The South Dakota Transportation Commission has awarded (March 30, 2023) 35 preservation, rehabilitation and replacement Bridge Improvement Grants totaling approximately $39 million.
In order to be eligible for a BIG grant, a county must impose a wheel tax. In addition, a county must have a County Highway and Bridge Improvement Plan to detail proposed county highway and bridge improvement projects within the county for the next five years.
County recipients are: Beadle (1), Brookings (2), Butte (1), Clay (2), Davison (1), Day (1), Deuel (1), Grant (2), Haakon (1), Hughes (1), Lake (1), Lawrence (1), Lincoln (1), Lyman (1), McCook (1), Miner (1), Minnehaha (3), Pennington (2), Roberts (1), Sanborn (1), Turner (1), and Union (1).
City recipients are: Aberdeen (1), Box Elder (1), Hot Springs (1), Mitchell (1), Sioux Falls (2), and Sturgis (1).
Local governments are required to pay a minimum of 20% matching funds and have three years to expend the grant award. Applications for the next round of the BIG program are due Tuesday, Aug. 1, 2023, for the Preliminary Engineering category.
For more information regarding the BIG program, contact Doug at 605-773-4284 or visit https://dot.sd.gov/doing-business/local-governments/bridge-improvement-grants.
Seventy-four applications totaling $97.7 million in total project costs were received by the South Dakota Department of Transportation. In total, eight cities submitted nine applications and 28 counties submitted 65 applications.
Each year, $7 million is dedicated from the license plate fees and from non-commercial vehicle fees. In addition, SDDOT annually sets aside $8 million per year of state highway funds, for a total of $15 million available for the BIG grants. This year, the Transportation Commission awarded approximately $2.4 million in preliminary engineering (PE) grants, increased the available funding by $25 million, and reallocated approximately $1.4 million from closed projects for a total of $41.4 million. To date, the BIG program has awarded $142 million in grants to local governments, including the allocations made this year.
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