PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia is receiving a $14.2 million grant to repair historic bridges that have been threatened by flooding in recent years.
The money will go to repair the Bells Mill Road and Valley Green Road bridges. PennDOT says both bridges, which date back to the 1800s, are in poor condition.
“The force of water that rushes past a bridge is gonna start to pull material out of the bridge. It’s gonna take some of the mortar that’s keeping the rocks together away, so that degrades a bridge over time,” said Mike Carroll, Philly’s deputy managing director for transportation and infrastructure.
“These projects exemplify [the] federal funding’s purpose and will certainly provide resiliency against future flooding events,” said PennDOT’s Larry Shifflet.
Federal Highway Administrator Shailen Bhatt, who made the announcement, called the project a first of its kind.
“Quite frankly, our transportation system, our infrastructure was designed primarily in the 20th century. It is not able to handle the precipitation rates that we are seeing,” Bhatt said.
“When things are destroyed by more fires, floods, hurricanes, storms that we’re seeing, we don’t put them back in the way we put them back in the 20th century. We build infrastructure for the 21st century,” he added, “and I’m very grateful to be out on the bridge before something really bad happens.”
Planners estimate the project will take two years to design and another two years to construct.