Report: The bridges are (almost) falling down
More than 11 percent of the nation’s highway bridges are considered “structurally deficient” — meaning they require significant maintenance, rehabilitation or replacement — by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), according to a report released in late March by Washington-based Transportation for America (T4 America). More federal money is needed to repair and maintain older bridges before they require more expensive rehabilitation, according to T4 America and other experts.
Of the nation’s approximately 600,000 highway bridges, 69,223 of them are classified as structurally deficient, and FHWA estimates that $70.9 billion is needed to address the current backlog of deficient bridges, according to the T4 America report, “The Fix We’re In For: The State of Our Nation’s Bridges.” That amount likely will increase as many bridges near the end of their expected lifespan, the report says.
Pennsylvania has the largest share of deteriorating bridges at 26.5 percent, according to the report’s ranking of states. The state’s former Secretary of Transportation and current President and Secretary of the Washington-based American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials Allen Biehler says that the state’s efforts to upgrade its bridges were complicated by the structures’ ages. The number of structurally deficient bridges continued to grow at too fast a rate for the state to keep up, Biehler says. “To make progress, it takes a real commitment, not only on the local and state level, but also on the federal level,” he says.
The need for more federal support for bridge repairs is one reason why T4 America has released the report. Congress is currently debating the overdue reauthorization of the federal Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users, says T4 America Director James Corless. “Much of the funding for fixing our bridges comes from that bill,” he says. “We are hoping to see more performance measures, more accountability, to address the backlog of [structurally deficient] bridges.”
What is “structurally deficient?”
During federal inspections, a bridge’s three main components, the superstructure, substructure and deck, are rated between 0 and 9, with 9 signifying the best condition. The ratings are combined with other factors to establish a bridge’s overall “sufficiency rating,” scored 1 to 100. Federal guidelines classify bridges as “structurally deficient” if one of the three key components is rated at 4 or less (poor or worse), meaning engineers have identified a major defect in its support structure or its deck. Deficient bridges require significant maintenance, rehabilitation or replacement. A state may have to restrict heavy vehicle traffic, conduct immediate repairs to allow unrestricted use or close the bridge to traffic until repairs can be completed.
