America has often been the butt of many jokes regarding infrastructure. With the recent bridge collapse in Pittsburgh, it’s easy to see why.

Luckily, there were no deaths caused by the collapse; however, many see this as a warning of what is to come. Over 3,000 bridges are at risk of the same fate in Pennsylvania, according to Whitehouse.gov. Thousands of miles of road in Pennsylvania alone are also in dire need to work. On a more global scale, many have been impacted by the supply chain crisis.

But a recent bill passed by the Biden Administration might help to rectify this and then some.

Over the next five years, the Infrastructure and Investment Act will provide $11.3 Billion to Pennsylvania for State highway repair. A major part of this act is the Bridge Formula Program, which will distribute an additional $1.6 billion to bridge repair and management.

Not only this, but another $2.8 billion will be provided to Pennsylvania for public transport improvement over the next five years. Another $801 million will go to the expansion of EV charging networks, protection against cyber attacks, protection against wildfires, expand broadband internet access, and airport expansion. 

“This has been a long time coming,” Pennsylvanian Governor Tom Wolf said. “We have a lot of roads. We have a lot of bridges, we really need to keep building and fixing [them]. Bridges are the lifeline.” 

Already, plans are underway on the other side of the state in Philadelphia.  The MLK Drive Bridge, located near the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which was closed last year after a survey revealed the beams of it were severely corroded, was the first of 30 bridges in the city of Philadelphia that have already been marked as needing to be reconstructed or ‘rehabilitated’. 

Interestingly enough, the more optimistic of Pittsburgh’s local business leaders hope that this plan will allow for southwestern Pennsylvania to act as a hub for the start of self-driving vehicles.

Many critics of the plan are suggesting that the bill does not go far enough. For instance, the Fern Hollow Bridge that was involved in the recent collapse was not listed as one of the 3,000 bridges in Pennsylvania that were identified as needing to be repaired. Others think that the bill fails to address how climate change will impact transportation infrastructure in the near future.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, many are saying that the act is a waste of money, or the money is being used in the wrong area. 

“There was an opportunity to come together and draft a bipartisan, bicameral bill to address America’s aging infrastructure,” U.S. Representative Glenn Thompson from Pennsylvania said. “Rather, House Democrats boldly linked infrastructure to a spending bill that is full of budget gimmicks and will cost American taxpayers trillions of dollars.”

Whatever the case may be, only time will tell if the bill will be all for nothing, not nearly enough, or working as intended.