DATA
Enter
HUFFINGTON
08.04.13
SOURCE: TRANSPORTATION FOR AMERICA. TIME, THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE, ABC NEWS, BRIDGEHUNTER.COM, AMERICAN SOCIETY
OF CIVIN ENGINEERS “2013 REPORT CARD FOR AMERICA’S INFRASTRUCTURE”. COLINBROUG/STOCK.XCHNG (BRIDGE); POLEROBI/STOCK.XCHNG (WATER)
The State of Deficient Bridges
In his State of the Union address this year,
President Obama urged repairs of “the nearly
70,000 structurally deficient bridges across
the country.” He proposed a plan called “Fix
it First,” which would have invested $50
billion in repairing transportation infrastructure, starting with the most urgent repairs.
Instead, Congress failed to avoid the sequester, and transportation repair spending
was dealt a $1.9 billion cut.
DEFICIENT BRIDGES SPAN THE NATION
PERCENTAGE OF DEFICIENT BRIDGES PER STATE
BELOW 7 PERCENT
“Structurally Deficient” bridges per state with notable collapses in the past 50 years
ICONIC “STRUCTURALLY DEFICIENT” BRIDGES
7 - 11.9 PERCENT
12 PERCENT AND ABOVE
North LaSalle Street
Bridge, Chicago, Ill.
MAY. 23, 2013
Skagit River Bridge,
Mount Vernon, Wash.
DEATHS: 0
Steel Bridge,
Portland, Ore.
OCT. 17, 1989
San FranciscoOakland Bay Bridge,
connecting San
Francisco and
Oakland, Calif.
DEATHS: 1
When the Interstate 5 Bridge over the
Skagit River in Washington State collapsed
on May 23, it was a stark reminder of our
nation’s aging infrastructure. While this
incident had no fatalities, there are hundreds
of other bridges in Washington with worse
sufficiency scores and more than 150,000
structurally deficient or functionally
obsolete bridges across the nation.
— Katy Hall
AUG. 1, 2007
I-35 Bridge 9340,
Minneapolis, Minn.
DEATHS: 13
OCT. 17, 1989
The Cypress Street
Viaduct, Oakland, Calif.
DEATHS: 42
JULY 2, 1965
Melan Arch Bridge,
Topeka, Kan.
DEATHS: 8
25
11
Percentage of
bridges classified
as “structurally
deficient” in 2012
Longfellow Bridge,
Boston, Mass.
Brooklyn Bridge,
New York, N.Y.
JUNE 28, 1983
Mianus Bridge,
Greenwich, Conn.
DEATHS:3
APRIL. 1, 1989
Hatchie River Bridge,
Covington, Tenn.
DEATHS: 8
MANY OF THE NATION’S BRIDGES NEED REPAIRS
Percentage of
bridges classified
as “functionally
obsolete” in 2012
DEC. 15, 1967
Silver Bridge, crossing
Point Pleasant, W.Va.,
and Kaguna, Ohio
DEATHS: 46
42
Average age of a
bridge before
it is reconstructed
or repaired
30
Percentage of
existing bridges
that have exceeded their
50-year design life