WASHINGTON – Proposals by the Trump administration to pump trillions of dollars into improving America’s infrastructure couldn’t come at a better time, according to the latest report by the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA).
The association’s 2016 National Bridge Inventory data found that there are 55,710 structurally deficient bridges in the United States.
Cars, trucks and school buses cross those deficient bridges 185 million times daily, ARTBA said.
About 1,900 of those bridges are on the Interstate Highway System. In addition, state transportation departments have identified 13,000 interstate bridges that need replacement, widening or major reconstruction.
ARTBA said the length of the nation’s structurally deficient bridges, if placed end-to-end, would stretch 1,276 miles, half the distance from New York to Los Angeles.
The average age of the structurally deficient bridges is 67 years, compared with just 39 for non-deficient bridges. Additionally, 41 percent of all bridges in the U.S. are at least 40 years old and have had no major reconstruction work done to them.
“America’s highway network is woefully underperforming. It is outdated, overused, underfunded and in desperate need of modernization,” said Alison Premo Black, the association’s chief economist, who conducted the analysis.
“State and local transportation departments haven’t been provided the resources to keep pace with the nation’s bridge needs.”
Looking at the bridge data state-by-state, ARTBA found that Iowa, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Missouri, Nebraska, Illinois, Kansas, Mississippi, Ohio and New York have the most structurally deficient bridges. Washington, D.C., Nevada, Delaware, Hawaii and Utah have the least, the report found.
ARTBA said at least 15 percent of the bridges in eight states—Rhode Island, Iowa, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, West Virginia, Nebraska, North Dakota and Oklahoma—are also structurally deficient.
To help ensure public safety, bridge decks and support structures are regularly inspected for deterioration and remedial action. They are rated on a scale of zero to nine—with nine meaning the bridge is in “excellent” condition. A bridge is classified as structurally deficient and in need of repair if its overall rating is four or below.
While these bridges may not be imminently unsafe, they are in need of attention, ARTBA said.
