WILMINGTON — Local, state and federal officials gathered at the base of the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge Wednesday to celebrate recent funding for a major infrastructure project, as announced by the Biden administration last week.
READ MORE: Feds award $242M grant to fund CF Memorial Bridge replacement
As part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s Bridge Investment Program, the NCDOT received a federal grant totaling $242 million to go toward the replacement of the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge. That’s roughly half of its price tag, estimated to be $485 million.
“A project of this magnitude is beyond what one person or one party or one level of government can do,” Mayor Saffo told the crowd. “It takes all of us, working together, from here to Raleigh to Washington, working across party lines, because we cannot reach across this river without reaching across the aisle.”
He was speaking to politicians from Leland, Belville, New Hanover and Brunswick counties, as well as state leaders. Republican senators Tedd Budd and Thom Tillis wrote letters of support for the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge grant application, as did local municipalities and representatives.
Shailen Bhatt, administrator of the Federal Highway Administration, said the application process was very competitive.
“We had about $10 billion in applications for $5 billion of available funding,” he said.
The local bridge replacement project is one of two major bridges awarded in the state in the last year; the other was Alligator Bridge in the Outer Banks which received $110 million.
Governor Cooper told the crowd he instructed his staff to “compete for every single federal dollar,” upon application submittals to the BIP. He added the state will receive $9.3 billion for 439 projects due to the Biden administration passing the law.
“And that’s going not only to bridges but to roads and public transportation and ports and airports and greenways and water infrastructure and high speed internet and so much more,” Cooper said.
Bhatt commended the Republicans and Democrats in Congress for coming together to pass the $1.2 trillion BIP, with $12.5 billion set aside for bridges across the country. He added this infrastructure is continuously growing in need of remediation due to growth and “disinvestment” by both parties throughout the years.
“This is the largest investment in infrastructure in our nation’s history, since the Eisenhower investment the 1950s,” he said.
The Cape Fear Memorial Bridge was built in 1969 and recently underwent preservation to extend its lifespan. It’s in constant need of repairs that cost $500,000 annually with parts becoming obsolete. The passthrough is a major artery between Brunswick and New Hanover County commuters, but also a crucial element to the supply chain, serving several thousand trucks traveling to the port weekly.
Susan Rabon, board chair for the North Carolina State Ports Authority, called Wilmington “an economic engine” with the bridge supporting “hundreds of thousands of containers and over 3 million short tons of general cargo every year.” She praised the funding as “transformational,” noting it will improve efficiency while boosting global trade.
North Carolina Secretary of Transportation Joey Hopkins said the Cape Fear bridge grant is the largest the state has received. The funds put toward the bridge, he said, serve more than a mere replacement. The proposed 135-foot fixed bridge will provide transport for generations of people in the future.
“We’re adding capacity to this bridge to help address those 100,000 vehicles a day,” Hopkins said of expected cross traffic by the year 2050. “We’re adding pedestrian accommodations to this bridge to make it multimodal. You know, this river, in many ways, is like an interstate.”
For decades, leaders in both New Hanover and Brunswick counties have had discussions on replacing the bridge, mostly centered on how it would be paid for. The project had not scored high enough on the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s 10-year evaluation plan until this spring.
The Wilmington Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization board voted 8-5 in the winter for a toll option to be considered, in order to gauge whether the bridge replacement would rate higher on NCDOT’s State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP). It placed in the top 10 and NCDOT has now committed $85 million toward it.
The state transportation department has applied for three grants in total so far to help flesh out funding.
“More grants are being considered,” according to NCDOT spokesperson Lauren Haviland.
NCDOT officials told the WMPO board a toll consideration would help with grant funding, something Brunswick County commissioner Frank Williams echoed in a statement released after Wednesday’s event. He believes the $242 million grant came through due to the board agreeing to toll exploration. Yet, he also said a toll should be considered only as a “last resort.”
“As I stated in January, no one wants to see a toll bridge, myself included,” Williams wrote. “This grant puts us much closer to fully funding the bridge replacement, and I’m committed to doing all in my power to fully fund the replacement without a toll while continuing to explore all options to ensure that the bridge is replaced before it’s too late.”
Earlier in the year, leaders in other municipalities — including Wilmington, Leland, and Navassa — voted on resolutions against a toll bridge.
At Wednesday’s event, the NCDOT also addressed how grants could affect a toll. Though it wasn’t eliminated completely as an option, Hoppkins said the goal is to work with “local partners at the WMPO and find the balance of money to fund the project.”
The NCDOT is in the process of creating an environmental document concerning the bridge replacement, slated for completion next year. Thereafter, a construction timeline would be assessed.
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