Top Five PROBLEMS for BRIDGES

  1. Age and Deterioration - The nation has a generation of Baby Boomer Bridges, constructed in the 1950s and 1960s, that need major repair or replacement. Usually built to last 50 years, the average bridge in this country today is 43 years old. While safe to travel, almost one in four bridges is either structurally deficient and in need of repair, or functionally obsolete and too narrow for today’s traffic volumes.

  2. Congestion - The nation cannot fix its congestion problems without fixing its bridge problems. The nation’s bridges have become chokepoints on the country’s freeway system, particularly at interchanges and major river crossings. The top 10 highway interchange bottlenecks cause an average of 1.5 million truck hours of delay each year. Much of the cost to improve highway interchanges is directly related to the construction of bridges and overpasses that separate and elevate lanes of traffic.

  3. Soaring Construction Costs - The dollars available for bridges, in fact for all categories of highway and transit investment, are buying less and less in the marketplace. With oil nearly quadrupling in price in the past four years, construction costs have soared. The costs of steel, asphalt, concrete, and earthwork have risen by at least 50 percent. Thirty months of unprecedented construction inflation are forcing state officials to delay important bridge replacement projects.

  4. Maintaining Bridge Safety - Nearly every state faces funding shortages which prevent them from applying the kind of ongoing preventive maintenance, repair, and replacement that would keep their bridges sound indefinitely.

  5. New Bridge Needs - The staggering costs of new bridges and their related interchanges prevent many states from building the bridge mega-projects that are needed to address congestion and serve economic growth. Massive costs far outweigh available resources.

 

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