91视频

The Sellwood Bridge is slated to have its last piece of funding fall into place.

According to an 鈥溾�� sent to Congress from the U.S. Department of Transportation today, the Sellwood Bridge will receive a $17.7 million grant through the TIGER III discretionary grant program.

According to the notice, the award 鈥渨ill provide the final piece of funding for the complete replacement of the Sellwood Bridge in Portland.鈥�

The project is actually facing closer to $22.7 million in shortfall, but the TIGER grant will fill most of that hole.

The advance notice is not an official announcement, so Multnomah County is not considering the award public or official at this time.

鈥淚f it’s true that we’re getting $17.7 million from TIGER, our new shortfall would be $5 million, and we have some strategies for how we could close a shortfall so small in cost,鈥� said Multnomah County spokesman Mike Pullen.

One of those strategies would be to access unused funds at the Oregon Legislature, he said.

Multnomah County had been working to close a budget gap in the $268.8 million project, which became larger this May when Clackamas County voters rejected a $5 vehicle registration fee increase that would have provided funds for the project. The federal TIGER grant was the project’s main hope for closing that gap as the year ended. The project team had created scaled-back 鈥減lan B鈥� options in case the project’s funding did not come through.

Construction teams began work to prepare for the Sellwood Bridge replacement today.