U.S. President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan infrastructure deal last month — a significant domestic achievement for an embattled president that will flow hundreds of billions of dollars in federal money to infrastructure projects nationwide.

The plan is aimed at repairing crumbling U.S. infrastructure that has been ignored for decades. A failing Civil War-era bridge in Maryland, for example, is one of the many 100-year-old-plus structures slated for reconstruction with the $1.2 trillion in new money.

The bill will fund 32,000 kilometres of new roads and 10,000 bridges. It will supercharge the nationwide rollout of broadband internet and climate-friendly initiatives like electric vehicle charging stations.

Buried in the 1,039-page bill are provisions that might also mean new roads and railway service for Canadians.

The infrastructure deal offers a multi-billion dollar cash injection to rebuild a 561-km stretch of the Alaska Highway that travels almost exclusively through Yukon — an investment that Congress has pitched as a “necessary reconstruction” with “benefits that will accrue to the state of Alaska and to the United States.”

That project demonstrates just how close — and unusual — the Canada-U.S. relationship really is. Washington will pay for road reconstruction on Canadian territory to make the trip from Haines, Alaska to Beaver Creek, Yukon a more pleasant driving experience for Americans. But Canadians — Yukoners in particular — will also benefit from the new pavement.

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