AN analysis of the US Transportation Department's 2018 National Bridge Inventory (NBI) database by the American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) shows that a staggering 235,000 bridges, equivalent to 38 per cent of the total, in the US are in need of repair, rehabilitation or replacement, just one per cent less than in 2017
AN analysis of the US Transportation Department's 2018 National Bridge Inventory (NBI) database by the American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) shows that a staggering 235,000 bridges, equivalent to 38 per cent of the total, in the US are in need of repair, rehabilitation or replacement, just one per cent less than in 2017. The NBI data showed that 47,052 of the country's 616,087 bridges were rated 'structurally deficient', in which one of a bridge's key structural elements - the deck, superstructure, substructure or culverts - are rated in poor or worse condition.
Some 88 per cent of the bridges that were classified as structurally deficient in 2018 were in the same category in 2017, ARTBA's data revealed, reported American Shipper.
The number of structurally deficient bridges declined by 567 in 2018, with 5,660 bridges being newly classified as structurally deficient and 6,229 being removed from the classification. Between 2014 and 2017, however, the number dropped by an average of 1,700 bridges per annum, according to ARTBA's 2019 bridge report.
'Although the number of structurally deficient bridges is down compared to 2017, the pace of improvement has slowed compared to the last five years,' the report said. 'At this rate, it would take over 80 years to make the significant repairs needed on these structures.'
The association, which advocates for infrastructure investment, estimated the cost to repair the 235,000 bridges is US$171 billion.
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