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Missoula County outlines plan to seek federal funds to replace aging bridges
Summary
Missoula County public works staff briefed community councils on an inventory of 61 bridges over 20 feet, priorities for federal grant applications and backup funding options that would require local matches.
Eric, a Missoula County Public Works staff member, told community council attendees that “we have 61 bridges in Missoula County that are over 20 feet long,” which by federal rules must be on the National Bridge Inventory and inspected every two years by the state department of transportation.
The county identified roughly 15 bridges as the highest priorities for replacement and repair. Eric said two — North Avenue (the Maclay Bridge) and Lolo Street — are already in federally funded design programs. He described a preliminary cost estimate for the top 15 bridges of about $68,000,000 and said the county had “about $60,000 available for project work” last fiscal year after essential costs, leaving local funding insufficient to cover major replacements.
The county is preparing multiple federal grant applications. Eric said the next RAISE application will bundle several of the most critical bridges and that the bundles are due in January, with award announcements expected around August. He described a three-bridge bundle that includes Sunset Hill Road bridge (Potomac, built 1907) and Boy Scout Road (closed since November 2023), and said the combined cost for just those three is “nearly $22,000,000.”
As a backup, staff will apply for the PROTECT grant for timber bridges and other resiliency-focused structures such as Craft Creek, Glacier Creek and Owl Creek, which serve as sole access routes and face wildfire and load risks. If those competitive grants fail, the county would apply to the Bridge Investment Program (BIP) later in the year; Eric said the BIP request would total roughly $31,000,000 and would require a 20% local match (about $6,000,000 if awarded).
Eric noted that two bridges on the list, Schwartz Creek and Petty Creek, are slated for rehabilitation rather than replacement, with preliminary engineering reports putting those projects at just over $1 million each.
County staff encouraged questions and said staff will continue to prioritize bridges by sufficiency ratings, age and resilience concerns while pursuing grants that do not require local matches before considering options that do.
Ending: The county will complete RAISE and overlapping PROTECT applications this winter and expects award decisions in late summer; local officials said they will return to community councils with updates as applications are submitted and decisions are announced.
