The South Dakota Transportation Commission grants more than $1.8 million to local bridge projects.
Doug Kinniburgh is a Local Government Assistant for the South Dakota Department of Transportation. He said recent flooding is an example of why changes may be made to bridge projects.
“For projects that are certainly done through our process or through the DOT, yes. We try to ensure that we follow our previous recommendation on that. Or, there is a process we can go through to amend that. I mean, for instance, with the flooding there might be some changes that happen geographically that might happen to a location that causes us to take another look at something," said Kinniburgh. "And we do have a process to where we can go in and amend that previous recommendation and make any necessary adjustments.”
The state Transportation Commission awarded 35 projects more than $1.8 million to enhance overall condition of bridges throughout the state. It’s known as the Bridge Improvement Grants or BIG.
Kinniburgh outlined the different parts of the grant programs local governments can apply for.
“The second part of our program, we take applications January 2nd, for preservation and replacement project. So, often times they’ll go through this first stage of the process and determine they would like assistance and come back in and apply for replacement funds or in many cases we are encouraging them to look at some type of preservation project. Whether that might be a bridge deck overlay, or even deck replacement can be considered in our preservation program,” said Kinniburgh.
The next round of applications for the BIG program are due in January of 2025.
