A bridge carrying the Parks Highway over the Nenana River in Interior Alaska is getting a full replacement in a project estimated to cost between $50 million and $60 million, part of a state push to rebuild aging crossings before a once-in-a-generation infusion of federal funding runs out.
The Rex Bridge, designated #0216, sits at Mile 276 of the George Parks Highway, the 323-mile corridor that serves as the primary land route between Anchorage and Fairbanks and the main road to Denali National Park. The bridge was built when the Parks Highway was completed in 1971, making it more than 50 years old and well past its designed service life.
The Nenana River presents a punishing environment for aging infrastructure. Glacial silt loads wear at foundations, annual ice jams gouge at supports, and the region sits near the Denali Fault, which produced a magnitude 7.9 earthquake in 2002 that damaged several Parks Highway bridges. Thawing permafrost, accelerating in recent decades, further destabilizes the embankments at crossings like this one. A closure at Rex would force a significant detour on one of only two highway connections between Alaska's two largest cities.
Source: NationGraph.
The project will include road reconstruction, drainage improvements, and utility work alongside the bridge itself. Construction is expected to wrap by Oct. 31, 2028, a timeline that accounts for Alaska's compressed building season, roughly May through October, meaning the work will likely stretch across three summers.
Funding almost certainly draws from the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which directed roughly $40 billion nationally toward bridge replacement and repair. Alaska received approximately $225 million over five years specifically for bridges under that program, an unprecedented sum for a state where federal dollars typically cover more than 90 percent of highway capital spending. The Rex crossing fits squarely into the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities' effort to clear a backlog of deteriorating bridges before those funds expire.
The state's contractor pool for large bridge jobs is small, often only two or three firms, which has historically raised questions about competitive pricing on remote projects like this one. The bid is posted through Alaska DOT&PF, with bids due June 30, 2026, at the department's Northern Region office in Fairbanks.
The Rex replacement is one piece of a broader reckoning with Alaska's bridge inventory. The state has been replacing aging vessels and infrastructure across its transportation network as federal dollars make long-deferred projects financially viable. How many of those projects get completed before IIJA funds sunset will depend on how quickly the state can move bids to construction.
