'I'm coming back to walk over this sucker': Why Biden visits so many bridges

President Biden on Thursday made a trip to Pittsburgh to visit the Fern Hollow Bridge, which collapsed earlier this year as officials work to reopen the crossing before the end of the year.

It caps off a bevy of presidential bridge visits over the last year. It was Biden's second stop at this particular span. His first visit came shortly after the bridge collapsed in January, when he was scheduled to make a speech elsewhere in the city. Just a few months prior, Biden visited another dilapidated bridge, this one in New Hampshire, one day after he signed his bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act on Nov. 15.

Biden's staff, most notably Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, have also been visiting bridges around the country in recent months in an effort to put bridge repair front and center to tout how the infrastructure law's funds are being spent.

The visits also come as experts continue to raise alarm bells about America’s bridge problem. A 2021 report found that there are more than 46,000 “structurally deficient” bridges around the country that, nevertheless, are crossed 178 million times every day.

"It never should have come to this" Biden said Thursday from the Fern Hollow Bridge construction site about that state of the nation's infrastructure, adding that the new law means "we are finally getting to it."

$40 billion for bridges

Biden aides point out that fixing bridges not only impacts the lives and safety of everyday drivers but will also help improve crimps in the hobbled supply chain. Roadway funding for the coming year includes another big slice set aside for bridges, with $5.5 billion going into the Department of Transportation’s Bridge Formula Program for fiscal year 2023 (which begins in November). The money matches 2022 funding levels, but represents a 391% jump compared to 2021 — before the law went into effect.

A 2021 infrastructure report card from the American Society of Civil Engineers put a spotlight on the dire problem: Of the more than 617,000 bridges in the U.S., 46,154 of them — or 7.5% — are classified as structurally deficient. Civil engineers also estimate that $125 billion needed to repair America's bridge repair backlog, underlining how much additional investment is likely going to be needed beyond the infrastructure law in the years ahead.

Biden officials have touted that money from the law has already supported repairs on over 2,400 bridges in its first year, with projects from Illinois to Alabama. The money to repair the Fern Hollow Bridge did not come directly from the new law, but Biden says that funding from the law allowed the government in Pennsylvania to move quickly and support a rapid rebuilding of the bridge without impacting other projects in the pipeline.

The politics of bridges

Biden's trip this week also has an undeniable political aspect — and not just because Thursday's Pennsylvania trip also included a stop in Philadelphia to campaign for fellow Democrat John Fetterman, who is currently neck and neck with Republican Mehmet Oz in one of the highest profile Senate races in the nation.

The bridge issue surely resonates in the state, which has the second most bridges in disrepair in the country behind only Iowa, according to the White House.

"Pittsburgh is a city of bridges, but too many of them are in poor condition like this bridge behind me before it collapsed," Biden said during Thursday's event, as Fetterman looked on. The speech repeatedly touched on politics, including a critique of Republicans who voted against the infrastructure law but are now, according to Biden, "quietly and privately sending me letters" to ask for money.

The bridge stops are just one example of Biden trumpeting how the infrastructure money is being used. Previous announcements have focused on money for airport terminals, roads, rural broadband efforts, ports and others.

But the impact of such public relations efforts ahead of November's midterm elections have been mixed at best. One notable poll from this summer from the think tank Third Way and Impact Research found that only 24 percent of voters were even aware that the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law had been enacted.

President Obama faced similar challenges when officials repeatedly tried to publicize funding for “shovel-ready” projects funded by a 2008 stimulus bill. Officials then went so far as to put up signs around the country promoting projects, including many bridges. But in the end, the Democrats suffered steep midterm losses in 2010.

This time around, Biden officials say they are focused on the longer term. As Buttigieg said recently, the bridge projects across the country will benefit the American economy for generations.

And while it remains unclear is how much it will help Democrats this November, Biden has signaled that the bridge visits aren't stopping anytime soon.

"I'm coming back to walk over this sucker," he promised Thursday.

Ben Werschkul is a Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.

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