U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg toured several infrastructure sites in Maine on Tuesday to see how the state spent federal dollars.
The secretary first stopped at two major bridges under construction in Freeport: the Merrill Road Interchange Bridge that crosses over Interstate 295 and the Mallett Drive Bridge near Exit 22.
Both bridges cost about $26.5 million. Of that, $17.7 million is funded with federal dollars, $11 million of which is through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL).
During a press conference with Buttigieg and Maine leaders, Maine Department of Transportation Commissioner Bruce Van Note said that until recently, a lack of funding would have made it impossible to take on two major bridge projects at the same time, but is now a reality thanks to the BIL.
Buttigeg stressed the importance of looking at infrastructure projects in the long term, and federal dollars reflecting those plans in turn.
"Here, [construction workers] really had to innovate in terms of the bridge design, to deal with all of the road salt that you really need in order to keep the roads safe, but it has penetrated into the old design structure and accelerating the demise of the structure,” he said.
Buttigieg said the investments through the BIL law aren't only to repair existing roads and bridges but to also build climate resilience, especially in states like Maine which saw severe winter weather this past year.
"We can't go on just saying we're going to require a community to put back a road the exact same way it used to be,” he said. “If a hundred-year flood becomes an annual event and it's washing out all of the time, we're incorporating that more into the funding.”
Buttigieg also stressed the importance of investing in rural communities, ending the day with a town hall at Wolfe's Neck Center in Freeport.
"This is the least dense state east of the Mississippi and what that means in terms of the ratio of taxpayers to road miles needed, it really is unique and that's part of why we wanted to come out here directly," said Buttigieg.
Buttigieg will also meet in Portland on Wednesday to continue his tour of Maine.
Source: Newscentermaine.com, WMTW.com
