PennDOT today for the first time released detailed safety ratings on Pennsylvania's steel deck truss bridges, the same design as the Interstate 35W Bridge that collapsed into the Mississippi River.

The PennDOT-owned Liberty, McKees Rocks, 62nd Street, Tarentum and Frazier Street (Parkway East) bridges in Allegheny County were categorized as functionally obsolete, meaning they have older features such as lane widths or weight limits, compared to newer spans.

		See PennDOT information on Pennsylvania steel truss bridges similar to the Minneapolis bridge, including sufficiency/condition ratings, in .pdf format

Those ratings have been generally known. But today PennDOT also provided numerical ratings that provide more insight into the condition of the bridges.

On a scale of 0 to 9, with 9 as the best, the Liberty Bridge rates a 5 in both the deck and superstructure condition. It has a sufficiency rating of 38 on a scale of 0 to 100, with 100 being the highest. That rating takes in the condition of the bridge and how important it is. A rating of 49 or below qualifies it for funding for replacement.

The McKees Rocks Bridge has a rating of 6 for the deck and 5 for the superstructure, with a sufficiency rating of 46.

62nd -- 6 deck; 6 superstructure; 25 sufficiency.

Tarentum -- 6 deck; 5 superstructure; 53 sufficiency.

Frazier Street -- 6 deck; 6 superstructure; 64 sufficiency.

Among other PennDOT-owned bridges in the region, the Koppel Bridge in Beaver County has a sufficiency rating of 8 but is considered structurally deficient, which means it has deterioration in one or more of its features. The Koppel span has a rating of 4 for its superstructure.

The Rochester-Bridgewater Bridge in Beaver County is also structurally deficient and has a 62 sufficiency rating.

Ratings of 5 for deck or superstructure are considered fair; 4 is poor. No bridges in Southwestern Pennsylvania have condition ratings below 4.

Among non-PennDOT-owned bridges in Allegheny, the Rankin Bridge is structurally deficient, with ratings of 4 for both deck and superstructure and a sufficiency rating of 31.

More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.