Deficient bridgesMore than 18,000 bridges in metro areas structurally deficient
A recently released report found that more than 18,000 U.S. bridges in the busiest cities are “structurally deficient”; each day 75 percent of all traffic crosses one of these deficient bridges and in cities like Los Angeles, an average of 396 drivers cross a deficient bridge every second
A recently released report foundthat more than 18,000 U.S. bridges in the busiest cities are “structurally deficient.
According to “The Fix We’re In For,” the latest report by Transportation for America, each day 75 percent of all traffic crosses one of these deficient bridges and in cities like Los Angeles, an average of 396 drivers cross a deficient bridge every second.
“There are more deficient bridges in our metropolitan areas than there are McDonald’s restaurants in the entire country,” said James Corless, the director of Transportation for America.
There are roughly 14,000 McDonald’s compared to 18,239 deficient bridges.
Pittsburg, Oklahoma City, and Tulsa each contained the highest percentage of deficient bridges for a city of their size with 30.4, 19.8, and 27.5 percent respectively. Meanwhile Orlando, Las Vegas, and Fort Myers had the smallest percent of deficient bridges for cities of their size.
Currently an estimated 70,000 U.S. bridges are structurally deficient, but Corless said fixing the 18,000 bridges in metropolitan areas should be the first priority.
“These metropolitan-area bridges are most costly and difficult to fix, but they also are the most urgent, because they carry such a large share of the nation’s people and goods,” he said.
The Federal Highway Administration estimates that it would cost $70.9 billion to eliminate the backlog of potentially dangerous bridges.
The report comes on the heels of the sudden closure of a major commuting bridge in Louisville, Kentucky after officials discoveredtwo dangerous cracks in the load-carrying portion of the bridge. The closure has forced the 80,000 commuters who cross the bridge each day to find alternative routes.
“The recent shutdown of the Sherman-Minton Bridge between Kentucky and Indiana was yet another reminder of the urgent need to repair our nation’s bridges,” Corless said. “A sincere initiative to fix these bridges would put thousands of people to work while ensuring that these critical links continue to carry people safely to work and that goods can make it to market, now and well into the future.”
Andy Herrmann, the president-elect of the American Society of Civil Engineers, echoed Corless’s sentiments stating, “The poor condition of our bridges is a problem that is not going away. Most of the nation’s bridges were designed to last 50 years, and today, roughly a third are already 50 years or older.”
To help fix these bridges, Transportation for America recommended providing states with increased resources to repair and rebuild and to ensure that those allocated funds can only be spent on bridge repairs.
