Little Progress Seen on Bridges Since Minn. Collapse

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The New York Sun

MINNEAPOLIS — A year after the worst American bridge collapse in a generation brought calls for immediate repairs to other spans, two of every three of the busiest problem bridges in each state — carrying nearly 40 million vehicles a day — have had no work beyond regular maintenance.

An Associated Press review of repairs on each state’s 20 most-traveled bridges with structural deficiencies found just 12% have been fixed. In most states, the most common approach was to plan for repairs later rather than fix problems now.

The bridges reviewed by the AP — 1,020 in all — are not in imminent danger of collapse, state engineers and highway officials say. But the officials acknowledge the structures need improvement, many sooner rather than later.

The collapse of the eight-lane Interstate 35W bridge into the Mississippi River on August 1, 2007, killed 13 people and brought immediate calls for repairs to bridges across the nation.

The failure to follow through was not because of lack of effort, officials said.

Soaring construction costs, budget shortages, election-year politics, a backlog of bridge projects, competing highway repairs, and bureaucracy often held bridge work to only incremental progress.

The AP gathered information on repair status from 48 states and Washington, D.C. In six states, data could not be obtained for some locally owned bridges. Louisiana and Nevada failed to respond.

The AP findings:

  • 64% of the bridges received no work beyond regular maintenance, though most were targeted for some kind of future work.
  • 12% had their structural defects fixed — usually through a major rehabilitation or outright replacement.
  • An additional 24% have seen a partial improvement, either through a short-term repair to temporarily address the defect or an ongoing project that is not yet complete.

The worst were Indiana, Oklahoma, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, where work was conducted on only one of each state’s 20 most heavily traveled structurally deficient bridges.

“At some point, relying on miracles is not going to be the best way to manage our system,” the transportation commissioner of Missouri, Pete Rahn, said. “I would pray we don’t have to have another disaster to bring about the right attention to this. I see very little political will there.”

Pennsylvania’s Governor Rendell said: “The Minneapolis incident obviously caused people to stand up and take notice, but I think it got dwarfed by the bad economic news.”

“There’s plenty of blame to go around,” said Mr. Rendell, who has joined a national campaign to demand more federal investment in infrastructure. He argues the federal government bears a larger share than states, which are struggling to make do with limited help.

Mr. Rahn, one of many state transportation officials interviewed who said it is long past time for Congress and the states to invest in bridges and roads, blames the federal government most of all.

But as Congress debates highway spending, some members criticize states for not devoting enough highway money to bridges. Also, the Bush administration has promised to veto the latest $1 billion proposed increase, itself a fraction of the estimated $140 billion needed for repairs on bridges alone.

“Thirteen people were killed and not much happened,” engineer William Schutt, a critic of the status quo of bridge assessment and repair, said. “Who’s to blame? Congress, the American people — for putting up with it.”

Bridges deemed structurally deficient have elements that need monitoring and parts that need to be scheduled for repair or replacement. The designation does not necessarily mean a bridge is unsafe, although it is one of the factors used to determine when a bridge is at risk, and which ones quality for federal money.

“Structural deficiency ultimately determines whether a bridge will stand or fall,” New Jersey’s transportation commissioner, Kris Kolluri, said. But recognizing the problem is only the first step.

“If you look at the full picture of bridges and the task that transportation professionals have,” Mr. Kolluri said, “it’s an overwhelming task.”

The Minneapolis bridge collapsed during rush hour into a tangle of steel and concrete and crushed cars. In addition to the 13 killed, 145 people were injured.


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