July 30, 2026

By Lane Kimble

More than 100 small bridges across rural Wisconsin will get critical repairs, with hundreds more still in need of work.

Gov. Tony Evers and WisDOT announced Thursday the state awarded nearly $30 million to towns, counties, and villages for the new Local Small Structures Improvement Program.

The funding pays for up to 90% of repairs or replacement on small bridges and culverts that are shorter than 20 feet long.

Click HERE to see the full list of areas receiving funding.

Lawmakers included the $30 million in the 2025-27 state budget thanks to WTBA’s efforts. The funding followed similar work in the previous state budget to spend $12.5 million on identifying, mapping and rating nearly 17,000 small bridges across the state.

Still, there’s much greater need across Wisconsin.

WisDOT says there were 430 applications totaling $133.7 million in requests for this pool of money. The Transportation Development Association (TDA) launched a website in May that shows more than 1,600 bridges are rated in “poor” condition.

The Northwest Region received funding for the most projects with 39. The Southwest Region has 25 local projects, North Central has 20, Northeast has 14 and Southeast has three.