State says $11 billion needed to fix bridges
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State officials said yesterday the price tag to structurally update the 6,000 Pennsylvania bridges that are outmoded or in need of repair would be $11 billion.
The cost estimate came as the state Department of Transportation yesterday released for the first time sufficiency and condition ratings for all state-maintained bridges. The information was kept confidential for years by PennDOT, which feared its release would unnecessarily alarm drivers. It was posted on the agency's Web site.
Bridge conditions and repairs have been at the forefront of public concern since Aug. 1 when the Interstate 35W bridge in Minneapolis over the Mississippi River collapsed.
The $11 billion price tag, PennDOT spokesman Steve Chizmar said, would include safety, structural and capacity improvements. However, the federal money for such a massive scale of work is not available.
Last year, the state spent $560 million on bridge repairs, more than double the amount it spent in 2002. Act 44, which includes a proposal to place tolls on Interstate 80, has been estimated by lawmakers to produce an additional $532 million a year for bridge repairs and construction.
Nearly one-quarter of PennDOT's 25,203 bridges are structurally deficient enough to be eligible for state and federal money. Of those roughly 6,000 bridges, about 800 are in poor enough condition that they are posted with weight limits because they are too fragile to handle heavy loads. Fifty-four bridges are closed.
The bridge sufficiency ratings are based on federal guidelines so that the federal government can prioritize on which bridges to spend money, Mr. Chizmar said.
The sufficiency rating "kind of compares the structure to new conditions, so you start with a very high number," said Don Herbert, a District 12 bridge engineer in the counties of Fayette, Greene, Washington and Westmoreland. While some bridges are not in as good condition as others, "we need to emphasize that they are not unsafe."
The sufficiency rating notes the bridge's overall capability. Fifty-five percent of its rating is based on structural condition, 30 percent is based on the bridge's ability to meet the current traffic conditions and 15 percent is based on how essential the bridge is for public use.
Bridges with some of the worst ratings on a scale of 0 to 100 remain safe for travel, but are outmoded. For bridges with ratings below 50, state and federal funding is available to replace the bridge. Ratings between 50 and 79 mean state and federal funding is available to rehabilitate the span.
Condition ratings of bridges are on a scale of 0 to 9, with 9 being the best. The ratings have three components: the condition of the bridge deck, superstructure -- the foundation that holds up the decks and substructure -- and piers, which hold up the superstructure.
A condition rating between 1 and 4 indicates a bridge is "functionally obsolete" to "structurally deficient." A structurally deficient bridge has at least one deteriorated structural component. While they may be safe, they may have speed or weight limits placed on them.
Some of those bridges with low ratings get them because they are so badly out of date, such as the Hulton Bridge over the Allegheny River. The 1,544-foot-long span built in 1909 does not have a weight limit, but is too narrow to carry the daily traffic without causing backups.
Almost 6 percent of PennDOT's bridges are located in District 11, Allegheny and Beaver counties. Jim Struzzi, the district spokesman, said the numbers for each county cannot be broken out individually, but overall the district needs about $100 million to keep up with its needs for bridge maintenance, repairs, rehabilitation and replacement; however, funding is only $43 million.
"You can see there's still an awful lot of money we need," he said. In a typical year the district performs major work on 400 to 450 bridges.
"Almost every bridge we have sees some sort of work over a construction season," he said, including cleaning and patching pot holes.
About two weeks ago, PennDOT released the condition and sufficiency ratings for the 54 steel deck truss bridges similar in design to the collapsed Minnesota bridge. PennDOT released a the list of structurally deficient bridges Aug. 3.
First Published August 27, 2007 11:46 pm
