging federal dollars to improve and maintain bridges.
Paul Ochoa
1:49:38
One good example of a bridge that we received federal funding is the Grant Street Bridge.
1:49:42
It's a very old bridge.
1:49:43
It's over a 100 years old is my understanding.
1:49:45
It's one of the movable bridges that we have in our, in our repertoire, and it's it needs a lot of improvement.
1:49:51
It is safe, but it is the rebuilding of that bridge was part of our capital, reconstruction plan, and it was, ended up being a very competitive bridge, for us to apply, and we did get funding for it.
Margaret Forgione
1:50:04
And maybe just to add to that, when we approach the condition of our bridges, we always look if we can if we need to fully rehabilitate the bridge or if we can just do what we call component rehab, which is rehabilitation of specific components to give the bridge another 15 years of life before you or whatever before you would have to replace it.
1:50:23
So things fall in different buckets.
1:50:25
Some of it is not a full replacement or rehabilitation.
1:50:29
Some of it is.
1:50:30
And then there are other projects that you're like, were you talking about if you were referring to the Cross Bronx Expressway, those are sort of in a separate category.
1:50:37
Those are less about state of good repair, and they're more about initiatives that will achieve other results.
1:50:44
And and that would probably follow a different funding path, than the first two.
Selvena Brooks-Powers
1:50:51
So the the federal funding wouldn't have been it wouldn't have been a qualifier for it?
Margaret Forgione
1:50:55
No.
1:50:56
It it potentially could have been, although the Cross Bronx gets, you know, a little bit interesting because we don't own the Cross Bronx Expressway, the state does.
Selvena Brooks-Powers
1:51:03
The state.
Margaret Forgione
1:51:03
Mhmm.
1:51:04
Mhmm.
Selvena Brooks-Powers
1:51:06
And to that point, I imagine that the city DOT and the state DOT are working hand in hand with these applications anyway.
Margaret Forgione
1:51:12
Correct.