ELLICOTT CITY, MD – Howard County Executive Calvin Ball today announced the County’s Department of Public Works (DPW) has been awarded a transformational $6,200,000 from the Maryland Department of Transportation’s State Highway Administration’s Federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) program for the County’s Rehabilitation of Nine Structures (Contract No. HO875ZM1) bundle bridge project. The IIJA provisions include a funding category for local governments to address poor and fair rated bridges. This funding category, specific to off-system bridges, offers 100 percent federal participation requiring no local government matching funds.
We have made significant progress on infrastructure and public facility investment over the last five years and this award helps us continue to move forward. I am grateful the State is focusing on locally maintained roads and bridges and thankful to the Maryland Department of Transportation for awarding us this transformational funding that will help ensure our transportation infrastructure remains safe.
The funding will allow the County to perform preventative bridge maintenance, such as steel cleaning and painting, joint replacements and major concrete/steel repairs and replacements, to nine bridges located throughout Howard County, including the:
- Sheppard Lane bridge over the Middle Patuxent River;
- Watersville Road over Hay Meadow Branch;
- Henryton Road bridge over the tributary of South Branch Patapsco River;
- Tamar Drive bridge over unnamed stream;
- Snowden River Parkway southbound bridge over Robert Fulton Drive;
- Snowden River Parkway northbound bridge over Robert Fulton Drive;
- Guilford Road bridge over Middle Patuxent River;
- Park Circle Drive bridge over Deep Run; and
- Broken Land Parkway bridge over the Little Patuxent River.
Meeting our objective for infrastructure renewal in the County is made possible through strong partnerships at all levels of government. The funding through the IIJA program is a clear demonstration of this partnership.
DPW anticipates construction on the projects to begin in spring 2024 and weather permitting, to take two years to complete.