The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has made $1 million in emergency relief funds available for repairs to bridges and roads damaged by recent floods in Arizona, California and Nevada.
Officials estimate the total cots to repair the damage structures could be more than $12 million. Flooding in mid-October damaged roads and bridges owned by the U.S National Park Service (USNPS) and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) in western Arizona, southern California and southern Nevada.
FHWA says several primary routes were lost in the areas, more than 20 miles of roads were heavily damaged and more than 100 miles of roads were closed due to heavy deposits of debris.
“Our (emergency relief) program is vital to the American people, and particularly important for rural areas crippled by such widespread storm damage,” says FHWA Gregory Nadeau. “We want to do whatever we can to help workers repair damaged roads and bridges, so these access routes can reopen and life there can return to normal as soon as possible.”
FHWA says the emergency relief funds will be used to reimburse the USNPS and USFWS for emergency work to repair the highways and to reopen closed routes.