A new infrastructure report shows that hundreds of New York City bridges are crumbling and are in need of billions of dollars in repairs. The American Road and Transportation Builders Association, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group, published its annual bridge report in April. The group ranked New York City 13th-worst in the nation for percentage of “structurally deficient” bridges, meaning one of their “key elements” is in poor condition or worse.
Some 638, or about 7%, of the 9,065 bridges in New York City’s 13 congressional districts are structurally deficient, the report shows. That includes the Brooklyn Bridge and the Throgs Neck Bridge – two of NYC’s most heavily traveled crossings – and bridges throughout the 3rd and 16th congressional districts, which also cover parts of Long Island and Westchester County. Perhaps more shocking is the fact that all of the bridges in those districts need repairs and fixing all of them would cost a combined $40 billion, the report said.
The 2019 bridge report found there are more than 47,000 bridges rated “structurally deficient” and in urgent need of repairs. Americans cross these bridges – which were built an average of 62 years ago – 178 million times a day. While that number sounds like a lot, the total number of structurally deficient bridges has fallen by about 1 percentage point since 2014 to 7.6%. At the current rate, it would take about 80 years to repair them all.
According to the Federal Highway Administration’s website, the definition of structurally deficient was changed in 2018. The new definition limits the classification to bridges where one key structural element, such as the deck, superstructure, substructure or culverts, was rated in poor or worse condition.
The Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group that conducted the report encourages strong federal investment in transportation infrastructure.
Source: Patch New York City
