Fewer U.S. Bridges Being Repaired, One in Nine Still "Structurally Deficient"

[marmar]

There are 66,405 "structurally deficient" bridges in the U.S., about one in every nine, according to a new study from Transportation 4 America. That's down from just shy of 70,000 two years ago, but the pace of repair is slowing and many more bridges are reaching the end of their intended 50-year lifespan. Recent funding changes in Congress are exacerbating maintenance problems, T4A concludes.

"Today, though, there more deficient bridges in our 100 largest metropolitan areas than there are McDonald’s locations nationwide," said James Corless, director of Transportation for America.

We've known these bridges are in poor shape for a while now. Two years ago T4A issued a report that also found one in nine bridges in disrepair (with updated map) and calculated that 210 million trips are made across those bridges each day. President Obama used his State of the Union speech to lament America's 70,000 deficient bridges, a line that sparked satirical shock and humorous infrastructure outrage from Jon Stewart of the Daily Show.

So it's more reminder than revelation that T4A calculates 11 percent of bridges in the country are in shoddy shape. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.wnyc.org/blogs/transportation-nation/2013/jun/19/fewer-us-bridges-being-repaired-one-nine-still-structurally-deficient/

[xchrom]

1. du rec.

[FSogol]

2. K&R. This country needs a major investment into upgrading infrastructure. n/t

[byeya]

3. One in nine, eh? "Feeling lucky today Hotshot?"

[progressoid]

4. Gosh, if only we had unemployed people willing to work on such things...

[n2doc]

5. If only this could be classified as a "terrorist threat"

They would get fixed in record time.

It really is amazing how much our priorities have been skewed in this country.