Report: Oklahoma has second-highest percentage of structurally deficient bridges
Journal Record
By Brian Brus
Oklahoma City reporter - Contact 405-278-2837
Posted: 09:22 PM Thursday, March 31, 2011
OKLAHOMA CITY – Oklahoma has the second-highest percentage of structurally deficient bridges in the country, according to a survey of recent federal transportation data.
The report by the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Transportation for America found that of the 23,680 bridges across the state, 22 percent of them are rated as structurally deficient by government standards, compared with an average of 11.5 percent nationwide. Only Pennsylvania has a higher rate of problem bridges, at 26.5 percent.
“Drivers in Oklahoma are regularly traveling across heavily trafficked bridges with ‘poor’ ratings – bridges that could become dangerous or closed without repair,” the report said.
The two most trafficked structurally deficient bridges in the state are the Interstate 40 bridge three miles east of May Avenue in Oklahoma County, which has an average annual daily traffic count of 106,700 vehicles, and the Interstate 244 eastbound ramp 10 miles east of the U.S. Highway 169 junction in Tulsa County, with 83,600 vehicles, the report said.
“I don’t know that we were very surprised,” state Transportation Department spokeswoman Terri Angier said. “Often the numbers they have access to are a few years old, so looking at the report … the numbers they were using were anywhere from 2007 to 2009.” FULL ARTICLE
Posted on
Thu, March 31, 2011
by John Cox