Subcommittee approves major transportation funding and hires for bridge work, project delivery and winter maintenance

Lawmakers on the budget subcommittee approved a slate of Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) decision packages that add project-delivery staff, bridge-planning capacity and funding for equipment, winter materials and a financial hosting contract.

Key approvals included a request to add 10 positions to develop a bridge replacement and rehabilitation program and to help implement a five-year plan addressing aging bridges; a package adding engineers and contracting capacity to speed project delivery; and a six-member bridge maintenance and repair response team to perform rapid repairs and inspections. Lawmakers also approved funding for a major equipment-rental cost increase ($26.5 million total funds), a $4.24 million request for financial software hosting and ongoing maintenance, and several operations and maintenance and winter materials packages.

Why it matters: Committee members said aging bridges and the need to quickly obligate and spend federal infrastructure dollars are forcing MDT to expand engineering and delivery capacity. MDT officials said many bridges built in the 1930s and 1940s are now past their expected lifespans and that discretionary federal grants require rapid project readiness to capture available funds.

Department testimony and questions MDT Chief Deputy Larry Flynn described the workload: the department is under “very real pressure” to prepare and deliver hundreds of projects tied to recent federal discretionary awards. Flynn said advancing projects—preliminary engineering, right-of-way, utilities, geotechnical work, design and construction—requires additional engineering staff and, in some cases, contracting for specialized tasks to meet federal obligation timelines.

Director Dorrington said the bridge positions are intended to do both rapid repairs and inspection-driven responses (for example, shoring a shifted bearing plate so a bridge can reopen) and longer-term design and project development work. He noted that MDT has hundreds of projects and a backlog that makes rapid delivery difficult without added staff.

Votes and implementation Subcommittee members moved and carried motions on multiple packages, generally without recorded roll-call tallies; Senator Bogner’s vote was recorded repeatedly as “aye by proxy.” Approved items will now move forward for inclusion in the House budget language and, where applicable, implementation by MDT.

Quotes "These positions...will work on the asset strategy, the replacement cycle and then also work in design and implementation," Larry Flynn said of the bridge-staffing package.

"These folks will get out, get the quick fixes done," Director Dorrington said of the proposed bridge maintenance response team.

Ending The department will proceed with hiring and project work for the newly approved positions and programs. Several items rely on continued federal funding or pending legislation (for example, an off-system bridge proposal contingent on Senate Bill 324).