Tulsa World
Apr 11, 2022
Oklahoma has come a long way in fixing thousands of its ailing bridges, but plenty of work still remains as shown by school buses having to take a longer route to avoid a bridge crossing. Back in 2005, Oklahoma was noted for its huge inventory of structurally deficient or poor bridges. State-maintained bridges with these ratings numbered 1,078. Among county-maintained bridges, that number was an astounding 5,426. State lawmakers embarked on creating a solution to remedy this problem. Fast forward to the present and only 67 state-maintained bridges have the deficient or poor rating. Oklahoma is ranked 7th best in the nation for its state-maintained bridges. But that ranking takes a beating when county bridges are factored in. There are still 2,035 structurally deficient or poor bridges maintained by counties, dragging Oklahoma’s overall ranking to 41st in the country.
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