Trying to make use of remaining federal money, the Missoula County Public Works Department is submitting for three more grants to address various deteriorating bridges in the county.
After an unsuccessful submission for a Bridge Investment Program grant, or BIP grant, in March, which would have funded the replacement of Boy Scout Road (Seeley Lake), Glacier Creek (Condon) and Sunset Hill Road (Greenough) Bridges, Shane Stack, public works department director, said the department is planning on resubmitting for the grant next year and using what it learned from the most recent process to be more competitive.
Stack said Missoula County’s grant wasn’t as competitive in the first BIP application because they only had preliminary engineering reports (PERs) done for the bridges and not enough analysis. The project that did win the grant — Sportsman’s Bridge in Bigfork, which crosses the Flathead River — came complete with Montana Department of Transportation environmental analysis, right of ways determined and only needed funding for construction costs. To do all the extras, Stack said local government would have to contribute between $2 to $3 million, and he said he doesn’t have that lying around.
All the big bridge grants, like BIP, RAISE and PROTECT — two others for which the county is applying — are federally funded, and with a change in administration could be subject to change. Stack said the public works department has to balance whether to put more effort into analysis to be more competitive for these grants with considering whether the funding will even be available.
There is some money still remaining from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed by the Biden Administration, including in the RAISE and PROTECT categories. The Missoula County Public Works Department is applying for two RAISE grants focusing specifically on bridge replacements.
The first application will be put toward Sunset Hill (Greenough), Glacier Creek (Condon) and Boy Scout Road (Seeley Lake) for $22 million. The next will be for Kraft Creek (Condon), east and west Styler Drive (Condon), Arlene Drive (Clinton), Owl Creek (south of Seeley Lake) and Bench Road (Missoula) for about $18 million. Stack said the RAISE grants don’t require a match in rural areas for projects under $25 million, so no local funds would be used. PERs are being created now to use in the application processes.
The PROTECT grant is for the set of bridges designated in the second RAISE grant and amounts to about $14.5 million. The PROTECT grant requires a 20% local funding match.
Both grants are due early in the new year, the end of January for the RAISE grants and end of February for PROTECT.
“We are aggressive,” Stack said. “I feel like we’re attacking and applying for as many of these grants as we possibly can get.”
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