REPORT: More than 25% of US bridges are "structurally deficient or functionally obsolete"
 

<p>Filed under: <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/safety/" rel="tag">Safety</a></p><a href="http://www.betterroads.com/better-bridges-bridge-inventory-2009-state-of-bridges/"><img vspace="4" hspace="0" border="1" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2009/11/2007-minn-bridge-collapse-630.jpg" alt="" /></a><br /><br />Here's some bad news for all of us: Over 150,000 bridges in the U.S. have been judged to be "structurally deficient or functionally obsolete." And get this, there are less than 598,000 bridges in America. That means 25.7% aren't in very good shape. It turns out that the state with the most structurally deficient or functionally obsolete (SD/FO) bridges is Texas, with 9,564 such bridges. However, Texas is ginormous - almost half the size of Alaska - and therefore has a lot of bridges, but the percentage of Texan SD/FO bridges is 19%. And that's significantly lower than the national average.<br /> <br /> What state has the most SD/FO bridges? Betcha never would have guessed the District of Columbia. For one thing, it's not even a state! For another, you'd think being in such close proximity to all that Washingtonian largesse would be good for something. Turns out, <em>not</em>. Anyhow, 55% of the bridges in our nation's capital are going to fall down/fail sooner than later says <em>The Better Roads Bridge Inventory</em> survey.<br /><br /> The actual State with the highest percentage of bad bridges is Rhode Island with 53%. Pennsylvania takes second place honors with 39%. The really bad news, according to the <a href="http://www.betterroads.com/better-bridges-bridge-inventory-2009-state-of-bridges/">frighteningly detailed article</a>, is that all these numbers might be <em>low</em>.<br /> <br /> [Source: <a href="http://www.betterroads.com/better-bridges-bridge-inventory-2009-state-of-bridges/">Better Roads</a> via <a href="http://blogs.thecarconnection.co m/marty-blog/1038131_shockingly-high-number-of-u-s-bridges-substandard-still">The Car Connection</a> | Image: Scott Olson/Getty]<p style="padding:5px;backgr ound:#ddd;border:1px solid #ccc;clear:both;"><a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2009/11/11/report-more-than-25-of-us-bridges-are-structurally-deficient/">REPORT: More than 25% of US bridges are "structurally deficient or functionally obsolete"</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://www.autoblog.com">Autoblo g</a> on Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:30:00 EST. Please see our <a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/">terms for use of feeds</a>.</p><h6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"></h6><a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2009/11/11/report-more-than-25-of-us-bridges-are-structurally-deficient/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://www.autoblog.com/forward/19231349/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2009/11/11/report-more-than-25-of-us-bridges-are-structurally-deficient/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry">Comments</a>

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