Gov. Brad Little will ask the Idaho Legislature to appropriate $200 million for bridge repairs next year. That’s the same amount approved in 2022 and 2023.

Funding to repair local bridges could help Idaho farmers and ranchers save time and money, proponents say.

“It’s going to have tangible benefits for people in rural areas,” said Wayne Hammon, Idaho Associated General Contractors CEO.

Farmers and ranchers see direct bottom-line impacts when they have to detour around a weight-restricted bridge, he said. And families are impacted when school buses take time-consuming detours.

“Let’s continue to facilitate commerce with added transportation investments, especially in rural Idaho,” Little said in a speech to open the legislative session Jan. 8. This third and final installment of bridge-repair funding would help to clear a backlog and reduce future property tax burdens.

New funding for bridge repairs, if approved, would get “far down the list,” said Hammon, who grew up on a family farm. The money likely will go to some projects in lower-traffic areas.

About half of the state’s approximately 2,500 bridges are approaching the end of their design lifespans, said Laila Kral, an engineer who is the administrator of Boise-based Local Highway Technical Assistance Council. The council administers federal and state money for bridge repairs.

When the first funding was approved two years ago, 404 bridges were listed as in poor condition or had load restrictions, she said. The council in 2022 received 221 project applications — scored based on information that applicants submitted and on inspection reports — from local jurisdictions. Some 157 bridges in need of replacement advanced to design and construction stages, and 32 were slated for testing or repair.

Priority was given to shovel-ready projects and where load restrictions could be removed based on results from concrete or steel tests, Kral said.

Funding from the 2023 legislature allowed the council to advance more bridges for design and construction, she said.

So far, nearly $250 million has been obligated and 189 projects have received funding. Thirteen projects have been completed, 24 are under construction, and about $150 million in projects is forecast for advertisement and construction in 2024.

If the additional funding is approved, scoring, design and construction could continue, Kral said. Some 32 bridge projects are left from the initial applications, “and then we have the projects that weren’t applied for. We could get quite a ways down the list.”

Substantial recent state funding suits projects ranging from small canal bridges to large spans that cross rivers, “so it is helping to address both ends, the small and large,” she said.

If federal money were used, progress on big projects would be limited by the amount Idaho receives each year — about $14 million, she said.