A report from The Road Information Program (TRIP) that approximately one in four of the country’s major heavily-traveled bridges is deficient and needs to be repaired or replaced is attracting widespread interest, and some controversy.
Many state departments of transportation (DOTs) told Construction Equipment Guide (CEG) that they need more funding for bridge maintenance, are worried about proposed cuts and generally support TRIP’s findings. But a few, such as the New York City DOT said they were surprised to find bridges that they had recently repaired being listed among the most deficient bridges in the country.
Based in Washington, D.C., TRIP is a nonprofit organization, supported by insurance companies, equipment manufacturers and distributors, and other groups, that researches, evaluates and distributes economic and technical data on highway transportation issues. Its annual bridge report is based on bridge inspection data which the states supply each year to the Federal Highway Administration (EHWA), based on bridge inspections during the previous two years.
This year’s analysis, released on May 7, declared, that “as the average age of the nation’s bridges reaches 40, significant deterioration exists, with many bridges carrying high volumes of traffic in need of either significant rehabilitation or replacement.”
The study found that 14 percent of the 587.964 bridges in the United States are structurally deficient, “showing significant deterioration to decks and other major components.” In addition, it said 14 percent are functionally obsolete. These bridges “no longer meet modern design standards for safety features such as lane widths or alignment with connecting roads or no longer are adequate for the volume of traffic being carried.”
This year’s report was expanded to include, besides the percentages, the 100 specific bridges with the highest deficiencies — beginning with the Williamsburg Bridge in New York City. It also named the 10 states with the highest percentage of structurally deficient bridges.
“Many heavily traveled bridges, particularly in older cities, including Boston, Detroit, New York, and St. Louis, have significant deficiencies,” the TRIP reported.
The 10 states, and their percentage of structurally- deficient bridges, were: Oklahoma (33 percent), Missouri (26 percent), Rhode Island (25 percent), Pennsylvania (25 percent), South Dakota (23 percent), Mississippi (22 percent), Iowa (20 percent), North Dakota (19 percent), Michigan (19 percent), and Louisiana (18 percent).
“The challenge of the future is that there will be continued significant growth in all traffic, particularly commercial trucks, while it looks like federal programs may have a shortfall next year just as states experience significant funding shortfalls and tighten their belts,” said Frank Moretti, research director for TRIP.
States React
CEG asked a cross section of state DOT’s to comment on the report, and their bridge programs. What are they doing about their bridges — particularly those identified in the “100 worst” list? Are their bridge construction program adequately funded? Is the public at risk?
Coincidentally, in Oklahoma, which the study says has the highest percentage of structurally-deficient bridges, a barge ran into support piers of the 1,989 ft. (606 m)-long, 13-span I-40 bridge over the Arkansas River near Webbers Falls on May 26, leading to about one-third of the bridge collapsing — and the loss of at least 14 lives. But the collapse was apparently caused by the impact rather than any structural defects of the bridge itself.
“The bridge was considered in good condition; it was last inspected in June, 2001, and received an above-average rating,” Brenda Perry, public information officer for the Oklahoma DOT (OKDOT), told CEG. “We inspect our bridges at least once every two years.”
The concrete bridge was 64 ft. (19.5 m) wide, two lanes in each direction. Though she could not comment at length on the TRIP report under the pressures of the tragedy, Perry said: “Certainly our priority is safety. I don’t know of any bridge collapses in Oklahoma in the past.” Oklahoma, she added, definitely needs more money for bridges and roads. “Certain projected cutbacks could impact one in four of our normal construction programs.”
Before the bridge tragedy, Terri Angier, another spokesperson for the OKDOT, had said: “We’re fully aware in Oklahoma that we have very extensive needs for infrastructure, but the funding in Oklahoma doesn’t meet the state’s needs.”
In Missouri, which the report said has the second highest percentages of deficient bridges, sources also stressed the need for more bridge maintenance funds.
“We agree with TRIP that bridges in Missouri definitely need improvement,” said Jeff Briggs, a spokesperson for the Missouri DOT (MODOT) in Jefferson City, MO, when asked about Missouri being ranked second worst in bridge condition. “We have about 10,000 bridges in our state system if you include all our city and county bridges, the number goes to more than 23,000 and we have 55 major river crossings, the largest number in the country. More and more of our smaller bridges can’t carry more than one truck at a time so we have to narrow them to one lane. We don’t mean that any of our bridges are unsafe, but many are old and wearing out.
“Funding is nowhere near where it should be,” Briggs added. “We will have a statewide vote on August 6 to approve raising $500 million a year, mostly for transportation needs, through a 0.5-cent general sales tax and a 4-cents-per-gallon increase in our fuel tax. For the past few years, we’ve been spending a lower percentage on expansion and more money on taking care of what we have.”
Worst Bridges
New Jersey has two bridges in the worst 10 among the 100 most deficient bridges listed in the TRIP analysis. New York has six, but disputes the TRIP findings.
John Dourgarian, a spokesperson for the New Jersey DOT in Trenton, NJ, said the U.S. 1 bridge over the Elizabeth River, listed as ninth worst, is “under design for rehabilitation and we expect to start construction in the summer of 2004.”
Information was not available on the U.S. 1 bridge over an abandoned Conrail line in Middlesex County, listed as second worst.
“In general, all of our bridges are inspected every two years,” Dourgarian said. “We are very diligent about inspection. If we thought for a minute there was a safety issue with any bridge, we would close it immediately. We currently have 165 deficient bridges preparing for construction. In the last 10 years, NJDOT has reduced the number of deficient state bridges from 31 percent to 13 percent.”
In TRIP’s ranking of the 100 high-volume bridges with the highest deficiency ratings, six of the 10 worst are in the New York City area and are directed by the city rather than the state. The eight-lane Williamsburg Bridge, built in 1903 and spanning the East River from FDR Drive in Manhattan, was at the top of the list, with its deck, superstructure and substructure reported as having grave deficiencies.
City Objects
“The report is not an accurate assessment,” Keith Kalb, a spokesperson for NYCDOT, told CEG. He quoted an official statement from the city saying that the city bridges mentioned in the report were rated low because the FHWA relied on state ratings from last fall that were based on the lowest possible feature of each bridge.
“Two of the bridge lanes are completely shut down; they are counting those lanes in the overall bridge standard, which is not accurate,” Kalb said. The city’s statement said that “six of the eight roadways at the Williamsburg Bridge are complete, as well as the subway tracks located in the middle of the bridge. We have every expectation to complete the remaining two roadways this summer. We have spent more than $1.2 billion on repairing the bridge since 1991 and we are pleased with our progress.”
The city said work on the Queens Boulevard Bridge, built in 1910 and listed as third worst in the United States, “will be finished by the fall” while repairs on the Macombs Dam Bridge and its viaduct, listed as in sixth worst shape, “is well under way and will be completed by the spring of 2003.” It also declared that the Willis Avenue/Harlem River Bridge Number 8 “is part of a comprehensive repair initiative for the eight Harlem River bridges which totals roughly one-half-billion dollars over the next decade.”
As to the Route 907C/Mill Basin drawbridge in Kings County, Number 5 on the 10 worst list, the city said it “will be replaced within the next five years, at a cost of $120 million.”
TRIP’s Moretti said the bridge listings were based on the FHWA’s Federal Bridge Inventory database at the end of December, 2001, from information submitted to the FHWA by state and local authorities during the previous two years.
“All states were provided with the bridge list ahead of time, and many took bridges off the list,” he said. “Most states responded very quickly. The New York DOT received the list like other states but there wasn’t any response from them.”
After TRIP received the data, Moretti added, it submitted the list to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), asking that it be circulated to the states. This apparently occurred about a week before the analysis was released on May 7.
The MODOT also was puzzled when it found a bridge, which it recently repaired, on the “worst bridge” list.
The bridge carrying Interstate 70 over the Wabash Railroad in St. Louis County is Number 21 on the list of most deficient bridges. Chris Sutton, a spokesperson for MODOT in St. Louis, said this structure “has been under construction and is now complete as part of a 547 million dollar larger rehab project to replace several bridges in the area.” He said the information for the study “must have been gathered before some of the construction.” The bridge project began early in 2001.
Moretti said MODOT had received the bridge listings for review and had actually removed several.
Sutton also stressed a positive aspect of the report: “It calls attention to our need of more bridge funding. We feel we’re behind other states in terms of the money we receive.”
Iowa, the setting for the book and movie, “The Bridges of Madison County,” is seventh on TRIP’s listing of deficient-bridge states.
Iowa DOT spokesperson Dena Gray said: “We are eighth in the nation in total number of bridges and 12th in total miles of roadway. We have about 26,000 bridges, county, state and municipal. That kind of puts everything in perspective. We continue to prioritize. Though there will probably never be enough money, we try to make sure they are safe, and put load limits on lots of bridges, primarily where load limits aren’t going to be made immediately. Any instruments of husbandry (farm equipment) have to abide by the same limits.”
Adequate bridge funding is a problem, Gray said. “Recent legislation indicates we may lose more than $82 million, including about $32 million in federal funds. Our transportation commissioner had to reduce our highway program by $100 million last December because of a shortage of state money. Travel and fuel tax receipts have been down because of the economy. Now, however, we’re starting to see some stability coming back.”
Some of the covered bridges in Madison County are still in use, but most have weight limits. Others have been placed in parks or otherwise preserved for the future.
Elements of Good Programs
What are the elements of a good bridge maintenance program? Minnesota furnishes some examples. It has no bridges on the 100 Worst list, although, like many heavy-winter states in the Midwest and Northeast, its structures suffer from salt damage and freeze-thaw damage.
“Our percentage of deficient bridges is 14 percent compared to a nationwide average of 28 percent,” state bridge engineer Dan Dorgan told CEG. “We have an active bridge replacement program on trunk highways and a very active state bond program for county and city bridges over the last 25 years.
“Another answer for us is day-in, day-out repairs on leaking expansion joints, repairing deteriorating concrete when we first see it under our very adverse weather conditions. These joints, which try to stop leakage, can expand from 2 inches to 4 inches wide as a bridge gets colder and contracts. Through daily maintenance, we’ve been able to keep up over the last 20 years. However, a large number of bridges built in the 1950s and 1960s are nearing the end of their useful life. Our current funding levels will not be able to keep up with demands for replacement.”
Some Improvement
Moretti said the record highway funding of the past few years has helped the bridge situation.
“The percentage of structurally-deficient bridges has remained constant at 14 percent since 1995, but the percentage of functionally obsolete ones, like ones which are too narrow, has dropped from 18 percent to 14 percent since that year, which you could say is the result of modernization and increased funding. Clearly more funding has allowed us to hold our own on some bridges while traffic was increasing tremendously, particularly commercial truck traffic, which is up 40 percent over the past 10 years and is anticipated to nearly double by 2020,” said Moretti.
Funding Shortfall?
TRIP said that current proposals in Congress call for cutting federal highway investment in 2003 by between $3 billion and $5 billion. It said a U.S. Department of Transportation report to Congress, on the other hand, “concluded that investment in the nation’s bridges should be increased by 44 percent, from $8.1 billion annually to $11.7 billion, an increase of $3.6 billion a year.”
“The challenge of the future is that there will be continued significant growth in all traffic, particularly commercial trucks, while it looks like federal programs may have a shortfall next year,” Moretti said. “Meanwhile, a lot of states are experiencing a significant funding shortfall and are looking to tighten their belts. Additional money has helped but the dollars are starting to level out and potentially go down. Many older, high-volume bridges are on that list. Stresses are increasing while repair money is short.
“States and sometimes local governments are responsible for monitoring bridges. If unsafe, they must be closed or rebuilt. Costs are increasing every day. States can’t get too far behind; they’re better off keeping up.”
SIDEBAR: EVALUATION CRITERIA
In ranking the nation’s 100 most deficient bridges for the first time, The Road Information Program (TRIP) used an overall sufficiency rating from the Federal Highway Administration, which was based on such factors as structural condition, traffic, compliance with current design standards and strategic importance.
Structural evaluations were from 0 (bridge closed) to 9 (superior to present desirable criteria).
Ratings for deck, superstructure and substructure were from 0 (failed, out of service) to 9 (excellent).
Among the 10 bridges in the worst condition, The U.S. l bridge over an abandoned Conrail line in Middlesex County, NJ, was rated as having the second worst structural condition. Its structural evaluation was 2 (basically intolerable, requiring high priority of replacement) while its deck received a 3 (serious condition, such as advanced section loss, deterioration, spalling or scour) and its superstructure got a 4 (poor condition, resembling those in serious condition).
Also rated as a 2 (intolerable) for structure is the Washington Boulevard Bridge in Arlington County, VA, named as the fourth-worst. This bridge received a 4 (poor condition) for deck, superstructure and substructure.
The U.S. 1 bridge on Storrow Drive in Suffolk County, MA, was rated as seventh worst, with a 2 for structure, but a 6 (satisfactory, some minor deterioration) for deck, superstructure and substructure.
The U.S. 1 bridge over the Elizabeth River in Union County, NJ, is rated ninth worst: 2 for structure, 3 (serious condition) for deck, and 4 (poor condition) for superstructure and substructure.
New York City is disputing six bridges being named among the worst 10.
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