Adam Taylor and Melissa Nann Burke

The News Journal

Local preparations were underway Friday for President Barack Obama to visit Delaware.

Obama on Thursday is expected to visit the site of the damaged I-495 bridge in Wilmington to press the importance of investing in transportation infrastructure, officials said. Emergency repairs are underway to level a leaning stretch of the Christina River bridge, which was shut down June 2.

The president's visit to the First State won't be official until it's announced by the White House; however, Obama's advance team was at the Port of Wilmington on Friday afternoon as part of security arrangements.

Obama is already scheduled to travel to the New York City area Thursday to attend a Democratic National Committee roundtable, according to the White House.

To promote his infrastructure agenda, Obama has been making the rounds in recent weeks, calling on Congress to greenlight more road, bridge and port projects, and to renew the Highway Trust Fund before it dries up at the summer's end.

"Let's build some bridges!" Obama told the crowd at a July 1 visit to the Key Bridge, which connects the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., with Arlington, Virginia.

In May, Obama visited the 3-mile-long Tappan Zee Bridge on the Hudson River north of New York City, where he unveiled his $302 billion, four-year transportation program to renew the highway fund in part by closing corporate tax loopholes.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx stopped by the I-495 bridge on June 13, describing its shutdown as a "national issue," and the resulting traffic disruption as an example of the risks ahead if the Highway Trust Fund is permitted to expire.

Unlike Delaware's senior senator, Tom Carper, Obama has stopped short of calling for an increase to the 18.4-cent-a-gallon tax on gasoline as a long-term solution to the federal transportation funding.

Carper was the lone dissenter Thursday when the Senate Finance Committee approved a bipartisan agreement that would likely keep the Highway Trust Fund solvent through next spring.

Obama has been to Delaware a handful of times since taking office, including a fundraiser for Sen. Chris Coons at The Grand in Wilmington and funeral services for Vice President Joe Biden's mother.

The Obamas and Bidens made a stop in Wilmington on Jan. 17, 2009, during their whistle-stop train tour en route to Washington, D.C., and inaugural festivities.

The year before, Obama visited Wilmington's Rodney Square in February 2008 as part of his campaign.

Contact Melissa Nann Burke at (302) 324-2329, mburke@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @nannburke; and Adam Taylor at (302) 324-2787 or ataylor@delawareonline.com.