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15 Feb ’12
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sad what the state of our infrastructure is in today
More than 61,000 American bridges are structurally deficient, according to a new analysis by the American Road & Transportation Builders Association.
While U.S. road infrastructure continues to be in dire straits, the health of the USA's bridges has shown a slight improvement from last year when ARTBA found more than 63,000 of the country's bridges were structurally deficient, according to their review of U.S. Department of Transportation records.
The report on the state of American bridges comes with federal highway and transit funding set to expire on May 31, absent congressional action.
"State and local governments are doing the best they can to address these significant challenges, given limited resources," said Alison Black, ARTBA's chief economist. She added, "Without additional investment from all levels of government, our infrastructure spending will be a zero-sum game."
The Highway Trust Fund is set up to be funded by revenue collected from the 18.4 cents-a-gallon federal gas tax and is the source of 52% of highway and bridge capital investments made annually by state governments
But the federal gas tax has not been increased since 1993, and soaring road-building costs have dwarfed receipts — forcing Congress to bail out the Highway Trust Fund with nearly $65 billion in revenue from the general fund since 2008.
There's currently a backlog of more than $115 billion in bridge work and $755 billion in highway projects throughout the country, according to Department of Transportation data.
Earlier this week, the Obama administration sent Congress a $478 billion bill that calls for providing transportation funding for the next six years.
The administration proposal would give a boost to the Highway Trust Fund by imposing 14% tax on an estimated $2 billion that corporations have kept overseas to avoid higher corporate tax rates.
Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of lawmakers on Capitol Hill is working on competing legislation that would raise roughly $170 billion in new revenue by also giving U.S. corporations a tax break on profits parked overseas.
The lawmakers want to use $120 billion of that windfall to shore up the Highway Trust Fund and direct another $50 billion to the creation of an American Infrastructure Fund, which would provide loans and financing to tools for states and communities conducting infrastructure projects.
"During these next two months, though, all of us who work in Washington need to be relentless in trying to get to 'yes' on a bill that is truly transformative and that brings the country together," Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx said this week when the administration unveiled its transportation proposal. "And frankly, governors and state officials as well as mayors and local officials all over the country need to continue being relentless, too, by continuing to raise their voices in support of a transportation bill that meets both their immediate and long-term needs."
The uncertainty of federal funding has made some states skittish about their ability to complete infrastructure projects. So far in 2015, four states -- Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, and Wyoming -- have shelved $779.7 million in projects due to the uncertainty over federal funds.
28 Feb ’12
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pretty sure it's the same (actually probably worst) here.
Roads are BAD here.
15 Feb ’12
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I was surprised how bad the QEE was the last time I drove on it was, but that was years ago
15 Feb ’12
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Wonder if they are going to go back and reinspect all the bridges
Collapsed California bridge earned 'A' rating just last year
A 48-year-old bridge that collapsed Sunday in a rain-swollen California desert earned an "A" rating just last year, federal records show.
Inspectors gave the eastbound portion of the Tex Wash Bridge a "sufficiency rating" of 91.5 out of 100, according to the Federal Highway Administration. The bridge also had one of the highest possible flood safety ratings, which means it should have withstood even the heaviest rainfall.
And then, on Sunday, more than 5 inches of rain fell in the open desert east of the Coachella Valley. Rushing water flooded into the wash beneath the bridge and ate away at the dirt around the foundations. Eventually, one end of the eastbound lanes cracked free of the highway and tumbled to the desert floor, cutting the primary route between Arizona and Southern California.
Built in 1967, the Tex Wash Bridge sits on Interstate 10, linking Los Angeles to Phoenix. Located just east of Palm Springs, Calif., the bridge is owned and maintained by the California Department of Transportation, or CalTrans. Officials there said they were investigating how a highly rated bridge managed to fail so spectacularly.
An average of more than 20,000 cars per day pass through the area, according to federal highway statistics. Traffic was rerouted to give motorists options around the crucial arterial link.
The California Department of Transportation said Monday it will attempt to re-open I-10 by diverting all traffic onto the westbound portion of the bridge, which did not collapse. However, engineers must first verify that the westbound lanes are undamaged, so it is unclear when the road will re-open.
The agency will also investigate how a highly-rated bridge was susceptible to collapse. The Federal Highway Administration had contacted CalTrans with similar questions, CalTrans official Philip Havins said.
It's possible the bridge collapse was triggered by the eastern bank of the Tex Wash shifting further east, leaving the bridge foundation unstable, said John Hunt, an expert at Ayres Associates, an engineering consulting firm.
Hunt said this phenomenon is known as "channel migration," and it's not easy for bridge inspectors to see coming.
"It's not all that unusual for that kind of thing to happen at a bridge that got a low risk rating," Hunt said. "It could very well be that it all happened with this one flood, that there was no earlier sign of anything going on."
The Tex wash collapse is the most disruptive incident of this kind in the recent memory of Riverside County, but it did not happen at the county's worst bridge. During annual inspections, dozens of other bridges have scored worse than the Tex Wash bridge, raising questions about when — and where — this might happen again.
EL NINO RISKS
The risk could be evening higher considering forecasts of a strong El Nino, which is expected to bring more frequent, more powerful storms to Southern California this winter.
In Riverside County alone, 45 other I-10 bridges received lower ratings than the Tex Wash Bridge, and 39 of those bridges are older. Eight I-10 bridges, including the Tex Wash Bridge, have been deemed "functionally obsolete," which means they are either too small or poorly suited for modern-day traffic.
Two more I-10 bridges — which span 44th Avenue in Indio, Calif. and the Pacific Crest Trail in Whitewater —have known structural deficiencies.
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