Carper, Blunt Rochester tour Del. Memorial Bridge to highlight federal funding for safety improvements

NEW CASTLE, Del. – Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester and Senator Tom Carper went below the deck of the Delaware Memorial Bridge Tuesday afternoon. The pair walked the steel catwalk to view where ship collision prevention improvements will be made. In December, Delaware’s Congressional Delegation of Sens. Carper, Chris Coons and Rep. Blunt Rochester announced a $22.25 million Department of Transportation (DOT) Better Utilizing Investment to Leverage Development (BUILD) grant to Delaware River and Bay Authority (DRBA) for improvements to the Delaware Memorial Bridge. BUILD, previously known as the TIGER grant program, provides multi-modal capital grants to critical infrastructure projects. The grant, which is the largest BUILD or TIGER grant ever awarded to Delaware, will be used to install 80-foot diameter sheet pile cells at the bases of the Delaware Memorial Bridges to better protect the structural integrity of the bridges in the event of a ship collision.

“It’s not only bipartisan, but it’s good for our economy it’s good for safety and even looking at what potential things could happen we just wanted to be ahead of the curve and so we are really fortunate and happy to be a part of that today,” said Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester.

Blunt Rochester adds that construction on the bridge should be completed by 2023.