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Thousands of U.S. bridges deficient

WASHINGTON: More than 70,000 bridges across the U.S. are rated structurally deficient like the span that collapsed in Minneapolis, and engineers estimate repairing them all would take at least a generation and cost more than $188 billion.

That works out to at least $9.4 billion a year over 20 years, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. The bridges carry an average of more than 300 million vehicles a day.

It is unclear how many of the spans pose actual safety risks. Federal officials alerted the states late on Thursday to immediately inspect all bridges similar to the Mississippi River span that collapsed.

There are 756 such steel-deck truss bridges, according to highway officials. No list of bridge locations was available.

In a separate cost estimate, the Federal Highway Administration has said addressing the backlog of needed bridge repairs would take at least $55 billion. That was five years ago, with expectations of more deficiencies to come.

It is money that Congress, the federal government and the states have so far been unable or unwilling to spend.

“We’re not doing what the engineers are saying we need to be doing,” said Gregory Cohen, president of the American Highway Users Alliance, an advocacy group representing a wide range of motorists.

“Unfortunately when you consistently underinvest in roads and bridges ... this is the dangerous consequence,” Mr. Cohen said of Wednesday’s deadly Mississippi River bridge collapse in Minneapolis. He said engineers had estimated $75 billion a year is needed just to keep highways and bridges from further deterioration, but that only around $60 billion a year is being provided.

At least 73,533 of 6,07,363 bridges in the U.S., or about 12 per cent, were classified as “structurally deficient,” including some built as recently as the early 1990s, according to 2006 statistics from the Federal Highway Administration.

The federal government provides 80 per cent of the money for construction, repair and maintenance of the so-called federal-aid highway system including bridges. But states set priorities and handle construction and maintenance contracts. — AP

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