Beadle County receives BIG funding

HURON – Beadle County is among the recipients of 53 Bridge Improvement Grants (BIG) for a total of about $9 million as approved by the South Dakota Transportation Commission at its monthly meeting Thursday in Pierre.
Grant funding includes 17 bridge preservation projects totaling $2.6 million, seven bridge replacement or rehabilitation projects totaling $4.7 million and 29 preliminary engineering grants totaling $0.872 million. The balance of the $9 million will be used for construction engineering costs.
Beadle County is receiving $358,600 in bridge replacement/rehabilitation grant funds, and $26,800 for preliminary engineering work.
Preservation grant recipients are the counties of Brookings, Campbell, Codington, Gregory, Perkins, Watertown, Yankton and Ziebach.
Other bridge replacement/rehabilitation grant recipients are Brookings, Brown, Davison, Meade and Union counties.
Other recipients of preliminary engineering grant funds are the counties of Aurora, Butte, Clark, Day, Deuel, Hughes, Hutchinson, Jackson, Jerauld, Lawrence, Lyman, Marshall, Miner, Minnehaha, Sanborn, Spink, Turner, Union and the city of Watertown.

Grant funds are limited to a maximum of $4 million per entity over a three-year period to ensure they are shared among as many local governments as possible.
Local governments must pay a minimum of 20 percent in matching funds and have three years to expend the grant.
The Department of Transportation received 110 applications totaling $20.5 million. Nine cities submitted 11 applications and 39 counties submitted a total of 99 applications.
The BIG program was created in 2015 by Senate Bill 1. It set aside $7 million per year from funds generated by license plate fees to be used to repair and replace the aging local government bridges. The DOT added $2 million this year, making $9 million available.