Over the past decade, a concerted effort has been made involving all levels of government to reduce the number of structurally deficient bridges across the nation.
The nation needs a systematic program for bridge preservation like that embraced by many states, whereby existing deterioration is prioritized and the focus is on preventive maintenance. At the current rate of investment, it will take until 2071 to make all of the repairs that are currently necessary, and the additional deterioration over the next 50 years will become overwhelming. We need to increase spending on bridge rehabilitation from $14.4 billion annually to $22.7 billion annually, or by 58%, if we are to improve the condition. A recent estimate for the nation’s backlog of bridge repair needs is $125 billion.
In recent years, though, as the average age of America’s bridges increases to 44 years, the number of structurally deficient bridges has continued to decline however, the rate of improvements has slowed. Unfortunately, 178 million trips are taken across these structurally deficient bridges every day. Currently, 42% of all bridges are at least 50 years old, and 46,154, or 7.5% of the nation’s bridges, are considered structurally deficient, meaning they are in “poor” condition. There are more than 617,000 bridges across the United States.
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